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EJF is working with our partners to secure a legally-binding, international protocol that can fill the existing gaps in legislation and ensure that the refugee support system evolves within the context of our changing world. This new legal instrument would recognize people displaced by deteriorating environmental conditions associated with climate change as a vulnerable social group, and confer them equivalent but legally distinct protection to that conferred to refugees fleeing persecution under the 1951 Geneva Convention. This briefing outlines specific recommendations for the EU, including the need to systemically link aid and development, environment and migration policies and decision-making.

EJF's report White Gold: Uzbekistan, Slave Nation for Our Cotton? summarises information provided by independent journalists and human rights activists on the conditions under which the Uzbek cotton industry operates, and produces evidence of young children picking cotton at the behest of the authoritarian Uzbek government.

The report reveals the widespread use of state-sponsored forced child labour in the cotton fields of the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, the world’s 3rd largest cotton exporter and a major supplier to both European traders and ultimately, the EU marketplace.

Its release coincides with the tenth anniversary of the landmark International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

This Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) report reveals how children in some of the world’s largest cotton-producing countries are serving as underpaid, free or forced labourers to feed the global demand for textiles.

China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Turkey – six of the world’s top seven cotton producers – have been reported to use child labour in their cotton fields. In India, where as much as 70% of the country’s estimated 100 million child labourers work in agriculture, several hundred thousand children – mostly girls – sacrifice their education and health to produce hybrid cottonseed for a thriving industry.

Briefing researched, written and published by the Indonesian organisation JALA (in cooperation with EJF) - the Advocacy Network for North Sumatra Fisherfolk, documenting the social and environmental impacts of illegal trawling in North Sumatra.

This report report from 2007 documents the link between IUU fishing and the EU through tracking illegally-caught fish from West Africa into the European market.

'Illegal Driftnetting in the Mediterranean' documents how driftnets, although banned by both the EU and the ICCAT since 2002 and 2003, continue to be used illegally across the region to catch valuable large species, mainly swordfish and tuna. There are estimated to be up to 600 illegal driftnet vessels operating in the Mediterranean, including many EU-flagged vessels. EJF is calling on the European Union, and all States involved, to meet their legal responsibilities with firm and decisive action.