ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOUNDATION - COTTON CAMPAIGN

Essential Facts

• Government officials force schoolchildren as young as seven to pick cotton by hand
• Cotton farmers are paid only a fraction of the real price for their crop, while the corrupt ruling elite makes millions
• Every kilogram of cotton grown in Uzbekistan consumes 20,000 litres of water
• The Aral Sea has now shrunk to 15% of its former volume - all native species of fish are gone
• Europe is the largest single destination for Uzbek cotton buying a third of the country´s exports.

Cotton Production in Uzbekistan - The Campaign

Cotton production in the Republic of Uzbekistan is one of the most exploitative enterprises of the 21st century. Linked with the environmental destruction of an entire ecosystem, the corrupt government officials who control Uzbekistan´s cotton sector are directly responsible for profound rural poverty, appalling labour rights abuses, and one of the world´s worst examples of child exploitation. Given the EU´s position as the major purchaser of Uzbek cotton, campaigners based in Europe and in Uzbekistan are now urging retailers, politicians and consumers to demand an end to these grievous human rights and environmental abuses.

Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton in the world, selling around 1 million tonnes of fibre on the international market every year. This lucrative trade is heavily controlled by the country´s dictatorship. But while those in government enjoy direct access to the billion dollar revenues derived from the commodity, Uzbekistan´s agricultural labourers receive only a small fraction of the true value of the cotton they produce. Motivated by threats of beatings and land confiscation, many of the country´s rural population are made to endure extreme levels of chronic poverty.

Perhaps the most shocking labour rights abuses occur during the harvest. For while other major cotton producers gather their crop by machine, in Uzbekistan they use schoolchildren. Each autumn, state officials shut down schools and force hundreds of thousands of Uzbek students to work in the cotton fields. Children as young as seven are forced to pick cotton by hand throughout the autumn months. The work is extremely arduous. Housed in poor conditions, and paid little in return for their labour, these children are systematically exploited by their own state.

This gross exploitation of the human population is accompanied by one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in the world. By embezzling the income derived from cotton production, Uzbekistan´s government has failed to address the decline of the Soviet waterways which irrigate the cotton fields. These networks are now so inefficient that they consume 20,000 litres of water for every kilogram of fibre harvested. Given the scale of Uzbek cotton production, this staggering inefficiency has led to the eradication of the Aral Sea. Once the world´s fourth largest body of inland water, the Aral has now shrunk to just 15% of its former volume. Its ecosystem has been destroyed: all native fish species have disappeared from its waters, and the rusting hulls of fishing trawlers now lie beached amid 40,000 km2 of exposed sea bed.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Uzbek cotton harvest was used to support textiles factories based in Moscow. Since independence, the country´s leadership has sold the commodity on the international market. Europe has now become the country´s major customer, buying around one third of all cotton exports. Given the serious environmental and labour rights abuses associated with its production, politicians, retailers and consumers must act urgently in addressing the situation.

• Ask your retailer if the cotton in their products derives from Uzbekistan. If they can´t give you a 100% guarantee, don´t buy and tell them why. Ask them to stock organic and fairly traded cotton only
• Demand your retailer use a label to tell you where the cotton used in the product was grown
• Support a European regulation prohibiting the import of cotton, and cotton products, produced using forced or child labour
• Always support organic and fair trade cotton
• Only when those who purchase Uzbek cotton demand an end to the abuses associated with its production will we be able end the exploitation of a nation and their environment.

For more information on the production of cotton in Uzbekistan, and to find out how you can help, visit http://www.ejfoundation.org