German enterprises are said to be increasingly considering Uzbekistan as a potential market, encouraged by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the German textile sector.
The report titled ‘Human Rights Due Diligence: Assessing Risk for German Companies in Uzbekistan’s Textile Sector’ evaluates how these companies perform human rights due diligence to align with supply chain laws.
It investigates how well companies meet their due diligence responsibilities and what changes are necessary to ensure adherence to German and EU laws as well as accepted standards for responsible business practices.
Uzbek Forum for Human Rights founder and director Umida Niyazova said: “Rights violations, including Illegal land grabbing, arbitrary state interference in cotton production contracts and mandatory production quotas, reveal the lack of protections for those involved in cotton production in Uzbekistan. “
The report also warns some companies are supplying the cotton to a number of German brands via producers in Türkiye or elsewhere.
“Effective and thorough human rights due diligence is therefore key to protect brand integrity.”
With cotton production privatisation, Uzbekistan has introduced ‘cluster’ models that integrate farming, processing, and manufacturing. Yet issues such as coercive contracts, limited land tenure for farmers, and poor labour conditions are seen to remain prevalent.
These include potential forced labour during harvest due to government quotas presented as ‘forecasts,’ restrictions on unionising, land insecurity, governmental interference, and farmer exploitation.
Businesses face the expectation to undertake risk-based due diligence to identify and mitigate human rights risks in their supply chains.
Report author Ben Vanpeperstraete said: “The public communication of companies does not give confidence that they are adequately assessing or addressing risk, particularly when sourcing from Uzbekistan. Our research identified an overly broad approach to human rights due diligence, rather than a tailored approach that reflects the Uzbek context, which still poses significant risks for compliance.”
Principal observations:
– Despite reforms in Uzbekistan abolishing state-enforced systematic forced labour, residual risks persist.
– The possibility of forced labour and other human rights abuses within the Uzbek cotton industry remains considerable.
– Corporate disclosures indicate a lack of recognition of forced labour or other rights abuses as risks when sourcing from Uzbekistan; there is also an absence of information on efforts to detect, prevent, address, and rectify such issues.
