Regarding the Uzbekistan Textile Protocol
The European Parliament is currently under pressure to reject the Uzbekistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, and cease the trade of textiles with Uzbekistan. This pressure stems from strong evidence that forced labor and child labor continues to remain a nationwide practice in Uzbekistan, despite earlier reports of compliance.
In 2011, the Uzbekistan Textile Protocol was scheduled to be postponed, due to years of the government of Uzbekistan denying the International Labour Organization (ILO) access to monitor the labor practices of cotton harvests in the country. Soon after the protocol’s postponement, the government agreed to be monitored by the ILO and to work alongside the Decent Work Country Programme to ensure that “the practice of force labor and child labor is effectively in the process of being eradicated at national and local levels...”
However, it seems that instead of working to eradicate forced and child labor, the government of Uzbekistan has been working to conceal it.
The use of forced labor and child labor in Uzbekistan is due to cotton production quotas that local governments are forced to meet. Uzbekistan is one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton. During the first few months of the cotton harvest this year, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to pick cotton in order to meet government quotas. Though child labor has gone down in Uzbekistan, reports show that pressure is starting to fall more heavily upon forced adult labor – as cotton production quotas have not decreased.
International watch groups report that coctors, teachers, and school students all receive threats of dismissal if they don’t report to fields to work. Students in the Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Jizzakh and other regions took screenshots of texts they received summoning them to work in fields earlier this year. This practice of forced labor is cleverly masked, as students have to sign voluntary participation forms before they leave.
The government of Uzbekistan has not adhered to the conditions set forth in 2011 by the European Parliament, thus forced labor continues. More than 250 European businesses signed a pledge demonstrating their efforts to avoid purchasing cotton from Uzbekistan. Until the government can ensure that they are dedicated to eradicating the use of forced labor, they will never receive approval from the ILO, and they will continue to lose international business.
Tracking the flow of cotton from countries such as Uzbekistan is challenging, but not impossible. Source Intelligence’s platform utilizes a range of tracking mechanisms and data analysis to develop reports for the apparel industry, as well as other sectors seeking assurances their products do not involve forced or child labor.
How to maximize compliance data
Efficient use of existing compliance data will be the subject of a webinar on Nov. 15 hosted by Source Intelligence: Approaching Modern Day Slavery: Using Your Existing Compliance Data To Develop a Robust Anti-Slavery Program. The webinar will feature Kilian Moote of KnowTheChain.org, a resource organization for businesses that was formed in reaction to California’s anti-slavery law (SB 657) and has since expanded to provide guidance on the U.K. Modern Day Slavery Act. KnowTheChain.org is currently benchmarking 60 global enterprises to determine how industry groups are improving efforts to protect workers’ rights. The webinar will also feature Kristen Sullivan, who leads the Americas group sustainability reporting for Deloitte and Touch. Source Intelligence’s own Chief Scientific Officer, Jennifer Kraus will also be joining the webinar to speak about the critical importance of data quality and validation. To learn more about Source Intelligence’s upcoming webinar, click here.
