Publications

Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan: A Workers’ Organization Or Instrument to Control Workers?

Publication Date: 

November 28, 2017

For decades, International human rights groups, the United Nations, including the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO), have gravely condemned Uzbekistan for its use of state-orchestrated child and forced labor particularly in—but by no means limited to—Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. Nevertheless, though each year independent monitors report a growing number of adults forcibly recruited to work as cotton pickers, and though other forced adult labor flourishes throughout Uzbekistan (e.g.

The Human Cost of Conflict Palm Oil Revisited

Publication Date: 

November 27, 2017

Increasingly, the exploitation of workers has been at the center of controversies in the palm oil industry. In 2015, forced labor and human trafficking on the plantations of one of Malaysia’s biggest palm oil companies, Felda Global Ventures, made front page news in the Wall Street Journal, showing that global brands are buying Conflict Palm Oil produced by forced labor.

Stop Trafficking by Sea Data Development Workshop Report

Publication Date: 

October 12, 2017

On 12 and 13 October 2016, the International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF) convened a diverse group of experts in technology, human trafficking, labor rights, seafood supply chains, vessel monitoring, and other relevant fields at a workshop in Bangkok. The purpose of the two-day workshop was to explore the applicability of satellite-based vessel tracking technology, in combination with newly available and emerging data about fishing crews, to assess and mitigate risks of human trafficking on fishing vessels.

Birthday card for Gaspar Matalaev

Publication Date: 

June 14, 2017

Gaspar Matalaev, a human rights defender in Turkmenistan, will mark his 35th birthday on June 15 from prison, where he has been since shortly after he was arrested on October 4, 2016. The arrest came two days after Gaspar had posted an article and pictures documenting the Turkmen government's forced mobilization of citizens to harvest cotton, an annual obligation in the repressive Central Asian nation.

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