Umida Niyazova

Umida Niyazova is an Uzbekistani human rights defender who fled Uzbekistan in 2008 after serving four months in prison on charges related to her human rights work. Now a German citizen, she continues to travel to Uzbekistan to document and monitor labor rights issues. Umida Niyazova is the director and founder of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, an organization in exile in Germany focusing on human rights and labor rights violations in Uzbekistan. This organization, a frontline partner of the Cotton Campaign, has been monitoring the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan since 2010, along with the impact of agricultural reforms on farmers.