Dmitriy Tikhonov has asked Rustam Azimov, to stop breaking the law banning the employment of children in the harvesting of cotton.

	Human rights activist Dmitriy Tikhonov

Angren-based human rights activist Dmitriy Tikhonov has asked the first Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Rustam Azimov, to stop breaking the law banning the employment of children in the harvesting of cotton.

“I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No.207 of 12th September 2008,” Tikhonov explains, speaking of the letter he sent to Azimov on 23rd November.

The resolution in question is entitled ‘on measures to implement the conventions ratified by the Republic of Uzbekistan on the minimum working age and the convention which bans child labour and introduces measures to ensure the practice is eradicated’.

“During the 2011 cotton harvest in September-October, Angren’s vocational colleges and specialist schools were complicit in the wholesale violation of resolution No.207,” the human rights activist stated in his letter to Mr Azimov. Tikhnov also said that the management of all colleges and specialist schools without exception were guilty of breaching the resolution by forcing their students out into the fields, in many cases by threatening young people with expulsion from the college.

If students refused to work in the harvest, his or her parents were forced to pay to employ a replacement worker or to hand over to the college in question between 150,000 and 300,000 sums (US$60-120 according to unofficial market rates) as a so-called contribution to the harvesting

I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No.207″

Dmitriy Tikhonov

campaign,” Tikhonov claims.

“Many families will literally hand over their last penny, sell property or go into debt in order to make those payments,” he says.

Tikhonov also pointed out in his letter to Azimov that even the measures envisaged in Uzbek law to stamp out child labour are complicated by the fact that the students and their parents are often afraid that college administrators will denounce them to the relevant enforcement bodies. “Most people who told me their stories categorically refused to give any proof of what happened because they fear for their children’s future,” Tikhonov claims.

In his letter to Azimov, Tikhonov also refers to Section 3 of Resolution No.207, in which the government states that it would carry out a media information campaign to raise awareness of the minimum working age for children, of the ban on and measures to eradicate this form of child labour.

Yet the Resolution was only mentioned on one single website, on 3rd October 2008, Tikhonov wrote.

The campaigner claims that only the state information agency Zhakhon, which is part of the foreign ministry of Uzbekistan, carried information about Resolution No.207, and this was on 2nd June 2011. The information is in the form of a joint statement from the confederation of unions, farming organizations and the Ministry of Labour of Uzbekistan about the unacceptability of using forced child labour in agricultural work.

Tikhonov believes that in a country where access to the internet is severely limited, computer ownership is not widespread and the population is mainly rural, these efforts at publicity were entirely inadequate.

“Why, when this resolution had existed for three years, was there no mention of it in the newspapers or on television which would bring it to the attention of the population?” the human rights campaigner asks.

He makes particular mention of the Narodnoe Slovo (people’s news) newspaper, which publishes all important state information, laws and resolutions.

“Why has the Narodnoe Slovo newspaper still not published resolution No.207? Clearly this

	Rustam Azimov. Photo – azattyq.org

gives the impression that the Resolution is not considered to be important or relevant in Uzbekistan,” says Tikonov.

Tikhonov ponts out that in sections 23 and 24 of resolution No.207, the government undertakes to disseminate information among parents, employers and civil society organizations information (in the form of brochures, bookets and so on) regarding the content of the Convention on child labour that has been ratified by Uzbekistan.

“Where are these information leaflets?” ssks the human rights capmaigner. “There are none. The population is unaware that Resolution No.207 exists.”

Tikhonov believes that the situation is paradoxical: the international community is well aware of Uzbekistan’s position on these issues, but the citizens of the country concerned have practically no knowledge of them.

“In every country which claims to be democratic, issues linked with children’s rights are treated with the utmost importance,” Tikonov asserts.

The human rights campaigner hopes that his request to Rustam Azimov will prompt the government of Uzbekistan to be more attentive to the rights of children and the illegality of using them in agricultural work, and that the government will in turn ensure that the relevant agencies carry out the cotton harvest strictly in accordance with resolution No.207.

 

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