- The Uzbek government is violating the human and labor rights of cotton and wheat farmers through a coercive state production system, including penalties such as land seizure for not meeting quotas.
- Though the government has ended state-imposed forced labor of cotton pickers in the cotton harvest and has committed to broader reforms, the remaining system of strategic crop cultivation and production in Uzbekistan still creates a risk of forced labor for cotton and wheat farmers.
- The government should ensure compliance with recent laws and decrees that offer farmers better rights protections, end the quota system, and engage farmers in policy discussions around agricultural reforms.
(Berlin, February 17, 2026) – The Uzbekistan government is violating the human and labor rights of cotton and wheat farmers through a coercive state production system, Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights said in a report released today. These abuses continue despite recent agricultural reforms.
The 85-page report, “Farmers Have no Freedom: Abuse and Exploitation of Cotton and Wheat Farmers in Uzbekistan,” documents abusive conditions under which these farmers work, including mandatory quotas for crops on land they lease from the government, to be sold at centralized set prices, enforced through penalties for not meeting the quotas, even though required yields may not be achievable. Authorities use threats and violence against farmers who do not meet the quotas, and penalties may include seizing the land. Farmers face non- or late payments by cotton-textile and wheat companies, while authorities have failed to enforce court orders compelling the companies to pay.
“The Uzbekistan government needs to end the coercive and exploitative conditions in which hard-working farmers are expected to produce cotton and wheat,” said Umida Niyazova, director of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights. “Authorities should commit to agricultural reforms that offer real protections for these farmers and heed the advice of farmers themselves as to what changes are actually needed.”
The groups interviewed 75 farmers and experts across five regions of Uzbekistan. They also reviewed court materials, legislation, and other official documentation, articles in the media and social media posts, and statements by government officials between October 2023 and December 2025.
The Uzbekistan government in recent years has ended state-imposed forced labor of cotton pickers in the cotton harvest and has committed to undertake reforms of the agricultural sector more broadly. While there have been noticeable improvements, the remaining system of strategic crop cultivation and production in Uzbekistan still creates a risk of forced labor.
Uzbekistan’s agricultural system prevents cotton and wheat farmers from operating independently or having control over their working conditions, and in practice makes them subservient to the state, the organizations found.
“It is as if we have become hired workers for someone, not landowners,” said a cotton farmer from the Khorezm region.
Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum also documented that agricultural land lease agreements do not protect farmers from illegal and arbitrary land seizure by local authorities, and that local authorities regularly threaten to seize land if farmers have not fulfilled their quotas.
Farmers who have filed lawsuits to contest land seizure by the government seldom find redress in Uzbekistan courts and on the rare occasion they do, local officials fail to enforce decisions to return the land to the farmer.
“The judge does what the governor says,” said a farmer whose land had been seized. “The court cannot help in the matter of land.”
Farmers also said that private cotton-textile and wheat production companies have delayed making payments for raw cotton and wheat or have not paid farmers in full for their products, causing them to incur tax fines. In some cases, late or non-payments put them in a dire financial situation and can force them to declare bankruptcy. The authorities have in some cases failed to enforce contracts or require companies to pay farmers, even when courts have ordered them to do so.
A hostile and dehumanizing environment persists in Uzbekistan’s agricultural sector. Farmers described being slapped or beaten, or having items thrown at them during meetings with local officials. Officials have referred to farmers as “donkeys,” “scumbags,” or “pigs,” simply because they had not yet fulfilled their cotton or wheat quota. In a limited number of more extreme cases, police have arbitrarily detained farmers for up to several days without charge for not fulfilling their quotas.
Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum also documented multiple instances in which police threatened or arrested local bloggers who reported on farmers’ rights issues, with courts then handing them short-term custodial sentences.
In correspondence with Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum, the Uzbekistan government largely rejected these findings, pointing to changes in legislation and new decrees that, on paper, provide better legal protection for farmers’ rights.
Farmers in Uzbekistan have rights to just and favorable conditions of work and to freedom of association, among others, that are guaranteed by the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which Uzbekistan ratified in 1995, and International Labour Convention 87, ratified by Uzbekistan in December 2016.
The Uzbekistan government should ensure compliance with recent laws and decrees that offer farmers better rights protections, the groups said. The government should ensure that reforms truly remedy the highly abusive and exploitative labor conditions in which cotton and wheat farmers in Uzbekistan are made to work, including by ending the quota system.
The Uzbekistan government should engage farmers in policy discussions around agricultural reforms and give serious consideration to their feedback and recommendations, Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum said.
Uzbekistan’s international partners and international financial institutions working in Uzbekistan should urge the government to end arbitrary and coercive state interference in the cotton and wheat sector. The European Union, in particular, should insist that Uzbekistan fulfill its commitments stemming from the new bilateral partnership agreement signed in 2025 and the preferential market access it grants to Uzbekistan premised on the implementation of core international human and labor rights conventions.
“It’s appalling that Uzbekistan’s cotton and wheat farmers work in such exploitative and coercive production conditions,” said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Uzbekistan’s partners, international financial institutions, and potential investors in Uzbekistan’s agricultural sector should use their leverage to ensure that the Uzbek government implements reform that genuinely protects farmers and their rights.”
