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Case 9: Uzbek cotton: a new spin on responsible sourcing
Environmental Justice Foundation. The EJF has a campaign on cotton, the second link here. The third link is to a report on child labour in the cotton industry.
http://www.ejfoundation.org/
http://ejfoundation.org/cotton/media
http://ejfoundation.org/report/children-behind-our-cotton
The BBC reported on 11 November 2009 that child labour is still being used in Uzbek cotton fields. Within hours of the report’s broadcast, an activist who helped the BBC investigation was beaten up. The first link is to the story about continued child labour, the second to the story about the activist’s assault.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8340630.stm
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 1989) sets out the internationally-agreed standard on the question of rights for children. Text is available at
http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx
The Universal declaration of Human Rights (adopted 1948) is available at
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Link to the Ethical Trading Initiative’s responsible cotton sourcing event,
http://www.ethicaltrade.org/news-and-events/news/responsible-cotton-sourcing-event
Several major retailers have stopped carrying products made with cotton sourced in Uzbekistan. Tesco was the first.
http://www.tescoplc.com/
https://sustainability.tescoplc.com/sustainability/sourcing/