Event ends: September 15, 2011 – 1:00 pm
Tell Gulnara Karimova: Forced Child Labor is Out of Style!
*RSVP ONLINE HERE! [1]Check back soon for more details and updates!*
Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, is presenting her fashion line, GULI, at New York Fashion Week. Join us outside her show to send a message that forced child labor is out of style!
Every year, the government of Uzbekistan removes up to two million children from schools across the country and forces them to pick cotton. This widely documented, abusive state policy enriches a cadre of elites, including the Karimov family, and fuels a regime characterized as “an authoritarian state” [2] by the U.S. Department of State. Uzbekistan is one of the largest cotton producing countries in the world and cotton harvested there by forced child labor finds its way into the U.S. garment industry.
Join us in telling Gulnara Karimova, who prides herself on using Uzbek textiles, that we won’t let children become fashion victims. Come to a rally on the streets outside her fashion show, where young New Yorkers will put on their own fashion show, walking the runway to urge justice for their peers in Uzbekistan.
RSVP ONLINE HERE! [1] We're also on Facebook here [3]!
Keep checking for updates! For more background, please visit the International Labor Rights Forum's cotton page [4].
Cotton and Child Labor
Cotton Billboard in Uzbekistan
Cotton Field in Uzbekistan
Cottonseed in India
Children loading cotton into a truck in Uzbekistan