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
14 september 2016
Karimov’s terrible misrule On August 31st The Times published the article “Nightmare in Tashkent”, in which it informs its ...
31 march 2016
Steinmeier’s visit to Tashkent was taken up by several German media, including ZEIT Online, Süddeutsche Zeitung Deutsche Welle, FAZ, ...
11 october 2015
After having a published an article on its website about children being summoned to the cotton harvest in the ...
11 september 2016
German media articles reporting on the Uzbek President’s death focused on the controversial legacy of Karimov’s long-term rule with ...