"Amnesty International "calls on UN to ensure freedom of COP29 participants

The international human rights organization "Amnesty International" called on the UN organizers of the COP29 climate summit in November in Baku to ensure human rights guarantees in the "Agreement with the Host Country" (PHC) - the Azerbaijani authorities.

In its statement issued on July 4, the AI insists that this agreement be published immediately after signing and "potential participants could assess the risks they will face at the event." At the same time, it is indicated that despite repeated attempts, the AI has only recently received the PHC text for last year's COP28 between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Arab Emirates.

Note that this agreement had significant shortcomings and ambiguities in protecting the rights it provided to participants in Dubai. This reinforces fears that the agreement with the government of Azerbaijan will also fail to fully protect human rights and civil space at COP29 and will also not be available to the public before the summit, the AI statement further said.

"The agreement with the host country between the UNFCCC and the Azerbaijani authorities should contain guarantees that all human rights will be protected and respected both inside and outside the venue of the event. These include the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. This is especially important because the Azerbaijani authorities regularly suppress criticism and have recently intensified their crackdown on dissent by detaining journalists, human rights defenders and climate activists such as Anar Mammadli," the AI said in a statement.

The organization calls for the release of Mammadli, as well as all others unjustly detained by the authorities. The "Amnesty International" has documented how previous COP climate summits, including in Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have included restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The "Amnesty International" has also documented serious violations of these and other rights in Azerbaijan, which raises concerns about the safety of participants in this year's COP, which will be held in Baku from November 11 to 22, the AI statement emphasizes. The “Host Country Agreement” sets out the procedure for an international meeting between the organizers and the authorities of the host country, including any immunity and privileges applicable outside of national laws, and is usually finalized several months before the event.