Thank you

Dear "el dispreciau", This week, we met with Cotton Campaign, Anti-Slavery International and the ILRF at World Bank global HQ to present a petition asking them to suspend their loan to the Uzbek government. WATCH to see what happened:https://youtu.be/vGo02wh7MQw

Dear "el dispreciau",

Thank you for being a part of the global anti-slavery movement and standing up for the rights of the Uzbek people!

As a result, on 9 March, we stood alongside the Cotton Campaign team to hand in the 136,109 names to the World Bank in Washington DC.

Watch our video to see how it went down!

“Forcibly mobilising a million citizens for the purpose of economic development is a system which by its scale and violence is beyond comparison in the world.”
Umida Niyazova, Director of Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Although the World Bank formally condemned the use of forced labour upon receipt of our petition, it has yet to suspend its loans to Uzbekistan. However, this campaign was a crucial first step in the process and has helped get us one step closer.

Our partners are now using other methods of influence to pressure the World Bank into taking responsibility for the use of its loans in a country that relies heavily upon forced labour.

We’ll continue to monitor opportunities for you to get involved and keep you updated.

In the meantime, share our video on Facebook or Twitter.

In solidarity,

Zoe, Joanna and the whole Walk Free team