ILO denies systematic use of forced child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan: a diplomatic ploy to gain concessions from the government or an attempt to deny the commonly known problem?

International Labour Organization (ILO) voiced its opinion in early April 2014 on the monitoring results on child labor in cotton harvest in Uzbekistan “… the ILO did not reveal use of forced child labor on a systematic basis in the cotton harvest in the country.” This conclusion was announced during a special seminar with a high “international” status organized by the Uzbek authorities in Tashkent for this purpose.

Observers assert that the seminar was not distinguished by anything special; it was conducted quite in the spirit of routine ordinary sponsored seminars and conferences of the Uzbek authorities with the participation of usually pro-government Uzbek NGOs as well as NGOs from other countries. Instead of discussing the main problem, the issue of forced labor in the cotton harvest, speakers only declared adopted legislation acts and government programs related to the given subject.

On April 25, 2014, Uzbekistan and the ILO signed the technical cooperation program for 2014-2016, a.k.a. as the Decent Work Program. From the Uzbek side, the Program was signed by Labour and Social Welfare Minister Akhmat Khaitov, Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Alisher Shaykhov and Trade Unions Federation Chairperson Tanzilya Narbaeva. According to the program, the ILO will support implementation of the Uzbek National Action Plan to eradicate child labor, promotion of international labor standards and fundamental principles and rights in the labor sphere, promotion of public dialogue on these issues.

We believe that the ILO evaluation about the use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan shows one of the two. This is either a diplomatic ploy applied by the ILO to achieve new concessions from the government of Uzbekistan. Considering that the ILO has been seeking permission of the Uzbek authorities to conduct monitoring on child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan for a long time – seven years, this version seems to be close to the truth.

Unlike more than a dozen UN special rapporteurs on specific human rights issues, who have been hopelessly waiting for many years for an official permission of the Uzbek authorities to visit the country on special missions to study the situation, the ILO apparently intends to visit Uzbekistan again for a new examination of the forced labor situation. True reforms of the Uzbek authorities on the issue of termination of forced labor in the cotton harvest, including forced child labor, may be another more serious concession of Uzbekistan, which the ILO hopes to achieve; therefore words are chosen very carefully while assessing the situation in the country.

Even if the ILO “toothless” assessment was made in sincere hope for future real concessions from the Uzbek authorities to improve the situation, it seems to us that this tactic does not work against the Uzbek authorities, which in recent years have learned to manipulate the “human rights” and “democracy” language in a very skillful manner during consultation and dialogue with international partners. The reality shows that the Uzbek authorities are far from real implementation of reforms, and approve only those pseudo reforms, when they need to gain extra points from their international partners for allegedly ongoing reforms. Unfortunately, the invitation for the ILO to monitor the use of child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan is also a tactic of the Uzbek authorities to obtain additional credits in the international arena, which was why the ILO had to wait for permission to visit the country for so long.

Apparently, it took some time for the Uzbek authorities to think through all aspects of the ILO visit to the country so that while visiting the country international experts would not be able to learn about the real situation of forced labor in the country. It is safe to say that that the Uzbek authorities have allowed the ILO to visit the country only after they were confident of that. Otherwise, during the visit to the country ILO experts would not have been always accompanied by a huge horde of Representatives of the Trade Unions Federation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Farmers of Uzbekistan, specially attached by the Government to the international delegation so that the international observers were not able to find out the real situation or do not try to visit the wrong cotton fields or schools.

The ILO delegation visited Uzbekistan for monitoring from September 11 to October 31, 2013. We believe that the ILO delegation had an idea about the real situation in the country before the arrival to the country, but was forced to apply the diplomatic ploy hoping to achieve more serious concessions from the government in the future.

Or an alternative reason for the ILO cautious stance could simply be lack of knowledge of the problem and acceptance of the situation presented by the Uzbek authorities. Although it is difficult to believe the ILO is ignorant of the real child labor situation due to in-depth studies of forced child labor in Uzbekistan, including numerous forced child labor papers and reports about forced child labor in the cotton harvest despite legal prohibitions against such practices.

In any case, the forced labor situation, including child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan, is far from that which appears in the ILO evaluation. According to the 2013 data, many senior secondary schools students as well as college, institute and universities students (15 years and above) are still forced to pick cotton in all regions of the country right when the government took the ILO international experts to cotton fields and education facilities prepared in advance.

According to reports of Uzbek human rights activists, who conducted monitoring of the situation, the Uzbek government applied various tricks and fraudulent schemes during the ILO visit, for example, false representation of facts in the cotton fields and schools, staging false classes and attendance at schools, colleges and universities, whereas in reality the students were in the cotton fields.

Like in the previous cotton harvest seasons, fatal accidents to young Uzbeks who were forced to labor continued to take place in 2013. Uzbek human rights activists have recorded 11 fatal cases among participants of the 2013 cotton harvest. We do not know whether it was condition of the Uzbek authorities or the ILO did not want to, but the ILO delegation did not have a single meeting with independent local human rights defenders during the visit to Uzbekistan.

The problem of forced child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan has become a serious dilemma for the authorities long ago. But because of the strong dependence on the export of Uzbek cotton and the cotton monopoly in the agricultural sector, the Uzbek authorities will not be able to resolve this dilemma soon even if they want to very much in the face of ongoing international criticism over the issue. However, if something has worked out well and forced the Uzbek government to do symbolic first steps towards eradication of forced labor in the cotton sector, it has happened due to the ongoing international criticism. Therefore, it is impossible to justify the unreasonable, positive assessment policy of the Uzbek authorities on the issue of forced child labor in the cotton harvest.

We urge the ILO to achieve a real and complete cessation of forced child labor in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan, to make sure there is a new official visit to the country to continue to examine the situation in 2014, too, not to give way to deceits and attempts of the Uzbek authorities to hide the true situation from international observers. We also draw the ILO attention to the increasing practice of mass forced labor of other groups of the population such as teachers of secondary schools, colleges and universities, soldiers, government officials in the cotton harvest each year. This practice is also worthy of separate investigations.

Sincerely,

Mutabar Tadjibayeva,

Head of “Fiery Hearts Club” International Human Rights Organization

May 12, 2014, Paris, France