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Striking a blow against child slavery

On Thursday (15th December 2011) MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) will have an excellent opportunity to strike a blow against child slavery.  There will be a vote in the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg on the International Trade Committee (INTA) Report on the ‘EC - Uzbekistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)’, which could have far reaching implications for present-day child slavery in Uzbekistan.
 
The trade in textiles between the European Union (EU) and Uzbekistan has until now been a separate agreement than the broader Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. As the textile agreement has expired, the Commission has proposed incorporating an agreement in textiles into the existing PCA. Because of the increased democratic powers given to the European Parliament by the Lisbon Treaty this change to an international agreement needs EP consent For that reason it was recently sent to the Parliament by the Council for a decision.
 
Before the transition to a market economy, when Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union, two thirds of the cotton was harvested by machines, since the transition to capitalism that figure has dropped to 10%.  Most of the harvest is now gathered by hand, by children.
 
Organisation working and campaigning against enforced child labour have calculated that there could be as many as 2 million children forced to work in the fields of Uzbekistan.
 
As the Labour spokesperson on International Trade, and because of the serious situation of forced child labour in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan (which has been raised with me by constituents and Fair Trade Organisation in Scotland) I advised my colleagues at the Committee stage to withhold consent until the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has confirmed that a serious attempt to tackle child labour is being implemented.
 
I will give that same advice to the full plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg tomorrow and hope that, at this time of goodwill to all, my colleagues – even those on the Right – will back this move and delay the consent vote until we have substantial assurance that ILO rules are being implemented.