We write to express our sincere disappointment that the State Department once again did not downgrade Uzbekistan to Tier III in the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report, and we call on the U.S. government to urge the Uzbek government to immediately invite the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to conduct unfettered monitoring of the 2012 cotton harvest. In 2011 and years prior, the Uzbek government-controlled system of cotton production forced more than a million adults and children to pick cotton.

We respectfully write to ask the EU to make a strong statement at the upcoming International Labour Conference reflecting the serious and systematic abuse of human rights in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, and to urge the government of Uzbekistan to abide by its international commitments to end state-sponsored forced labour and forced child labour, by immediately committing to accept a high-level tripartite ILO mission to monitor the 2012 cotton harvest.

We write to ask that, as part of your ongoing advocacy on behalf of human rights around the world, you urge the government of Uzbekistan to immediately take the appropriate steps to abide by its international commitments to end state-sponsored forced labor and child labor, beginning with an invitation to the International Labour Organization (ILO) to monitor the 2012 cotton harvest.