On 11 September, 52 political prisoners were released in Belarus. Among them were two key figures of the independent trade union movement: Aliaksandr Yarashuk, Chair of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), and Hennadz Fiadynich, former head of the Belarusian Radio and Electronics Industry Workers’ Union (REP).
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Governments must do more to utilize universal social protection to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change and achieve a just transition, according to a new ILO report.
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Many farmers are tired of injustice, but they are afraid to speak out. I don’t know what might happen to me tomorrow, but if I am put in prison or disappear, consider the hokim of the Shahrisabz district, Samad Khasanov, responsible for it”, said Kudratov.
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While dependent contractors have long existed as a group of workers, they have only been made visible in official statistics recently.
The relationships between workers and the economic units for which they work are complex and changing. These work relationships cover various dimensions, including work arrangements, forms of employment, the degree of workers’ autonomy in decision-making, the level of economic risk they are exposed to, etc. Work relationships are closely related to workers’ status in employment.
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(4 August, 2025) In July, a disturbing incident in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, highlighted the growing threat of violence against health workers in the region. After a doctor asked the noisy relatives of a patient to calm down, he was physically attacked. Rather than the perpetrators being detained, it was the doctor who was taken into custody by police. The attackers filed a counterclaim accusing the physician of verbal abuse, and a court sentenced the assaulted doctor to three days of administrative arrest.
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How a union leader is championing the rights of health workers.
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In his video appeal Bobur Pardaev, a farmer from the Oltinsoy district, addressed the district hokim, Bahrom Mahmatraemov, standing in the middle of his wilted cotton field. In the video, Pardaev said that the hokim had instructed local irrigation authorities to deny his field access to water. As a result, the farmer said that half of his cotton harvest has already been destroyed.
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Akbaskur’s case highlights how inconsistent legislation, unnecessary bureaucracy, and politically motivated interference can create fertile grounds for blocking civil society initiatives, particularly those launched by grassroots activists. It demonstrates that, despite the existence of a legal framework, its procedures and implementation remain vulnerable to arbitrary interpretation and informal power structures.
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The government of Turkmenistan should expand the preliminary measures it took in the 2024 harvest to reduce forced labor through reforms that address root causes, empower workers and farmers, and allow independent monitoring and reporting, the Cotton Campaign said. The call comes as today the Cotton Campaign’s frontline partners Turkmen.News and Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights released their findings of independent civil society monitoring of the 2024 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan.
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Aliaksandr Yarashuk, president of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), vice-president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Governing Body, is being honoured for his uncompromising defence of workers’ rights and democracy in Belarus.
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