The+Republic+of+Uzbekistan's+Position+Paper(1st+draft)

This page has been created by Maria Morente.

Committe:International Labour Organization Topic:Child Labour Country:The Republic of Uzbekistan

The term Child Labour makes reference to all the child under the age permitted by the law wich work to obtain some benefit. Child labour is applicable to many different forms: trafficking of children, prostitution, children in armed conflict, production or trafficking drugs, sexual explotation, children in agriculture, in industry or in any types of different jobs. Child labour normally occurs because of problems with education join with poverty.

Most of the cases of child labour in Uzbekistan are related with children in agriculture. Uzbekistan is one of the "Big five" (China, USA, India, Pakistan and Uzbekistan) countries producers of cotton and the 75% of the cotton produced is sold in the "world market". This crop have a little level of mechanization (on the order of 10%) and it is neccesary all the available labor to pick up the cotton in the fields during the harvest season.

The child labour is forbidden by the Uzbek Constitution and the minimum age for employment is 16 years old. Although it is fobidden, many child is still working because they think is their dutty to help their family.The child in Uzbekistan work (as I have said before) colecting cotton but also colecting silk.

The Republic of Uzbekistan is a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) since 1993 and it has accepted 13 conventions of the ILO. Since 2005 the activity of the International program of the ILO on the elimination of child labour (IPEC) is being carried out in Uzbekistan. In March 2008 Uzbekistan ratified the two ILO conventions on child labour: on minimal age of employment (nº 138), and prohibition and inmediate action for elimination of the worst forms of child labour (nº 182). The government of Uzbekistan has approved the National Action Plan (NAP) for carrying out the rules approved by the ILO (the ones related wich child labour). In December 2009 the senate of the Republic of Uzbekistan approved a law about administrative responsibility which includes norms of responsibility to companies and also parents that force their children to work.

The 70% of working children in the world can be found in the agricultural sector. In Uzbekistan, there have been estimated (by the enviromental justice foundation) that up to 200.000 children work in the cotton fields. In October 2004, a minister with the public education department admitted that at least 44.000 students were harvesting cotton. UNICEF in 2000 have estimated the 22,6% of Uzbek children aged between 5 and 14 worked in cotton harvesting.

"...Exploitation of some of the most vulnerable groups insociety, especially children, should not be allowed to happen in today's modern world" says Betty Jackson CBE, Fashion Designer.

Uzbekistan believes that the goverment must annul the use of child and all forms of force labour with children in the cotton industry. He must forbid the closure of schools with the purpose of sending children to the cotton fields and also forbid local goverments to allow high schools and universities to use students for ilegal labour practices. For this to be true the goverment of Uzbekistan should make extreme reforms in the cotton industry and also he must protect the interests of private farmers and employers as well as a agliculture men and citizens.

Bibliography: [|http://es.wikipedia.org] [] Cild labour in Europe and central Asia;Problem and response [] [] [] [|http://www.unicef.org]