Uzbek Cotton Campaign Addresses the Future of Children
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” -Matthew 19:14 (NIV)
Every day tens of millions of children are forced – by outright coercion or economic desperation – to work to help their families survive. MMA believes that a reality that limits the health and potential of future generations is incongruous with the vision God has set before us. All children—like our own—deserve the opportunity to be educated, to learn a trade and to just be children. The role they must play in some parts of the world indicates the failures in the economic system as a whole.
MMA has participated in a letter-writing campaign to reach companies who source cotton from Uzbekistan, imploring them to pressure the government of Uzbekistan to rid the industry of forced child labor. The Uzbek government is complicit in human rights abuses involving children, going as far as to close schools to force the nation’s children to pick in the cotton fields. Cotton is Uzbekistan’s most valuable export and the material finds its way onto the shelves of most global clothing and apparel retailers.
In March-May 2008, concerned investors sent letters to 113 companies which source Uzbek cotton. Of those companies, 28 responded to the letter and began dialogue with investors on how to improve the situation. The latest campaign MMA is joining is a second round of communication with companies that were either unresponsive or responded weakly to the first letter.
The goals of the Uzbek Cotton Campaign are to:
1) Leverage the purchasing power of U.S. and international companies to stop the use of forced labor and forced child labor throughout their supply chains in Uzbekistan and globally
2) Encourage the creation of a credible tracking system to record and track the harvesting practices and country of origin of cotton used in global supply chains, which can then be applied to other industries
3) Use the position of investors and corporations to engage the U.S. government and international institutions to address eradicating forced labor in Uzbekistan and globally.
