RECOMMENDATIONS FOR UZBEKISTAN:
Continue substantive ongoing actions to eliminate forced child labor during the annual cotton harvest; take substantive action to end the use of forced adult labor during the annual cotton harvest; grant independent civil society groups full, unfettered access to monitor the annual cotton harvest; investigate and, when sufficient evidence exists, prosecute officials complicit in human trafficking, respecting due process; remove language in contracts that requires college students and state employees to participate in the cotton harvest; improve procedures for identifying trafficking victims to ensure they are systematic and proactive, and efficiently refer victims to protection services; promote awareness of labor rights, including in regard to the cotton harvest, and develop a transparent process for registering and investigating violations of those rights; cease harassment of activists for documenting labor conditions; take additional steps to ensure victims are not penalized for acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking, including for illegal border crossing; continue to provide in-kind support to anti-trafficking NGOs to assist and shelter victims; and continue efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected trafficking offenders, respecting  due process.

PROSECUTION
The government demonstrated mixed law enforcement efforts;
although it made efforts to combat sex and transnational labor

trafficking, there was no similar effort to address government- compelled forced labor of adults in the cotton harvest and comprehensive enforcement of the decree prohibiting forced child labor lagged, as local officials in some districts mobilized children at the end of the harvest. Article 135 of the criminal code prohibits both forced prostitution and forced labor, and prescribes penalties of three to 12 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with punishments prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Uzbekistan’s law enforcement data are opaque and cannot be independently verified. In 2014, law enforcement agencies reported conducting 1,016 trafficking investigations, compared with 1,093 investigations in 2013. Authorities reported prosecuting 641 people and convicting 583 trafficking offenders in 2014, compared with 597 in 2013.The government reported 559 convicted offenders were sentenced to time in prison and 19 traffickers were sentenced to correctional labor, compared with 583 convicted offenders sentenced to time in prison in 2013. The government reported that of the 583 convicted and sentenced offenders, 130 subsequently received suspended sentences. In 2014, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) converted an existing law enforcement unit in Tashkent to an anti-trafficking section and increased the number of staff devoted to trafficking in each regional anti-trafficking unit.
Official complicity in human trafficking in the cotton harvest remained prevalent. Some adults who refused to pick cotton, pay for a replacement worker, or who did not fulfill their daily quotas may have been threatened with the loss of critical social benefits, termination of employment, and harassment. According to reports, some regional and local authorities applied varying amounts of pressure on government institutions, universities, and businesses to organize students, teachers, medical workers, government and military personnel, private sector employees, and local residents to pick cotton during the 2014 harvest. While there were limited reports of students who obtained exemptions from cotton harvesting by citing Uzbekistan-ratified ILO conventions, other students may have faced the threat of suspension, expulsion, or other forms of harassment by school administrators and teachers if they refused to pick cotton. State employees, including teachers and hospital workers, are bound by a clause in their collective bargaining agreement to be transferred elsewhere for up to 60 days each year and university students sign contracts requiring their participation in the harvest as a condition of school enrollment. These contracts were used to legitimize the mobilization of public sector workers and university students for the cotton harvest. In some districts and cities, local officials pressured private companies to mobilize some of their employees for the harvest with an implicit threat of increased government inspections and taxes. Police threatened and detained at least two activists attempting to document labor violations in the cotton fields.

PROTECTION
The government made efforts to identify, assist, and protect victims of sex and transnational labor trafficking, but demonstrated minimal efforts to assist victims of forced labor in the cotton harvest. In 2014, in observance of the application of the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention which Uzbekistan ratified in 1997, ILO began a survey, with government approval, on recruitment practices and working conditions in agriculture, especially the cotton sector. As the government did not openly acknowledge domestic forced labor of adults in the cotton sector, the identification of and assistance to such victims was stymied.The government reported it identified 1,208 trafficking victims in 2014, the majority of whom

were subjected to forced labor, compared with 1,392 in 2013. Of these victims, 143 were exploited within the country, while the remaining victims were Uzbekistani citizens subjected to human trafficking in other countries. NGOs and an international organization identified and assisted 847 trafficking victims in 2014, compared with 451 in 2013. NGOs stated the increase reflected improved collaboration with officials who more consistently referred victims to NGOs.
ILO had neither the mandate nor funding to monitor the 2014 harvest, but provided technical support to the government’s monitoring mission.The government conducted monitoring through the creation of eight territorial monitoring groups consisting of government officials, NGO representatives, and the Federation of Trade Unions.These groups conducted 745 interviews across 172 rural regions, including visits to 316 vocational colleges and lyceums and 395 farms. Over the course of the monitoring period, the government reported 41 cases of children picking cotton alongside their parents, as compared with 53 cases of child labor identified during the 2013 harvest. Observers similarly reported a decrease in the number of children mobilized for the 2014 harvest. However, observers also documented local officials in some districts sending entire classes of 13- to17-year-olds to pick cotton towards the end of the harvest and confirmed at least one instance where two children were required to stay out of the cotton fields on a particular day to evade the government’s monitoring.
The government did not have a systematic process to proactively identify victims from vulnerable populations, including those subjected to internal trafficking, and refer those victims to protective services. Police, consular officials, and border guards referred potential trafficking victims who were returning from abroad to NGOs for services. Government-provided rehabilitation and protection services were contingent on victims receiving official “victim” status by filing a criminal complaint with the Inter- agency Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and the MOI’s affirmative decision to open an investigation into the case. Victims who cooperated with law enforcement were allowed to receive security, including escorts to and from trials, under the anti-trafficking law. NGOs reported officials were increasingly complying with legal requirements to maintain victim confidentiality.
The government continued to fund a trafficking rehabilitation center for men, women, and children, which assisted 369 victims in 2014; it included a 30-bed shelter and provided medical, psychological, legal, and job placement assistance. Victims could discharge themselves from the shelter. To remain at the shelter, however, victims had to obey rules, such as obtaining permission to leave, and adhere to a curfew. The government provided funding to local NGOs to conduct vocational trainings and provide health services for victims, in addition to tax benefits and the use of government-owned land.Victims were eligible for medical assistance from the government; in 2014, 898 victims received medical examinations and follow-up care. Uzbekistan’s diplomatic missions abroad helped repatriate 368 victims.While there were reports of potential transnational sex and labor trafficking victims facing criminal penalty of a substantial fine or imprisonment for illegally crossing the border, once victims were formally recognized as such, the law exempted them from prosecution for acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking. When such victims were nonetheless charged, NGOs reported success in having the charges dropped.