Jonas Astrup, the Tashkent-based chief of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) third-party monitoring project, updates Inside Denim on the state of cotton-picking in Uzbekistan. Particularly, how the ILO now detects a positive – and significant – link between the Uzbek cotton harvest and female empowerment.

A global boycott of Uzbek cotton remains in place, the seeds of which first took root around 2006, following the publication of reports by non-profits such as the International Crisis Group and the Environmental Justice Foundation a year prior. These documents identified the presence of child and forced labour during the country’s annual cotton harvest. Widely acknowledged to have been spearheaded by the Washington-based Cotton Campaign, a human rights coalition which dates its own involvement to 2007, this sourcing boycott has since grown to encompass more than 330 international firms, largely hailing from the Western Hemisphere, including Inditex, H&M, PVH’s Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and J Crew. Signatories of the pledge against use of Uzbek cotton are listed on Cotton Campaign affiliate the Responsible Sourcing Network’s website.

During recent denim trade show Kingpins24 Global, founder Andrew Olah assembled a noteworthy panel dedicated to the subject of cotton from Uzbekistan which included both ILO’s Jonas Astrup and Responsible Sourcing Network founder and chief executive (plus Cotton Campaign co-founder) Patricia Jurewicz, among others. Mr Olah said the idea for the discussion was initially seeded by BCT Denim owner and director Muzaffar Rakhmatov, also present on the panel, whose company has offices in Tashkent, Bukhara and Istanbul. The intention behind the talk was to draw the denim community’s attention to the “enormous” amount that has changed in the Uzbek cotton fields since the implementation of the boycott more than a decade ago, as per the most recent ILO data for 2020. (The ILO will publish the data it gathered during the 2021 harvest in early 2022.)

Sustainable development goals

Uzbekistan president Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s government formally acknowledged the earlier allegations of child and forced labour during the cotton-picking season – presented as a hangover from the early Stalinist period – as true in 2017. President Mirziyoyev subsequently issued a series of cotton-related reforms, which have resulted in today’s rapidly privatising, liberalising and mechanising sector. Indeed, so much has changed that the ILO concluded in 2021 that 96% of Uzbek cotton pickers were not in any way coerced into working during the cotton harvest in 2020. It stated that it continued to find that systematic child labour is no longer used during the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan and systematic forced labour did not occur in 2020.

During Kingpins, Mr Astrup acknowledged that 4% of cotton pickers still experienced “some degree of coercion in the recruitment process”, but also pointed out that forced labour exists “in all countries and in all sectors” and maintained that all those involved in picking Uzbek cotton in 2020 were paid at least minimum wage. Talking to Inside Denim towards the end of the 2021 cotton harvest, Mr Astrup concedes that there are still isolated cases of child labour at the local level, but “it is important to understand that those cases are caused by pockets of poverty in rural areas”. The best way to address this, he says, is to develop the country’s textile and apparel industry to create much-needed employment opportunities. Decent full-time jobs with good wages that can sustain the livelihoods of thousands of families are the “best weapon” against child labour, he states.

Later, in an early December post to LinkedIn, Mr Astrup would underscore his organisation’s view that responsible sourcing of Uzbek cotton, textiles and garments should not only be facilitated, but also encouraged. In the post, he said that many (unspecified) European enterprises have already begun sourcing from Uzbekistan and that the ILO’s third-party monitoring project is presently providing them with guidance and support.  Asked if he considers the fact that 64.6% of pickers were women (the vast majority of whom were also from rural areas) during the 2020 season – a not insignificant figure, particularly in the context of the United Nations’ sustainable development goal number five, which encompasses gender equality and female empowerment – was worthy of particular attention, Astrup tells us that he agrees that ensuring Uzbek women have access to the freedom to work “is an important end in itself”.

Entrepreneurial spirit

On the subject of global brands and retailers, Mr Astrup suggests one angle to how businesses might help is to write a cotton and textile “success story” alongside the nation’s female entrepreneurs. The concept is closely tied to the notion of textile clusters, “unique” to Uzbekistan’s cotton reforms, wherein private companies are allocated a cotton-growing area from among communities up and down the country, complete with a business model to progress along the value chain through processing and manufacturing. For local women, who typically have more familial care responsibilities, there are opportunities to provide services to the clusters, such as childcare facilities for textile workers or catering, cleaning, security or landscaping services, as just some examples.

Mr Astrup sees significant potential here for further female economic empowerment and, during our interview, calls on international industry players to contribute their own ideas and experience to help boost Uzbek women workers in the cotton sector and beyond. Touching upon the social conscience of brands and retailers, he additionally offers that Uzbekistan would do well to maintain and expand another aspect to its cotton and textile industry: the fact that its producers are not located in the capital, but rather across the country’s provinces and districts. The fact that factories do not typically have integrated dormitories, for instance, but instead tend to employ locals, which he suggests enhances working conditions, community relations and other positive social aspects by extension, could make Uzbekistan an attractive destination for buyers. The country should strategically position itself in such a light before international textile and apparel companies, Mr Astrup tells Inside Denim.

Will this be enough to raise the nation’s responsible profile and encourage industry stakeholders to lift the boycott on Uzbek cotton, however? In another LinkedIn post, the Uzbek ambassador to the US and Canada, Javlon Vakhabov, painted this action as long overdue. Yet, earlier government-level calls to end the boycott have not been heeded, despite drawing attention to the economic pressures placed on local agriculture and industry in the wake of covid-19. As industry-wide mechanisation continues to gather pace within the country, perhaps it is time to edit the story of Uzbek cotton and take a more nuanced, updated look at the complex human costs behind the fibre.

Local women pick cotton during harvest season on the outskirts of the Uzbek city of Samarkand.
Photo: Mehmeto / Shutterstock.com

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