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Uzbekistan|life|December 13, 2017 / 11:40 AM
Uzbekistan no longer uses systematic child labour — ILO

AKIPRESS.COM - An ILO team monitoring the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan has found that child labour is no longer systematically used and that measures are being taken to end the use of forced labour. These conclusions were discussed at a roundtable in Tashkent, ILO reports.

Monitors from the International Labour Organization (ILO) have found that the systematic use of child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest has come to an end over the past few years and that concrete measures to completely end the use of forced labour are being implemented.

These conclusions were discussed at a roundtable in Tashkent on November 30. The roundtable was attended by members of the Uzbek Coordination Council on Child Labour and Forced Labour, including government representatives, employers and trade unions of Uzbekistan, the development partners, diplomatic representatives, the ILO and the World Bank. The findings will be formally presented to the World Bank in a report, which will be released in early 2018.

During the harvest, the ILO experts carried out 3,000 unaccompanied interviews with cotton pickers and others involved in the harvest in all provinces of the country. This covered local authorities, and education and medical personnel. In addition, a telephone poll of 1,000 randomly selected persons was conducted. Before the harvest, the ILO experts organized training for some 6,300 people directly involved with the recruitment of cotton pickers.

The results confirm that there is a high level of awareness of the unacceptability of both child and forced labour. There is no systematic use of child labour, and instructions have been given and measures undertaken to ensure that all recruitment of cotton pickers is on a voluntary basis. Certain risk groups (students, education and medical personnel) were withdrawn from the harvest at its early stage.

The 2017 cotton harvest took place in the context of increased transparency and dialogue. This has encompassed all groups of civil society, including critical voices of individual activists. This is an encouraging sign for the future. An all-inclusive exchange of information creates a solid basis for employment and labour market policies not only in agriculture but throughout the economy.

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