#ForcedLabor

Forced labor, including children - linked to World Bank

Each year Uzbekistan, one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton, forces many people, including children, to work in the cotton fields for weeks in arduous conditions. Nurses and teachers are among those targeted, undermining access to health care and education.

ACT NOW

The World Bank has loaned half a billion dollars to bolster Uzbekistan’s agriculture sector in recent years, fully aware that the country’s cotton industry relies heavily on forced labor. In doing so, it is providing cover for the government’s forced labor system.

Tell the president of the World Bank to suspend its agriculture loans to the Uzbek government until the government stops forcing people to work in project funded areas.

TWEET JIM YONG KIM

The World Bank is funding half a billion dollars in agricultural projects linked to forced and child labor in Uzbekistan. Under the loan agreements, the Uzbek government is required to comply with laws prohibiting forced and child labor, and the World Bank can suspend the loans if there is credible evidence of violations.

Share our campaign graphics now and say NO to #ForcedLabor in Uzbekistan

>> Press Release: Uzbekistan forced labor linked World Bank
>> Report: We Can’t Refuse to Pick Cotton’: Forced and Child Labor Linked to World Bank Group Investments in Uzbekistan
>> For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the World Bank and the IFC
>> For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Uzbekistan