Hospital staff in Uzbek cotton fields in World Bank project area.
Drugged, beaten and detained by police – this was the fate of Elena Urlaeva when she dared to document state-sponsored slavery in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.1
In Uzbekistan, the government operates the world’s largest state-run system of forced labor, in which more than a million citizens each year are forced under threat of penalty to produce cotton for a state-run enterprise that benefits government elite.
Citizens like Elena, who report on the conditions of the harvest are routinely detained, harassed and physically assaulted, while journalists who attempt to document the truth are detained and deported.
What’s worse is that there are international actors helping Uzbekistan keep its dirty secret – including the World Bank and its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation.
The World Bank Group is an international institution that provides loans for developing countries. Right now it is providing almost $500 million to Uzbek agriculture projects.2 The World Bank signed a contract agreeing to suspend certain loans if evidence of forced labor was uncovered.
Yet despite two years of documented proof showing forced labor continues on World Bank project sites, particularly in the poor and vulnerable region of Karakalpakstan, the World Bank has not suspended its loans.
Reports from brave civil society monitors, who risk their personal safety, have found teachers and healthcare professionals coerced into weeding and preparing fields for the annual harvest.
Send a message to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim now that the Bank must cease these loans to support state-administered forced labor in Uzbekistan!
Notes:
Campaign updates
September 2017: President Mirziyoyev addressed forced labor for the first time on the international stage at the UN General Assembly on September 19. He then met the World Bank President on the 20th, and discussed project funding. Then two days later on September 21, the Uzbek Prime Minister announced that the mobilization of students, teachers and healthcare workers would be halted “forever”. Whilst reports from the cotton fields show students were withdrawn, other workers are still being forcibly mobilised to bring in the harvest. Read our news story.
March 2016: Alongside the Cotton Campaign, ILRF and Anti-Slavery International, we held a rally outside the World Bank Headquarters in Washington D.C. and handed in 136,109 signatures to World Bank officials. Although the World Bank formally condemned the use of forced labor upon receipt of our petition, it has yet to suspend its loans to Uzbekistan. However, this campaign was a crucial first step in the process and has helped get us one step closer. Thank you for being part of the global anti-slavery movement and standing up for the rights of the Uzbek people.
December 2015: We joined our partner, the Cotton Campaign, in a protest outside the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. We projected a showcase of striking images and videos of Uzbek slavery onto the side of the Bank’s building.
Lesley B.
Danielle F.
MR.Dr.Friedrich P.
Júlia A.
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33 Comments on "Suspend loans tainted by Uzbek forced labor"
This is extremely hard work. the cotton burrs tear our fingers, carrying the load of cotton is a strain on a back that is already in serious pain from bending over for 8 hrs or more a day. I know. I grew up on a cotton farm.
Isso é que é humanidade! Temos que organizarmos assim para termos resultados humanitários aqui no Brasil!
Thats the spirit of freedom united success who cares humanity. Human kind is the great virtue of all.
I don’t know why this is still happening. The abusive thugs who control the army there and are supported by the USA, force schools to send all their pupils to pick cotton. So children as young as 10 must become slaves for the state.
No more talklin’ the talk!!
We want PROOF!!
Action Speaks Louder Than Words!!