Rights groups urge the UN to ensure that future climate summits are held in countries that respect human rights and allow for peaceful assembly and free speech.
This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 13 August 2024.
Open letter to the secretariat for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn, Germany
13 August 2024
Re: Call to stop hosting Conference of Parties (COP) annual climate summits in authoritarian countries
We write as a global coalition of non-governmental organisations to protest the continuous awarding of repressive governments with hosting privileges of United Nations conferences. For example, Azerbaijan was awarded hosting privileges of the UN Conference of Parties (COP) climate change summit in November 2024, which has resulted in the use of the government’s state security apparatus to suppress and close civic space in the country. Such crackdowns on civil society have undoubtedly undermined campaigns tailored towards the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms in regions or countries where UN conferences are held.
From Egypt during COP27 to the UAE during COP28, civic space has shrunk in countries where the COP is held, particularly those which are oil-producing autocratic countries. Similarly, the hosting of the COP29 in Baku has already resulted in hundreds of arrests of human rights activists and journalists in Azerbaijan. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat must ensure that all COP hosts comply with international human rights law and do not use the COP as a pretext to censor and crack down civil society activism and advocacy.
Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that “The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognised,” which is considered a fundamental human right. This right includes a corresponding obligation on States to respect and ensure its exercise without discrimination, requiring states to refrain from unwarranted interference and to protect the participants. Azerbaijan ratified the ICCPR and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Subsidiary Body on Implementation highlights the need of the UNFCCC sessions and mandated events to be convened in places where human rights and fundamental freedoms are promoted and protected, and where all participants are effectively protected against any violations or abuses. Therefore, the human rights record in Azerbaijan raises significant concerns amongst both local and international civil society.
Given the fact that for several years, Azerbaijani journalists and CSOs have already been facing severe restrictions, such as stringent requirements for media registration, and restrictions on foreign funding for NGOs, the rights to freedom of expression and association have been majorly hindered. The dynamics of intensified repressive measures, combined with physical and economic threats, make it nearly impossible for media and CSOs to conduct their work independently and without fear of persecution.
Yet, upon gaining the COP Presidency Status, the government of Azerbaijan has launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent media and civil society activists in the country. As of July 2024, the list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan amounts to at least 306 individuals.
The most recent arrests of former Azerbaijani diplomat Emin Ibrahimov and a young Talysh scientist-ethnographer, Iqbal Abilov, who was arrested on 22 July 2024, have raised significant international concern regarding the human rights situation in Azerbaijan prior to COP29.
Moreover, the Azerbaijani government uses overly restrictive measures for its detainees: the life and health of Famil Khalilov, a disabled human rights activist and blogger, is at stake, while he is in detention on bogus charges of drug smuggling. Another alarming case is of economist Fasil Gasimov, who has began a hunger strike on 14 June 2024, severely damaging his health to protest against unjustified criminal prosecution and torture.
According to Amnesty International, on 29 April 2024, prominent human rights defender Anar Mammadli, Head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre and co-founder of the Climate of Justice Initiative in Azerbaijan, was arrested.
Previous hosts in the past two years have also not respected human rights. In December 2023, while hosting the COP28 in Dubai, Emirati authorities brought charges against at least 84 defendants in retaliation for forming an independent advocacy group in 2010, many of whom had already been serving prison sentences for the same or similar offenses. The unfair mass trial of the “UAE84” was marred by serious due process and fair trial violations, including restricted access to case material and information, limited legal assistance, judges directing witness testimony, violations of the principle of double jeopardy, credible allegations of serious abuse and ill-treatment, and hearings shrouded in secrecy. On 10 July, the court convicted at least 44 defendants in the mass trial and meted out sentences ranging from between 15 years to life in prison in the UAE’s second largest unfair mass trial.
The previous year in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, NGOs and UN Experts complained that climate activists and members of civil society “were subjected to intimidation, harassment and surveillance during the COP27” in November 2022.
Climate change activists have complained that thousands of lobbyists for oil companies have attended the COPs in recent years, while activists have been very limited in their ability to protest. The UN can only guarantee the right to protest inside the venue of COPs, and not outside, which led to extremely limited protests related to climate change and human rights in both Egypt and UAE, where protests are illegal. Human Rights Watch reported that in the UAE “Advocacy actions and protests within the UN-run “blue zone” were also severely limited, with unprecedented restrictions on freedom of speech from the UNFCCC Secretariat.” For example, an action with photos of imprisoned Emirati human rights defenders was delayed repeatedly, and only allowed to take place with severe restrictions.
We call on the UNFCCC to make the host agreements for future COPs public and ensure they comply with international human rights law, including by protecting the rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
