Cotton Campaign sends delegation to Uzbekistan

AKIPRESS.COM - Representatives of the Cotton Campaign, a coalition of organizations that share the goal of eradicating child labor and forced labor in cotton production, will visit Uzbekistan on January 29 through February 6.
The delegation will include representatives of the Responsible Purchasing Network, Human Rights Watch, Solidarity Center, Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, Central Asia Labor Rights Monitoring Mission, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the United States said.
The members of the delegation will meet Ministers of Labor, Agriculture, Justice, Investments and Foreign Trade, key officials of Uzbektextile Association, Confederation of Employers of Uzbekistan and Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan.
The delegation members will also meet with National Commission for Prevention of Human Trafficking and Forced Labor, Senate Speaker Tanzila Narbaeva.
The results of cotton harvesting in 2019 and effectiveness of measures aimed to eliminate force labor, progress of implementation of the detailed roadmaps aimed to eliminate forced labor, engagement of civil society into the area will be discussed at the meeting.
The delegation members will attend the briefing of the International Labor Organization on preliminary results of the cotton harvesting monitoring.
A year ago Cotton Campaign said the boycott for the Uzbek cotton won't be lifted yet.
The boycott of the Uzbek cotton began expanding since 2008, when several international human rights organizations set up a coalition and launched campaign to eliminate child labor and forced labor in Uzbek cotton industry. 313 textile companies and garment producers in the world boycott the cotton from Uzbekistan, including Adidas, Amazon, Burberry, Balenciaga, Kelvin Klein, Nike, H&M, Gap, Gucci, Disney and others.
The Cotton Campaign is a global coalition of human rights, labor, responsible investor and business organizations dedicated to eradicating child and forced labor in cotton production.