Despite the fact that on May 15, 1997 Turkmenistan signed and ratified the ILO Convention #105, which prohibits forced labor, and Convention #29 on forced labor, every year tens of thousands of residents of Turkmenistan are forced to harvest cotton. In so doing Turkmenistan is violating the responsibilities taken on by joining the ILO and violating its own labor law, chapter 8 of which defines forced labor as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

Dear Senators Mitchell and Snowe:

In the last eight years, more than 1,800 garment workers have been killed in preventable factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh. They have died because global apparel brands have demanded clothing to be manufactured at the lowest prices in the world, and because the government and industry have ignored safety standards to keep down costs.