Cotton Campaign Cotton Campaign Written Input to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Cotton Campaign written input to the List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR) ahead of Turkmenistan’s review on its fifth and sixth reports
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, 97 Pre-Sessional Working Group (February 2024)
This submission provides information on the continued existence of child labour in the annual cotton harvest of Turkmenistan. The Government of Turkmenistan uses widespread, systematic state-imposed forced labour in the annual cotton harvest, forcing tens of thousands of public sector workers, including employees of schools, to pick cotton or pay for replacement pickers under threat of penalty, such as loss of employment. Child labour is primarily driven by this state policy of forcing adults to pick cotton or pay for a replacement picker.
This submission is structured under the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s (hereafter ‘the Committee’) ‘Special Protection Measures’ cluster, with specific focus on economic exploitation, including child labour, with specific reference to applicable minimum ages (art. 32). We hope that the information contained in this report will inform the pre-sessional review and urge the Committee to consider reflecting the areas of concern and suggested questions highlighted below in its list of issues to the Government of Turkmenistan.
Recommended questions to the Government of Turkmenistan:
What steps has the Government taken to eradicate forced labour and child labour in the cotton sector, including to eliminate quotas for cotton production, ensure that state employees are protected from forced mobilisation, prosecute perpetrators, and provide remedy to victims?
What steps has the Government taken to enforce all relevant legislation prohibiting child labour, including:
Whether any offences of child labour have been reported, and if so, how many?
Whether any investigations of child labour have been conducted, and if so, how many?
Whether any violations have been found or penalties/sanctions imposed under all such legislation, and if so, how many?
What measures will the Government take in advance of the 2024 harvest, to ensure that child labour is not used?
What measures has the Government taken to create the space for civil society activists, human rights defenders, and independent journalists to operate without risking harassment and detention for doing their work, including to report on conditions of child labour in the cotton harvest?
