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| Slave Nation: report from the Environmental Justice Foundation 2010 |
On February 22, 2010, the Environmental Justice Foundation published a new report entitled «Slave Nation» on the continuing practice of forced child labour in Uzbekistan, and the ongoing deception on part of the government of Uzbekistan with regard to this practice. Although this report is extremely valuable and praiseworthy in terms of its content, we consider its title to be highly inappropriate, and indeed an insult to the Uzbek nation. We hereby request, and indeed insist, that the title be changed and that EJF apologize for the poor judgement shown in the original title.
EJF has done a great deal of work to protect of the rights of Uzbek children, who are being cruelly exploited by the Uzbek authorities through the cotton campaign. The awful effects of forced child labor led a group of Uzbek activists to start a campaign «For the Abolition of Forced Child Labour in Uzbekistan». This campaign has received a great deal of publicity and outreach and has been supported by thousands of Uzbek citizens.
We are grateful to all those who have supported our calls to stop forced child labour in Uzbekistan, and for the work that EJF has done and continues to do in this regard. But we hope that EJF will act as we have suggested in order to show its respect to the feelings of Uzbek people.
On behalf of the Coalition:
Nadejda AtayevaPresident of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asie
Centre MBE 140, 16, rue de Docteur Leroy, 72000 LE MANS FRANCE Tel.: +33613414070; Fax: + 33243396640; E-mail: asiecentrale@neuf.fr
Shahida Tulaganova
Director, Uzbekistan Initiative London
76, Wellington Court, Wellington Road, London NW8 9TD, UK
Tel.: +447809545909; E-mail: uil@uzbekistaninitiative.com
Jodgor Obid
Project officer of the Association Petition pour l'Asie Centrale
Tel.:+43131682269; E-mail: jodgor.obid@gmx.at
