Uzbekistan: Roundtable Highlights Use Of Child Labor In Harvesting 'White Gold'
As the second-biggest exporter of cotton in the world, the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov is keen to keep the cotton industry thriving. But members of the international Coalition Against Forced Child Labor In Uzbekistan -- comprised of three European NGOs -- say they hope to show how prevalent child labor is in harvesting Uzbek cotton. The coalition was one of the organizers of an antichild labor roundtable held in Bremen, Germany, on April 3, timed to coincide with the 29th International Cotton Conference, also held in Bremen. Shahida Yakub heads the London-based Uzbekistan Initiative group, a member of the coalition. "The main goal of this event is to attract the international community's attention to child labor in Uzbekistan," she said. "We also hope that certain pressure will be put on the Uzbek government to force it to stop using child labor."
Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton in the world. Unfortunately they have been using children to pick the cotton since the Soviet Era. The practice continued after the country gained independence in 1991 and joined several international agreements that ban child labor. Human-rights activists say as much as half of the country's "white gold" harvest comes from child labor.
Since this brings in much hard currency for the country, it has been looked over to prevent the use of child labor to bring in the profits. There have been many organized boycotts to express the harm that is caused by using child labor.
Like many other cases of child labor, it all comes down to people making more money. In this case the country wants to continue to use child labor so they can continue to benefit from the large profits that is made off of the product.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/04/6237f0d1-e4b1-4e3d-9cfd-4e8342647269.html
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