Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 27 January, the National Commission on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Forced Labor, together with the International Labor Organization, organized a round table in the form of video conferencing on the topic “Towards sustainable development through decent work”.

It was attended by members of the National Commission on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Forced Labor, a delegation of the International Labor Organization headed by the Assistant Director General - Director of the ILO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, UN project leaders in Uzbekistan, representatives of the Asian Development Bank in Uzbekistan, ambassadors USA, Germany, Switzerland and Russia in Uzbekistan.

At the opening of the event, the Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis T. Narbayeva, Deputy Director General of the International Labor Organization H. Koller and heads of relevant ministries and departments made speeches.

During the round table, the work carried out within the framework of national employment programs aimed at ensuring employment of the population in Uzbekistan, creating stable and decent jobs, priority tasks for the future, issues of protecting labor rights, creating decent and safe working conditions for workers, and also the institutional development of the State Labor Inspectorate.

In addition, the emphasis is placed on the work done to strengthen social protection of the population by ensuring their employment in a pandemic and in this regard, the comprehensive protection of the rights and interests of seasonal workers, as well as on tasks for the future.

During the event, the participants were informed about the systematic work carried out in the country on social protection of the population in the context of a pandemic, the study and elimination of their problems, the measures taken for sustainable economic development.

Moreover, the measures taken to ensure the employment of the population, the organization of stable jobs, the creation of decent and safe working conditions, the diversification of the agricultural sector, the development of the private sector, and the widespread introduction of the principles of a market economy in all spheres of the economy were especially noted.

At the same time, they also discussed the effectiveness of measures taken to prevent child and forced labor in Uzbekistan, as well as the results of the “Third Party Monitoring” conducted by the ILO in the cotton harvest of 2020.

The experts of the International Labor Organization emphasized that they fundamentally adhere to their conclusions that in Uzbekistan there was no systematic child labor at all during the cotton harvest in 2020, significant results were achieved in the eradication of forced labor, there were no cases of systematic involvement of citizens in forced labor.

It was noted that the strong political will of the head of state, the decisive measures taken to eradicate child and forced labor, the modernization of the agricultural sector, and the cancellation of the state order for cotton played an important role in achieving these results.

At the same time, attention was paid to the increase in the size of payment for the harvested cotton, a significant improvement in working and rest conditions, which became one of the main factors.

At the same time, the international community, in particular representatives of the World Bank, the European Union, the International Cotton Campaign, the international public organization Human Rights Watch, the ambassadors of the United States, Germany and Switzerland in Uzbekistan highly appreciated the work carried out in our country in 2020 year to prevent forced labor, eradicate all forms of its manifestation, create decent and safe working conditions for workers.

During the "round table" proposals and recommendations were made for further improvement of activities in this direction along with the work carried out and the results achieved in the country.

In order to completely eradicate child and forced labor, an agreement was reached on the development of appropriate measures to continue close cooperation with the International Labor Organization and relevant international organizations, embassies of foreign states in Uzbekistan, to implement in practice the proposals and recommendations expressed during the round table.

An agreement was reached to continue, together with the International Labor Organization, monitoring work to prevent child and forced labor in the field of cotton growing, to establish monitoring in other spheres of the economy from 2021 through the wide involvement of representatives of civil society institutions, non-governmental non-profit organizations.