Cotton Campaign, a global coalition dedicated to ending forced labour, has urged Turkmenistan, the tenth-largest producer of cotton in the world, to end exploitation of farmers and public sector employees employed to produce and harvest cotton.
- The call comes following a new report from independent Turkmen rights groups which documents widespread, systematic forced labour, underpinned by endemic corruption in Turkmenistan’s annual cotton harvest.
- With only two months left until the 2023 cotton harvest, the government of Turkmenistan should take urgent steps to prevent the use of state-imposed forced labour in the harvest.
- The report was released on the same day as the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) examined Turkmenistan’s compliance with its obligation to end forced labour.
The report: During the 2022 cotton season, Turkmen.News and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) independently conducted monitoring of the cotton harvest across the country.
- The report provides first-hand evidence of forced labour in the 2022 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan and calls for comprehensive reforms to end forced labour and create a broader enabling environment for labour rights.
- It also highlights the risk of forced labour Turkmen cotton entering global garment and textile supply chains, in violation of import ban legislation and obligations on companies not to use goods made with forced labour.
- Suppliers in third countries, in particular Turkey, but also Pakistan and Italy, use cotton, yarn, and fabric originating in Turkmenistan and sell goods to major global brands. This means that brands and retailers face the risk of forced-labour Turkmen cotton entering their cotton supply chains at all stages of production.
- The Cotton Campaign is a coalition of human and labour rights NGOs, independent trade unions, brand and retail associations, responsible investor organisations, supply chain transparency groups, and academic partners united to end forced labour and promote decent work for cotton workers in Central Asia.
Specific Instances: The report documents the following cases:
- Turkmen.News monitors interviewed 100 public sector employees forcibly mobilised to pick cotton in Lebap region, including teachers; doctors; telecom workers; employees of utilities, sports, culture, and tourism institutions; and other state-owned enterprises.
- One interviewee, a public utility worker from Kerki, recalled, “the tenant farmer immediately told us that he would not pay, because, first, he had no money to pay us, but second, he said ‘I did not ask you to come, you came on your own.’ The only thing he promised was to bring an urn so the pickers could boil water at lunchtime.”
- In Lebap region, authorities enforced limited hours on shops and services to ensure that both shop owners and shoppers would go to the fields.
- Several district monitors documented that shops were required to be closed between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Even private sellers of food and prepared meals were only allowed to sell during the lunch break, and only in the cotton fields to pickers. Law enforcement strictly enforced the closures.
- A commission of representatives of the prosecutor's office, police, and tax service inspected shops and threatened to close violators for six months. Shopkeepers received no compensation for lost business.
- Employees from some kindergartens in Turkmenabat and Dashoguz were mobilised to pick cotton or give money to their directors every six to seven days, whereas employees of other kindergartens in the same towns only had to pick or pay every 10–12 days. The discrepancy suggests that some heads of institutions took advantage of the lack of transparency to extort extra money from their employees for their personal gain.
The Context: The launch of the report comes as representatives from governments and worker and employer representatives around the world are expected to testify against forced labour in Turkmenistan during the ILO CAS review of Turkmenistan’s compliance with ILO Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour (No. 105).
- The ILO CAS reviewed Turkmenistan’s compliance with the ILO Convention 105 most recently in 2021, when it urged the government to eliminate forced labour in the cotton sector and cooperate with the ILO and social partners to ensure compliance with the Convention.
- While the government has since allowed a high-level ILO mission to visit the country, it continues to publicly deny the use of forced labour in the harvest—most recently during its review by the UN Human Rights Committee in March 2023—and to harass and attack anyone who dares to speak out about human and labour rights abuses.
The History: Turkmenistan is one of the most closed and repressive countries in the world, with a system of arbitrary, corrupt governance that controls nearly every aspect of public life.
- The government maintains complete control over the cotton production system, which is predicated on the coercion and exploitation of tens of thousands of tenant farmers, public sector employees, and others to produce and harvest cotton for the benefit of corrupt elites.
- Turkmenistan is the tenth-largest producer of cotton in the world and exports cotton lint, yarn, fabric, and finished goods.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Change is long-overdue. Every year, the Turkmen government uses coercion and exploitation of farmers and public sector employees to produce and harvest cotton. It is high time for the government to acknowledge this problem and allow labor rights defenders to monitor and report on working conditions without the threat of reprisal.
— Ruslan Myatiev
Director
Turkmen News
The ILO has a key role to play in ending state-imposed forced labor in Turkmenistan and the review by the Committee on the Application of Standards of Turkmenistan’s forced labor record is timely. However, any durable solution to ending forced labor must include an emphasis on other fundamental labor rights, especially freedom of association, assembly, and collective bargaining.
— Allison Gill
Forced Labour Programme Director
Global Labour Justice-International Labour Rights Forum
State-imposed forced labor in the cotton harvest and exploitation of farmers are not an anomaly in Turkmenistan. These practices are an integral part of a corrupt command system of agricultural production, including production of wheat and silk cocoons. The Turkmen government must introduce structural reforms to address forced labor and exploitation beyond the cotton sector.
— Farid Tukhbatullin
Chairperson
Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights
To eliminate all cotton made with state-imposed forced labour in Turkmenistan from global supply chains, we need stronger enforcement of existing laws governing human rights due diligence, supply chains, and imports, and the introduction of similar legislation across all jurisdictions. Creating a level-playing field will signal to the government of Turkmenistan that the use of forced labor is unacceptable.
— Raluca Dumitrescu
Coordinator
Cotton Campaign
