News

Kazakhstan Events of 2017

As the Kazakh government hosted high-profile international events, including EXPO 2017, an annual international exhibition, and several rounds of Syria peace talks, its human rights record further deteriorated. Authorities suppressed independent trade union activity and continued to target government critics, including journalists, with politically motivated criminal charges and other harassment. Several activists and union leaders remain wrongfully imprisoned. The government is considering legislative amendments that appear to propose even further restrictions on freedom of religion. Impunity for torture and ill-treatment in detention persist.

Turkmenistan. Events of 2017

Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most closed and oppressively governed countries. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his associates control all aspects of public life. Elections extended Berdymukhamedov’s presidential term for another seven years.

Migrant children need special protection

ADC “Memorial” welcomes the adoption of important UN documents on the rights of migrant children, which include two Joint General Comments of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) – “On the general principles regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration” and “On State obligations regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration in countries of origin, transit, destination and return”.

Coal Miners' Strike Spreads In Kazakhstan As Workers Stay Underground

SHAKHTINSK, Kazakhstan -- A strike by coal miners in north-central Kazakhstan has spread to more mines as hundreds of workers are refusing to return to the surface, demanding higher salaries and better benefits.

MALOKHAT URGENTLY NEEDS YOUR HELP

Malokhat is being targeted for her work monitoring forced and child labor in Uzbekistan’s government-run cotton harvest

Uzbek Official Unleashes Torrent of Abuse at Cotton Meeting

The head of the Parkent district administration of the Tashkent region, Nematulla Abdullaev, held a 45-minute meeting on November 1, 2017, during which he used abusive and insulting language to humiliate and intimidate the heads of organizations, enterprises, and community leaders for not sending enough people to pick cotton and meet quotas. An audiotape of this meeting was given to Radio Ozodlik (the Uzbek service of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty) by the head of an organization who took part in the meeting

Turkmenistan: Children Continue to Pick Cotton Despite Ban

In Turkmenistan, despite a ban on child labor, there are more children and teenagers in the cotton fields for this year’s cotton harvest campaign than in previous years. In addition, for the first time for many years the authorities in several regions of Turkmenistan have orchestrated the mass mobilization of children to pick cotton.

Article in German Magazine STERN : “Exploited”

Bettina Sengling, a German journalist, has been following Uzbekistan’s most prominent human rights activists. In a recent article, published by the German magazine STERN, she reports on forced and child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry and the challenges faced by human rights activists in their courageous fight to end these practices.

We have been picking cotton in Syrdarya for 50 days now. We have only been able to wash ourselves once in a pond.

A member of staff from Andijan Region’s Agriculture and Water Resources Department, who was  brought to Syrdarya to pick cotton on 20 September, and who requested to remain anonymous, has complained to OzodMikrofon (Free Microphone) that he has been picking cotton for almost two months in difficult conditions and that the leadership has no plans to replace him or send him back home.

Children in the Andijan Region Pick Cotton

On November 3, 2017, human rights activist Elena Urlayeva visited cotton fields in the Balikchi district (Andijan region) and saw children at the age of 11-12 picking cotton.