Uzbekistan

When the Cotton Campaign launched in 2007, the Uzbek government was forcing over one million children and adults to pick cotton every year during the cotton harvest. The Cotton Campaign called for a global boycott of Uzbek cotton and organized over 300 brands to sign the Cotton Pledge. This effective tactic to increase pressure on the Uzbek government to end forced labor was part of a coordinated and sustained strategy combining policy advocacy, campaigning, and accountability actions.

In 2021, following almost 15 years of intense work by the Cotton Campaign, in combination with the Uzbek government’s political will, and technical assistance and engagement by the ILO, Uzbekistan eliminated systemic state-imposed forced labor in the annual cotton harvest. Despite these gains, the Uzbek civic space remains constrained and arbitrarily restricted, which puts the reforms to end forced labor at risk. With its primary focus on economic reforms and supply chain integration, the Uzbek transformation process has not sufficiently emphasized the need to empower civil society and develop effective institutions for transparency and accountability in the cotton sector. The Cotton Campaign continues its work to further expand the space for labor rights in the cotton and (the newly developed) textile sectors in Uzbekistan.

Turkmenistan

In Turkmenistan, the government continues to use widespread and systematic forced labor in the annual cotton harvest. Despite some shifts recorded in the 2023 and 2024 cotton harvests, the Turkmen government continues to force public sector workers—including doctors, teachers, cultural workers, employees of utilities organizations, and state-owned factories—to pick cotton or pay for replacement pickers under threat of penalty, and extorts money from the same workers to pay expenses related to the harvest. The Turkmen government exerts control over all aspects of public life and severely represses all civic freedoms. 

Due to systemic state-imposed forced labor in the harvest, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) introduced in 2018 a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against products made in whole or in part with cotton originating in Turkmenistan. However, products made with Turkmen cotton continue to enter global markets, including the US, Canada, and Europe. The Cotton Campaign has researched and exposed trade routes through which Turkmen cotton enters these markets, and has called on global brands and retailers, policy makers, and authorities across jurisdictions to take specific steps to ban it from global cotton supply chains.