Mr. Speaker, Elena Urlaeva has fought against state enforced labour in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan for nearly 26 years. Every autumn, over a million Uzbek citizens are forced by their own government to leave their regular jobs and go to the fields to pick cotton, a large portion of which ends up in global supply chains and in our linen closets.
After all these years, Uzbekistan is finally changing course on this practice, mostly due to Elena's brave efforts. Elena has received multiple death threats, has been beaten, locked up, and confined to psychiatric hospitals. Still she continued to protest outside of court rooms and continued to take her camera into the fields to document abuses.
Elena is one example of the incredible bravery that inspires human rights defenders all over the world. Their sacrifices continue to bring about profound change. On this International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, I celebrate the achievements of such remarkable women.