Are International institutions and governments aware enough of the situation with child labour in Uzbekistan?
In spite the practice of forced child labour continues since the Soviet period it becoming known to the international community only since last 2-3 years when Uzbek human rights activists and journalists decided to break the conspiracy of silence. The lack of international awareness of the situation in Uzbekistan gave the reason for the academics from the School of Oriental and African Studies to qualify the issue as ‘invisible to the world’ (Invisible to the World? The Dynamics of Forced Child Labour in the Cotton Sector of Uzbekistan, London, SOAS, 2008). The International Cotton Advisory Committee was forced to change its position on the issue, from ignoring it to its acknowledgement, when its leaders met in April 2008 with Uzbek activists and experts. By the middle of 2008 only two governments expressed publicly their concerns over the problem. But already in December 2008 when the Human Rights Council considered Uzbekistan according to the Universal Periodic Review 11 states, Coun
