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	Daewoo: help end Uzbek cotton slavery by Walk Free & agencies Uzbekistan   TELL DAEWOO TO STOP OPERATIONS IN UZBEKISTAN. FORCED LABOUR IS UNACCEPTABLE.   You may have heard of Daewoo cars or electronics but did you know that Daewoo is the largest processor of slave labour picked Uzbek cotton?   In Uzbekistan every year over a million children and adults are forced into the cotton fields by their government to meet daily picking quotas during the harvest season.   Doctors are dragged from their hospitals. Some colleges stand empty as teachers and students are forced to work the fields.   In Uzbekistan’s last cotton harvest, eleven citizens forced to pick cotton lost their lives. The tragic losses included Tursunali Sadikov, a 63-year-old farmer who died of a heart attack after being beaten by an official of the Department of Internal Affairs, and Amirbek Rakhmatov, a six-year-old schoolboy who accompanied his mother to the cotton fields, napped in a trailer, and suffocated when cotton was loaded on top of him.   Daewoo has continued doing business in Uzbekistan even after publicly acknowledging that the Uzbek government uses forced labour to produce the cotton it buys and processes.   The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan is one of the largest producers of cotton globally. While the Uzbek authorities and companies like Daewoo continue to rake in the profits from the cotton trade, children and adults subjected to this state­-orchestrated system of modern slavery miss out on education or their wages, and many citizens are threatened and beaten.   Well over 100 apparel companies from all over the world have taken a stand and pledged not to buy Uzbek cotton, to push the Uzbek government to end its slave labour system.   Whilst these companies are sending a strong message, Daewoo continues to do direct business with the government of Uzbekistan, undermining the commitments undertaken by well­-known retailers. In return, Daewoo benefits from a discounted price for Uzbek cotton and tax incentives from the Uzbek government.   Call on Daewoo to send a strong message to the Uzbek government that forced labour cannot continue by: stopping operations in Uzbekistan until the International Labour Organization has verified this practice has ended.   Publicly pledging its opposition to the Uzbek government’s forced labour system.   http://www.walkfree.org/daewoo-cotton/ http://www.laborrights.org/news/ilrf-testifies-about-human-trafficking-uzbekistan Visit the related web page
	Is it really a happy World Culture Day? by Article 19, Index on Censorship, agencies   21 May, 2014 (Article 19)   Since 2008, we"ve been actively monitoring violations of the right to freedom of artistic expression, and for many artists and culture workers this World Culture Day is certainly not a happy one.   Like all forms of expression, the right to paint or act or joke is not absolute and can be restricted to protect other rights, such as privacy, reputation, national security, public health and so forth.   However, given that unlike a newspaper or a protest, art makes little claim on truth, logically speaking, you"d assume that right-minded folk wouldn"t try so hard to shut artists up.   Well, no actually, you"d be wrong.   While not necessary claiming "truth", arts powerful position and value across society is frequently at the vanguard of political, social and cultural change, spearheading innovation and challenging existing power structures. It is in the nature of many forms of art to investigate, to play with and to critique. When doing so, artists shine a light on a person, an idea, an act, a tradition or a belief that others may not wish to be observed or questioned.   As such, artists have routinely been perceived as subversive, immoral, or revolutionary threats to traditional power.   Usually by those who want the arts to be some kind of cuddly, pretty decoration for increasing tourism, and who try desperately hard to censor.   Our six years of monitoring shows that all art forms face illegitimate interferences and censorship, including mediums from film to theatre, music to satire, painting to sculpture.   The state remains the most common perpetrator of illegitimate interferences and violation of the right to freedom of artistic expression. Perpetrators often claim to be offended or insulted.   The grounds for interference in artistic expression are overwhelmingly the protection of a set of traditional conservative values and the preservation of political power and the status quo.   Artists are regularly harassed for their expression. They are arrested, detained and investigated. Their funding is cut, they are fined and they end up in prison.   Artists also receive threats of violence, are attacked, forced into exile, denied permission to leave, and sometimes killed.   So when celebrating this World Culture Day - and we hope you do - spare a thought for those artists and cultural workers who aren"t having such a great day.   http://www.indexoncensorship.org/ http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37539/en/joint-declaration-on-universality-and-the-right-to-freedom-of-expression   * The Elders: Debate highlights - how do you speak truth to power: http://www.theelders.org/article/debate-highlights-how-do-you-speak-truth-power Visit the related web page
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