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[14 August 2012] - Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev has issued an order to ban the use of child labour during the 2012 cotton harvesting campaign. On 11 August, the education departments in the Uzbek regions received the minutes of a meeting chaired by the prime minister in Tashkent. The minutes carry a number of instructions by the prime minister about the forthcoming cotton harvesting campaign. Mirziyayev strictly ordered that there should no case of schoolchildren being involved in harvesting cotton in 2012, a regional school principal has said. Moreover, the prime minister also banned voluntary work by children on cotton fields during harvesting. The Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office was ordered to watch over the implementation of this order. Another aspect the meeting discussed was the financial stimulation for grown-up cotton harvesters, the school principal said. Mirziyayev ordered an increase in the cost of cotton and remuneration to be introduced as one kilogram of cotton seed oil for each 100 kilogram of picked cotton. It was also instructed that schoolchildren and their parents in the country’s regions and districts should be explained that the child labour is banned. In 2008, the Uzbek parliament ratified two UN conventions on children's rights on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment. Since then, during every cotton-picking season, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev issued resolutions banning the local authorities from using child labour to pick cotton. In 2008, a provincial farmer says, efforts were really made to prevent the use of child labour in cotton fields. During the first weeks of cotton harvesting, which usually starts in the first days of September, farmers managed to harvest with the help of grown-up cotton pickers, but they soon realised that they would not manage without children. A short time later, classes were suspended in all schools in the country while a string of buses and other vehicles loaded with young cotton pickers moved towards fields. Nonetheless, the failed intention to renounce the use of child labour in masses in cotton growing and picking is not preventing the Uzbek government from pretending the struggle against the use of child labour is underway in the country. Every academic year in school in Uzbekistan starts with the explanation to children and parents about the child labour ban. A woman in Tashkent said that in the 2010-2011 academic year her daughter, a pupil in primary school, was obliged to learn her rights and was told that no-one has the right to force her to work. The same booklet was given to parents to read and sign it. People do not take seriously Prime Minister Mirziyayev’s yet another instruction, realising that this is another case of eyewash. The Uzbek government did not admit monitors from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to the country again this year. For many years, the organisation has been trying to get the permission to observe the cotton harvesting and the use of forced child labour. Cotton, known as white gold in Uzbekistan, is a strategically important commodity for the country’s ruling elite. It brings in about $1bn in profit with a minimum production cost. Cotton farmers, as well as schoolchildren and students forced to pick it, often find themselves in the state’s debt because of meagre purchasing prices. Wide-scale use of child labour has led to a partial boycott of the Uzbek cotton in Europe, so the lion’s share of the Uzbek cotton is being sold to Asia. Further Information:
Déjà vu
Lies from the cradle
pdf: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=&cid=30&nid=20557