Forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton sector needs to be tackled fast.
If Uzbekistan is to bring about real change on forced labor, it will need to establish irreversible operational changes and structural reforms at the earliest available juncture.

Despite rhetoric from leaders in Uzbekistan calling for an end to forced labor in the nation’s agricultural sector, there is still a long way to go before the Uzbek cotton industry will be free from slavery.

There has to be an end to the practice of mobilisation of education and healthcare workers to harvest cotton.

Channels have to be established to receive and react – transparently and with accountability – information and data from civil society monitors.

A time-bound roadmap has to be developed to reform and remove structural features of forced labor in the cotton sector and end the imposition of labor and production quotas on public institutions.

A roadmap has to be published– in print and online –to protect citizens from forced labor through measurable milestones for progress, sufficient resources for implementation, transparent processes for receiving and reporting on feedback from independent monitors.

The United States has banned imports of Turkmenistan cotton due to the prevalence of forced labor in its production.