The Child Labor Photographs Gymboree Doesn't Want You to See

Children's clothing store Gymboree has lots of cute Halloween costumes for sale this week, but the cotton in those costumes may be harvested under conditions worthy of a horror movie. Almost 2,000 Change.org readers have already taken action to tell Gymboree and Abercrombie & Fitch to join the many other major clothing companies that have spoken out against the widespread forced labor of children in Uzbekistan's cotton industry.  Abercombie & Fitch has since responded stating they have a policy not to source cotton from Uzbekistan because of these egregious human rights abuses. But Gymboree remains scarily unmoved.

Even as many of you joined a national call-in day to Gymboree two weeks ago, the company remained silent on this critical issue. Many of you have also used Twitter to spread the word and communicated your concern on Gymboree's Facebook page. Recently, the International Labor Rights Forum posted photographs of children working in Uzbekistan's cotton fields during the current cotton harvest on Gymboree's Facebook wall, so that the company could actually see some of the faces of the millions of children forced to leave school and work in the fields. Unfortunately, Gymboree swiftly removed the photographs and swept the reality faced by these children under the rug, while continuing its silence on the abuse. The photograph featured in this post is among those removed by Gymboree, and you can view more of them online here.

Will you let Gymboree pretend it can just delete this abuse with the click of a computer button? Or do you want the company to take action by publicly opposing forced child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton industry and instituting a policy to stop sourcing Uzbek cotton until the government ends this abuse? If you answered yes to the latter, make sure to send a message to Gymboree here and recruit your friends to join.

Every day, new reports emerge from Uzbekistan of how children continue to be forced to pick cotton. You can read many of these updates on the website of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. Additionally, it's important to remember that adults are also forced to work by the Uzbek government. Teachers are held accountable for ensuring that their students meet cotton production quotas under the threat — or actual use of — violence. Even military units, women on maternity leave, the elderly and a soccer team have been mobilized by the government to pick cotton.

This abuse should not exist in 2010 and no company should stand idly by as it continues.

Photo credit: Uzbek-German Human Rights Forum (with permission)