Autor_in: Prof. Kristian Lasslett, Vanessa Gstrein

Herausgeber_in: The Corruption and Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)

Kurzbeschreibung:

The Government of Uzbekistan operates a system of forced labour which has been estimated to coerce approximately one million people annually into participating in the cotton harvest. Following courageous reporting, activism, and whistleblowing, the Uzbek government has committed at the highest levels to eradicating forced and child labour from the cotton sector. One of the two crucial annual reports that both measures incidences of forced and child labour in the cotton sector, and attempts to diagnose strengths and weaknesses in Uzbekistan’s reform effort is produced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) through its third-party monitoring unit stationed in Tashkent. Established through a Multi-Donor Trust Fund by the World Bank, with support from the European Union, the United States and Switzerland, the unit has produced three annual monitoring reports since 2015. Following serious criticism of the third-party monitoring methodology, ethicality and accuracy by civil society, the first author of this evaluation was invited by the ILO’s Chief Technical Adviser to review the 2017 cotton harvest report. To conduct the review, benchmarks drawn from the international methodological literature and the ILO’s own monitoring manual were employed. Once applied serious breaches were identified. A series of questions prompted by the review’s initial findings was sent to the ILO’s third-party monitoring unit for clarification. No response has been received. 

Among the greatest concerns raised during the review was a lack of explicit reference in the 2017 harvest report to the vulnerability of participants who may be victims of state-organised labour, the special sensitivities this prompts for research, or the complexities associated with conducting accurate fieldwork in a deeply authoritarian country where surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture, and repression are lived realities for citizens. 

Erscheinungsjahr: 2018

Umfang: 27 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Bezug:  kostenfrei zum Download

Herausgeber: Entwicklungspolitisches Bildungs- und Informationszentrum für Globales Lernen in Berlin (EPIZ e.V.)
Autorinnen: Schepp, Sabine / Freudenschuß, Magdalena / Freier, Kornelia
Redaktion: Freier, Kornelia / Freudenschuß, Magdalena

Schlagwörter: Unterrichtskonzepte, Methoden, Didaktik, Jeans, Konsumverhalten, Altkleidung, kritischer Konsum Baumwolle, Usbekistan, Globalisierung, Wertschöpfungskette, Arbeitsbedingungen, Existenzlöhne, prekäre Beschäftigung, Nachhaltigkeit, CSR, Sozialstandards, Audits, Verhaltenskodizes, Unternehmensverantwortung,

Kurzbeschreibung:
Am Beispiel der Produktion einer Jeans lassen sich weltweite Zusammenhänge zwischen Konsumverhalten, Arbeits- und Produktionsbedingungen sowie Aspekte von Gesundheit, Umwelt sowie Partizipation und der Einfluss von politischen Entscheidungen anschaulich aufzeigen. Und was passiert eigentlich mit den gesammelten Altkleidern? Unter welchen Bedingungen wird Baumwolle angebaut und geerntet? Das Unterrichtsmaterial BERUFE GLOBAL – MODE UND TEXTIL geht diesen und mehr Fragen berufsbezogen in fünf Modulen auf den Grund: Die Jeans in Zeiten der Globalisierung, Nachhaltigkeit in der Baumwollproduktion, Arbeitsbedingungen von der Stoffherstellung bis zum Verkauf, Sicherung von Sozialstandards und alternative Ansätze.
Die Publikation gibt Anregungen zu Unterrichtseinheiten und enthält Vordrucke zu Arbeitsblättern. Sie richtet sich insbesondere an Lehrkräfte an Berufsschulen.

Erscheinungsjahr: zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Dezember 2012

Umfang: 88 Seiten

Sprache: Deutsch

Zielgruppe: Schüler_innen Sek I/II, Berufsschule

Medien: Lehrmaterial

Bezug: kostenfrei zum Download beim epiz-Berlin.

