News
6 august 2016

Protest Campaign

On Wednesday, August 3, 2016, representatives of the international coalition of the Cotton Campaign and other demonstrators gathered outside the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC to protest against the Chamber’s hosting of a reception for the Foreign Ministers of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. With the event, the Chamber of Commerce was lauding the Central Asian governments for “25 years as sovereign states.”

The protesters called on the governments of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to end their systematic forced labor practice and to protect their citizens’ human rights.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan use the largest state-sponsored forced labor systems of cotton production in the world. Both governments threaten, assault and imprison citizens who attempt to report about human rights violations. The practices violate the rights of Uzbek and Turkmen citizens under national and international laws. Profits from cotton sales solely benefit the government elite in these two Central Asian nations, and the cotton ends up in clothes we buy and wear.

Eltuz.com

 

Read more
4 august 2016
On 3 August 2016, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with the foreign ministers of the five Central ...
13 august 2016
The artist Ace drew attention to how the Russian propaganda is turning the “bloody nanny” tragedy against all migrants from ...
16 november 2015
Today in Jizzak city, Uzbekistan, the police arrested human rights defender Uktam Pardayev after raiding his home and confiscating ...
31 may 2016
In Uzbekistan the weeding of the cotton fields began at the end of April and is expected to continue ...