News

Uzbekistan: Forced Labor Linked to World Bank. Systematic Violations Underpin Country’s Cotton Sector

(Brussels) – The World Bank is funding half a billion dollars in agricultural projects linked to forced and child labor in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch and the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights said in a report released today. 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.

World Bank funds linked to forced labour in Uzbekistan

Report by human rights groups says Bank-funded projects in the country’s cotton industry are using child and forced labour. The Bank refutes the allegations

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan remain in the lowest possible ranking in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan remain in the lowest possible ranking in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report
(Washington, DC) -- Today the U.S. State Department announced that the governments of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan remain in the lowest possible ranking, Tier 3, in the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

IndustriALL takes workers’ and union rights to the International Labour Conference

After two weeks full of intense activity and meetings the International Labour Conference ended in Geneva on 17 June

Uzbekistan: The Hard Labor Behind Soft Silk

As has always happened at the end of every May, Nasiba Barkasheva’s home burst with frenetic activity as the silkworm cocoon harvest reached its conclusion

Human Rights Defender Nuraddin Jumaniyazov dies in detention

After six months it has become known that Nuraddin Jumaniyozov (68), who planned to set up a trade union for hired laborers, died in prison on 31 December 2016.

Kazakhstan is in the top 10 worst countries for workers’ rights

The latest ranking of workers’ rights includes the global top ten, of which no country in 2017 should want to be a part.

Kazakhstan: a showcase for shrinking civic space

The Nazarbayev regime is using informal and formal methods to squeeze out NGOs, independent media and trade unions. Western governments should pay attention.

Kazakhstan: Union Leader Gets 2-Year Jail Sentence

A labour union leader in Kazakhstan who helped mobilize oil workers into defending their right to independent union representation has been sentenced to two years in jail on charges including embezzlement

Kazakhstan Jails Union Leader For Two Years

A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced labor union leader Amin Eleusinov to two years in prison. The court handed down the sentence on May 16 after convicting Eleusinov, a union leader at the Oil Construction Company (OCC), of embezzlement and of publicly insulting, assaulting, and refusing to obey a representative of state authority. Eleusinov was arrested in January after hundreds of OCC workers went on hunger strike for two weeks to protest the closure of a trade union alliance. (RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)