Following Cotton Campaign’s directives to verify whether World Bank’s cotton cultivation projects in Uzbekistan are contributing to child labour, Inspection Panel – World Bank’s internal watchdog is expected to release results of the verification today. In response to a complaint from independent Uzbek groups in 2013, the Inspection Panel found that “as long as Bank financing is supporting in some measure cotton production and there is a residual possibility that there can be child/forced labour on farms receiving project support (since they do not allegedly have a choice of whether to accept child or forced labour), then it is plausible that the [Rural Enterprise Support] Project can contribute to perpetuating the harm of child and forced labour.” Globally, human rights activist opine that World Bank’s proposals fall short in Uzbekistan, where forced labour in the cotton sector is uniquely Government-orchestrated and supported by repressing independent groups.