Herausgeber:  Environmental Justice Foundation, in collaboration with Pesticide Action Network UK

Schlagwörter:  Usbekistan, Indien, Pestizide, Vergiftungen, Biobaumwolle

Kurzbeschreibung:

Cotton is the world’s most important non-food agricultural commodity, yet it is responsible for the release of US$ billions of chemical pesticides each year, within which at least US$ million are considered toxic enough to be classified as hazardous by the World Health Organisation. Cotton accounts for % of global insecticide releases more than any other single crop. Almost kilogram of hazardous pesticides is applied for every hectare under cotton. Between and % of agricultural workers worldwide suffer from acute pesticide poisoning with at least million requiring hospitalization each year, according to a report prepared jointly for the FAO, UNEP and
WHO. These figures equate to between 25 million and 77 million agricultural workers worldwide.
Acute symptoms of pesticide poisoning include headaches, vomiting, tremors, lack of coordination, difficulty breathing or respiratory depression, loss of consciousness, seizures and death. Chronic effects of long-term pesticide exposure include impaired memory and concentration, disorientation, severe depression and confusion

Erscheinungsjahr: 2007

Umfang: 56 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF kostenfrei zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org

Herausgeber:  International Crisis Group

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

The cotton industry in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan contributes to political repression, economic stagnation, widespread poverty and environmental degradation.
Without structural reform in the industry, it will be extremely difficult to improve economic development, tackle poverty and social deprivation, and promote political liberalisation in the region. If those states, Western governments and international financial institutions (IFIs) do not do more to encourage a new approach to cotton, the pool of disaffected young men susceptible to extremist ideology will grow with potentially grave consequences for regional stability.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2005

Umfang: 56 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF kostenfrei zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org

Herausgeber:  Environmental Justice Foundation and Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, in collaboration with Anti-Slavery International, 2010

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

Cotton production in the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan remains one of the most exploitative enterprises in the world. The Government of Uzbekistan routinely compels hundreds of thousands of children as labourers in the country’s annual cotton harvest. Some analysts suggest between 1 and 2million school-age children are forced to pick cotton.
Children as young as 6 years old – but mostly aged 11and up – can be dispatched to the cotton fields for two months each year, missing out on their education and jeopardizing their future prospects.
Cotton picking is arduous labour, with each child ascribed a daily cotton quota of several dozen kilos that they must fulfill. They may face threats or physical abuse if they fail to pick their quota.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2010

Umfang: 21 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org

Herausgeber:  Environmental Justice Foundation and Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, 2010

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

Cotton production in Uzbekistan is one of the most exploitative enterprises in the world.
Uzbekistan - the world’s 6th largest producer of cotton - is unique for the scale of the state-sponsored, forced mobilisation of schoolchildren during the annual cotton harvest. Child labour is not the result of poverty or family need. It is at the behest of and directly benefits one of the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes, which makes an estimated US$1 billion [£622 million] from the annual sale of 1 million tonnes of cotton.
Two years after the Government signed two International Labour Organisation (ILO) (Conventions in an attempt to curtail international criticism) the 2010 cotton harvest was again marked by state-sponsored, child and adult forced labour.
Over the past 3 years, a number of major international retailers and clothing brands including Tesco, Walmart-Asda, Marks and Spencer, Gap, Levis and C & A have pledged to avoid the use of Uzbek cotton in their supply chains. Such laudable voluntary initiatives from the private sector have not been matched by action at a policy level in Europe, a major end-point for Uzbek cotton.
This event aims to promote long-term solutions to forced labour and environmental damage and support for  workable, durable and effective policy solutions.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2010

Umfang: 8 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF zum Download bei der Environmental Justice Foundation

Herausgeber:  Centre d’Etudes en Géopolitique et Gouvernance, Grenoble Ecole De Management

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

Uzbek children are made to work in the cotton fields through the systematic use of forced labour by the government of Uzbekistan. This phenomenon is different from the legacy of family farms, as practiced in Western Europe only a few decades ago. Uzbekistan has a high level of literacy and schooling; the agricultural sector was collectivised during the Soviet era, and then privatised after independence in 1991, though these hollow reforms did not diminish state control over this sector. It is upon the orders of the state, through the intermediary of local government and governors (hokims), that the transportation of schoolchildren to the cotton fields and their supervision and quotas are organised. Moreover, after 20 years of independence, Uzbekistan’s economy has passed the subsistence stage and although we can observe a deep economic crisis, it does not justify the use of forced labour.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2012

