Will human rights activists help those foreign companies that supported the call to refuse to purchase cotton of Uzbekistan collected by children?

In the annual report on the worst forms of child labor, published on September 20, 2018, the US Department of Labor raised Uzbekistan from the fourth to the second position.

Thus, the document notes that the rise of the country immediately to two positions is due to the fact that the government has taken decisive action to eradicate forced child labor in the harvesting of cotton.

The American agency, referring to the results of monitoring systems by the ILO, the government and independent human rights defenders, notes the complete cessation of the systematic involvement of children in the collection of cotton.

For the first time since 2009, cotton produced in Uzbekistan is excluded by the US department from the so-called “list of goods produced using child labor”.

Uza.uz  

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Indeed, human rights activists persuaded some foreign companies to participate in the boycott of Uzbek cotton because of the massive use of child labor in the cotton fields of the country.

These companies, despite their financial losses, abandoned business in Uzbekistan.

But other foreign companies continued to buy cotton in Uzbekistan, and thereby supported the use of child labor in cotton plantations in Uzbekistan.

I call on the human rights defenders of Uzbekistan to demand from the Parliament of Uzbekistan to express their gratitude to all foreign companies that supported this boycott of child labor.

These companies should receive preferences in Uzbekistan, as they showed their respect to the people of Uzbekistan by their actions!

Ahtam Shaimardanov