An interesting article in the Guardian about the use of hi-tech tracing technology to help put pressure on Uzbekistan to stop forced child labour in the vast Uzkek post-Soviet cotton fields:

"We became aware of real problems in Uzbekistan," said Alan Wragg, Tesco’s clothing technical director. "Government-organised forced child labour literally forced kids out of school into vans. It’s awful. The fact that its industry is sponsored by the government and there’s 40% unemployed in the country makes it worse. So when we became aware of this, we told our suppliers not to use Uzbeki cotton in the supply chain."

 … new technology developed by Oxford-based firm Historic Futures now offers retailers the ability to track and trace all items that make up a garment. By uploading receipts on individual components within entire supply chains onto a secure network, retailers can accurately trace where their products come from.

Of course, as the article fairly points out it is one thing identifying a problem, quite another to get sustained substantive compliance with reasonable standards even after they are agreed by all concerned.

Still, this is how to effect change in repressive regimes if the use of force is ruled out: patient official and unofficial pressure of all shapes and sizes, plus a willingness to engage in a subtle way to offer respectable alternatives.

It just takes a very long time, with millions of lives being ruined irreparably as the wheels of change slowly turn. Part of the stunning cost of not ‘intervening’.

Here is the Historic Futures site. Interesting.