Child labor around the globe deprives children of the opportunity to receive an education. Nowhere is this more evident than in Uzbekistan, where the government actually uses the educational system to force children into the cotton industry during the harvesting season.

Human rights organizations, labor unions, and businesses around the world have refused to stand silently by. Join with them and let your voice be heard. Watch video and read about the rally held Oct 14 at the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington, D.C. Names collected from a recent petition were printed on a cotton quilt and displayed at the protest.

In September, AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, strongly urging her to use her position to impress upon the Uzbekistan government that their child labor practices are unacceptable.

Every year, Uzbek state officials order an estimated 2.4 million children (who may be as young as 10 years old) to leave school for two months and harvest cotton. About two-thirds of the schools in the country are forced to participate in this system. Resistance is not tolerated by the government, which has threatened to withhold the welfare benefits and utility services of parents who protest their children’s situation.

The children are led to the fields by their teachers every day (including weekends), where both students and educators are required to pick cotton for 10 hours without compensation. The work is dangerous, especially due to the lack of safety precautions and supervision, and sometimes results in injuries and deaths among the child laborers. School administrators use both public shaming and physical abuse to force the children to meet their daily quotas, which may be as much as 130 pounds (60 kilograms) of cotton. In one case, these techniques led to a child’s suicide. The children are not even afforded decent living conditions; sanitation, health and nutrition concerns are largely ignored.