Six months after the boycott of Uzbekistan cotton was lifted, the ground situation is still far away from normalising, a recent ground report has argued.
- The ‘Cotton Chronicle 2022’ report of the Uzbek Forum of Human Rights (UFHR) has alleged that despite the abolition of the state order for cotton production and the transition to the privatised “cluster” system, the mechanism and organisation of the cotton harvest remain practically unchanged.
- As before, the heads of four divisions—the prosecutor, the head of police, the head of tax inspection, and district and regional hokims—are still responsible for the quality and timely delivery of cotton.
- The "chronicle" is based on a review of information published in the press and social media, as well as reports from Uzbek Forum monitors covering some 30 cotton-growing districts of the country.
The Allegations: The annual cotton harvest in Uzbekistan, which began in stages in early September, has come to an end. The UFHR has pointed out the following, among other problem areas:
- The Uzbekistan government has declared that child labour in the cotton fields is unacceptable, and mahallas and other government structures have generally ensured that children do not participate in the cotton harvest. However, in Kasbi and Mirishkor districts of Kashkadarya region, Uzbek Forum monitors observed 12-year-old children who had come to pick cotton with their parents. In all cases, the main reasons were poverty and the children’s desire to help their parents or earn money for their own needs.
- In the second week of October, there were dozens of reports about government employees being forced to pick cotton and pressure mahalla chairmen to find enough pickers to accelerate the harvest.
- In many cases, coercion of people to pick cotton stopped following the publication of complaints of forced labour in the press or social media.
- In Kashkadarya region, on the instructions of the regional defence department, 65 young men who had applied for military service were sent to pick cotton. They were told their applications would only be accepted after they had gone to Karshi district to pick cotton.
- In Kasan district, government officials were advised to hire pickers from among their acquaintances rather than people they did not know to prevent the information from being made public.
- Although cases of coercion—mainly of employees of state organisations—have been identified, it is difficult to estimate the scale as it is unknown how many days employees spent on the fields. Efforts to coerce people into going to the fields also appear to stop as soon as the information becomes public.
- Many farmers complained they are given quotas for producing cotton, even when their land is not suitable due to soil quality and/or a lack of available water. In addition, they claim that they are given unrealistically high cotton quotas which creates enormous pressure given that failure to fulfill quotas can result in the loss of their land leases.
- In 2022, thousands of farmers were forced to sign blank contracts with no guaranteed minimum price, but often with inflated production targets. In many cases, clusters also refused to give farmers copies of their contracts. Most farmers who spoke to Uzbek Forum confirmed they did not know how much the clusters would eventually pay them for the cotton they had been delivering.
- The practice of illegally terminating land lease agreements under threat of penalty has been well documented. Although some efforts have been made by the authorities to address the issue, the practice continues, depriving farmers of their livelihoods and compensation. In most of the cases, the land is taken back into the state reserve and in many cases been allocated to clusters.
