The Government of Turkmenistan and the ILO signed Amendment to the MOU of 2023

The Government of Turkmenistan and the International Labour Organization (ILO) signed Amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Turkmenistan and the ILO concerning the observance of working conditions during the cotton harvest in Turkmenistan in 2023.

According to the document, the obligations of the parties set out in the mentioned above MOU will be valid in the current year 2024. Thus, the parties will continue to work together to improve working conditions and strengthen measures to prevent forced and child labour in cotton harvesting.

On the basis of this document, ILO observer missions in Turkmenistan will also begin in the second half of August this year.

It is important to note that over the past few years Turkmenistan and the ILO have been actively cooperating on the effective implementation of international labour instruments to which our country has acceded.

The parties have adopted a positive practice of developing Roadmaps for achieving the necessary results. In particular, a Roadmap of measures for cooperation between the Government of Turkmenistan and the ILO for the period 2024-2025 is currently being implemented.

As part of this Roadmap, in addition to ongoing activities, earlier in July the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Turkmenistan amended the list of jobs, professions and positions with harmful and hazardous (especially harmful and especially hazardous) working conditions in which persons under 18 years of age not allowed to be employed. In particular, the positions of "cotton grower" and "cotton picker" were added to the list.

In the framework of the same Roadmap, from June 2024, an active phase of negotiations, seminars and trainings began, aimed at representatives of local authorities, social partners, ordinary residents of the country and focused on raising public awareness to prevent the mobilisation and involvement of child labour in the cotton harvesting process.

All this activity is a vivid example and evidence of Turkmenistan's commitment to its international obligations, not only in the field of labour, but also in terms of ensuring basic human rights, as well as the readiness and openness of our country to follow-up processes to achieve better results.