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Somebody Knows is a report that explains how retailers can investigate their supply chain, tracing the production of their goods from raw materials to finished products, enabling them to eliminate cotton from environmentally or socially unacceptable practices – such as cotton from Uzbekistan.

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.

In collaboration with the Pesticide Action Network UK this report reveals the routine use of harmful chemicals, including nerve agents and neurotoxins, on cotton crops.

Vomiting, paralysis, incontinence, coma, seizures and death are some of the many side effects suffered by farmers and children in the developing world who are routinely exposed to pesticides, many of which are banned or restricted in use in the West. The report puts a case across for organic cotton alternatives.

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.