"Criticisms and calls regarding the country will continue even in the post-COP29 period"

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which began in Baku on November 11, is ongoing and will continue until November 22. During this time, international organizations have continued their calls to Azerbaijan regarding human rights issues.

On November 6, 17 international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, issued a call to EU leaders participating in COP29. In their joint statement, they urged EU leaders to directly discuss the issue of politically motivated imprisonments with Azerbaijani authorities and to ensure the release of detainees.

The International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (ICDR) and the Forum 2000 Foundation have also drawn attention to the worsening human rights situation in Azerbaijan during the COP29 climate summit. On November 14, the German Bundestag held discussions on human rights in Azerbaijan and the COP29 summit in Baku. Following the debates, MPs called on the authorities to release political prisoners, including Gubad Ibadoglu, Anar Mammadli, Samir Ashurov, and others.

On November 19, as part of COP29, debates were held on the topic “Climate Justice is Impossible Without Civic Space and Meaningful Participation.” The event was organized by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and several other international human rights organizations. Additionally, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty, called on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to release human rights defenders, journalists, and activists. The letter was published on the Council of Europe’s official website on November 18.

A coalition of 159 professors and lecturers from 100 universities across 28 countries also addressed a letter to Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources and COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev, urging the release of economist and scholar Gubad Ibadoglu.

These are just some of the calls regarding human rights that have been directed toward Azerbaijan during the COP29 event in Baku.

Fuad Hasanov, a member of the Global Council for Eurasia of the Publish What You Pay International Organization, chairman of the Democracy Monitor Public Union, and former UN Development Program senior specialist, spoke to ASTNA about these calls.

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Question: Mr. Hasanov, international organizations have intensified their calls regarding human rights in Azerbaijan during COP29. Do you think it is appropriate to highlight this issue during this period?

Answer: Mr. Kamran, any region hosting a global event naturally becomes the center of international attention, and this is entirely normal. During such events, the situation in the host country is subjected to a multi-faceted global examination, including legal, political, economic, and cultural dimensions. In countries with severe human rights issues, where international calls have not been effective, and diplomatic efforts have failed, such large-scale events often serve as result-oriented advocacy platforms, testing various tools and mechanisms. This becomes especially relevant in periods when domestic advocacy platforms are critically diminished, civic spaces are severely narrowed, civil society institutions are marginalized, and effective civil society-government dialogue is lacking.

Question: But COP29 is a climate conference, not a human rights conference. Azerbaijan is hosting this climate conference. Isn’t leveraging the event to pressure Baku on human rights akin to “attacking with one hand while shaking hands with the other”?

Answer: Politically motivated human rights problems first and foremost affect our citizens. Their existence contradicts Azerbaijan’s commitments to international organizations, obligations that serve the common good and contribute to a sustainable positive image for the country. Azerbaijan’s refusal to engage in necessary cooperation within international platforms, its poor ranking in implementing European Court of Human Rights rulings, and its failure to address legislative and operational barriers faced by civil society—along with the lack of political will to resolve the political prisoner issue—are significant obstacles to improving the country’s image. These issues have rightfully placed Azerbaijan under continuous international scrutiny and complex monitoring, given its ambition to play a key role in ensuring regional and global energy security and sustainable peace in the region.

Question: When it was decided that COP29 would be held in Azerbaijan, the country already had issues with political prisoners, human rights, and political arrests. Why did Western countries agree to host the event in Azerbaijan?

Answer: Decisions are not always made from among the best options. Often, it is necessary to choose the relatively better option among many flawed ones, or sometimes there are no alternatives at all. The methodology and mechanisms for making such decisions can also be flawed. According to UN rules, each COP session must be hosted by a country from a specific region on a rotational basis, and this time COP29 had to be held in an Eastern European country. However, Russia blocked EU countries, while Azerbaijan and Armenia blocked each other. To prevent the process from reaching a crisis, Armenia withdrew its bid and supported Azerbaijan’s candidacy. As a result, COP29 was unanimously decided to be held in Baku.

Though the reasons for Armenia’s withdrawal were not fully clarified, it was suggested that this step could help rebuild trust between the two long-conflicted neighbors and contribute to the signing of a future peace agreement. This factor likely played a role. Moreover, Azerbaijan’s previous experience hosting global events and its available resources positioned the country as a viable candidate. Consequently, countries that typically criticize Azerbaijan on international platforms did not obstruct this process. It was also hoped that hosting such an event might create new opportunities for dialogue and resolving serious issues.

Question: Official Baku, in response to these claims, argues that there are no political prisoners in Azerbaijan and that criticisms regarding human rights stem merely from a lack of information.

Answer: The existence of political prisoners in Azerbaijan was already acknowledged during the negotiations for the country’s accession to the Council of Europe in 2001. For a long time, effective cooperation between the parties resulted in a gradual reduction in the number of political prisoners based on an agreed list, and this created some hope for a comprehensive resolution of the issue. However, the quality of effective cooperation has diminished over time, and eventually, dialogue-based collaboration has reached an impasse, leading to a crisis phase. Numerous credible international organizations confirm the existence of a significant number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan based on established criteria and express solidarity with the Council of Europe on this matter. This history explains Baku's insistence on claiming that "there are no political prisoners." In the global digital age, asserting a lack of information on such a critical topic is not a credible approach.

Question: Highlighting human rights issues casts a shadow over the organization and execution of such events, distracting from their purpose. It does not serve the objectives of the Azerbaijani government. What can be done to ensure that Azerbaijan is remembered as a host country for this event rather than as a country with human rights issues?

Answer: Undoubtedly, the state of human rights in a host country of such large-scale events gives the impression that important values are not upheld. Since human rights issues in Azerbaijan have been consistently discussed around the COP29 event, and significant expected steps were not taken during this period, criticisms and calls regarding the country will persist even after the event concludes. Unless these known problems are addressed systematically, hosting global events will continue to expose Azerbaijan to sharp criticism. What is necessary for a meaningful change in the status quo is political will, which depends on several factors. Hope dies last; efforts for discussion, dialogue, and calls for change must continue.