LONDON - A landmark legal judgement due in London next week could prevent cotton from Uzbekistan from entering the UK - and potentially the entire European Union - over fears it is planted and harvested with the aid of slave labour.
The Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF) and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) are behind the case, at London’s Administrative Court, which they hope will be referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg where any ruling would be legally binding across the EU.
The case argues that imports of Uzbek cotton are unlawful because the EU has offered preferential tariffs without investigating the country’s compliance of human rights. Uzbekistan has faced criticism over the enforced use of hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks as unpaid labourers in its lucrative cotton industry.