Umfang: 36 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org

Herausgeber: Contributing Editors: Patricia Jurewicz, Director, Responsible Sourcing Network, Alina Shlyapochnik, Intern, Responsible Sourcing Network

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

According to the most recent statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO), over 129 million boys and girls, aged 5-14 years old, work in agriculture around the world. Many of these children labor in the cotton industry pollinating, harvesting, or ginning cotton that may eventually make its way into the clothes we buy.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an updated list of goods produced using child labor and forced labor Cotton and cotton seed were on the child labor list for 17 countries and on the forced labor list for 9 countries. Uzbekistan’s cotton is listed in the DOL report for being produced with both child labor and forced labor. While child labor in cotton production remains endemic in many countries, nowhere is it more organized than in Uzbekistan where the Government of Uzbekistan (GOU) forces over one million children to labor harvesting cotton each year. The government shuts down schools and public offices for months at a time, mobilizes the country’s students, teachers, and civil servants, and sends them to the cotton fields every autumn.
Children are given daily quotas which they must fulfill. Often it is mandated that they pick up to 110 pounds (50 kg) of cotton in a given day. Some children may be lucky to receive between $1.00 to $2.00 a day for picking that amount. However, they may then be charged for their food and lodging putting them deeply into debt. The Uzbek government can sell 100 pounds of Uzbek cotton on the open market for approximately $120 dollars (October 2011 cotton was trading at approx. $1.20/lb). This abusive practice earns the Government of Uzbekistan over one billion dollars annually.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2012

Umfang: 26 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org.

Herausgeber: Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF)

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:

Uzbekistan’s cotton production apparatus is controlled by the state and is a system that is based on the cheap forced labour of millions of people who have nothing to do with the cotton industry.
Annual surveys indicate that the state authorities are guilty of exploiting child labour. Every autumn, the Government of Uzbekistan, operating through the local authorities – regional and district hokimiyats – have forcibly mobilized millions of children, students, teachers, state employees, and employees of private businesses to do manual labour, picking cotton in the fields. The country’s Prime Minister, Shavkat Mirziyoev, is personally involved in the cotton campaign, as he oversees the agricultural sector. He conducts regular conference calls with local hokimiyats that bring in a range of ministries and agencies, including the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement, to the cotton campaign. The large scale mobilization of forced labour of adults and children in Uzbekistan should be seen not only within the context of the country’s command economy that has remained in place since the soviet era, but also as a consequence of its authoritarian system of governance. Parents are no longer in a position to protect their children, as they themselves are subject to deeply rooted administrative coercion that pervades the entire society, from the country’s local government and self-governance structures, and even to the hearts and minds of citizens–through the ongoing brainwashing by the country’s propagandistic mass media. The combination of fear and propaganda recalls the Stalinist system, which has been preserved by Uzbekistan’s current government.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2012

Umfang: 49 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF kostenfrei zum Download bei der Cottoncampaign.org

Herausgeber: Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF), The Cotton Campaign

Schlagwörter:  Kinderarbeit, Zwangsarbeit, Usbekistan, Menschenrechte

Kurzbeschreibung:
The Government of Uzbekistan has for decades relied on the forced labour of children and adults as a central component of the state-driven cotton production system. In 2012, the Government of Uzbekistan entrenched the use of forced labour in its cotton harvest. A shift in the demographic targeted has rooted the practice even more deeply in the country’s political economy, as an unprecedented mass mobilization of teenage children, university students and both public-sector and private-sector employees accompanied an apparent reduction in the mobilization of children under the age of 15. The Government failed to take steps to end the state sponsored forced labour system, denied the practice existed, and steadfastly refused to cooperate with the International Labour Organization (ILO). Government authorities also continued to repress citizens who reported the on-going use of forced labour of children and adults. This report presents evidence gathered by human rights defenders in Uzbekistan on their government’s system of forced labour during the 2012 cotton production cycle. Claims of progress ring hollow in the ears of the children and adults of Uzbekistan who again were forced to pick cotton by the government authorities.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2013

Umfang: 58 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch, Russisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: PDF kostenfrei zum Download bei der cottocampaign.org.