HRW: Agreement with Host Country of COP29 Does Not Guarantee Human Rights Protection
HRW: Agreement with Host Country of COP29 Does Not Guarantee Human Rights Protection
In a case that is disappointing but not surprising, the agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for hosting the climate conference COP29, is replete with significant shortcomings and ambiguities on the protections for participants’ rights. Human Rights Watch has obtained a copy of this host country agreement, signed in August 2024, which has yet to be made public.
For instance, the agreement states that while conference participants “shall enjoy immunity for legal process in respect of words spoken or written and any act performed by them,” a separate clause requires them to respect Azerbaijani laws and not interfere in its “internal affairs.”
There is no clarity in the agreement about what actions could constitute “interference” with Azerbaijan’s “internal affairs,” and whether Azerbaijan’s laws apply in the UN-run conference zone. Given Azerbaijan’s strict limitations on freedoms of expression and assembly, which violate international human rights law, participants' actions within the zone could be subject to reprisals outside the zone, HRW's senior advocate for environmental and human rights, Myrto Tiliakani, noted.
At the 2023 Bonn Climate Conference, UNFCCC member states highlighted that host country agreements should be made publicly available and should uphold international human rights law.
Civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly called for host-country agreements to be made public for participants to have confidence that their rights will be protected when attending climate conferences. Last year, Amnesty International obtained a copy of the COP28 agreement between the government of the UAE and the UNFCCC, and although some positive elements were included, they concluded that overall human rights safeguards in the HCA were insufficient for participants.
Just weeks before COP29, members of civil society, including activists, journalists and human rights defenders, still lack clarity about the protections in place to ensure their human rights are respected at the conference.
It is regrettable that these agreements are shrouded in secrecy, and it shouldn’t fall to civil society organizations to share them publicly. In the interests of transparency and accessibility, the UNFCCC should publish past, current, and future agreements on its website.
More urgently, it should publicly call upon the Azerbaijani government to respect its human rights obligations and facilitate a rights-respecting climate conference.
"The UN Human Rights Committee should publicly urge the Azerbaijani government to uphold its human rights commitments and support the holding of a climate conference that respects human rights," concludes the HRW statement.
Politics
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On 10 and 11 October, Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra attended the last ministerial meeting before COP29. With just a month to go until the COP29 in Baku, it was an important occasion to address topics like climate finance, international carbon markets and Article 6, adaptation, mitigation, transparent reporting and the follow-up of the COP28 commitment to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
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On October 12, a video conference meeting was held at the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense with the participation of military leadership, commanders of the branches of the armed forces, and leaders of major military units. Minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov, recalling statements by President Ilham Aliyev, emphasized that the main goal of the army is to enhance military power and combat capabilities, as well as to prepare professional personnel.
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As part of a criminal investigation into violations of the law within the structures of the State Service for Mobilization and Military Conscription of Azerbaijan, the head of the Khojavend District branch, Major Sadig Aliyev, has been arrested. According to the press service of the Military Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan, there are reasonable suspicions that Aliyev committed acts as outlined in Article 311.3.2 (repeated bribery) and Article 311.3.3 (receiving a large bribe) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.
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Official Baku condemned two resolutions passed on October 10 by the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of the Netherlands regarding Azerbaijan, as well as the statement made by the Dutch Foreign Minister during the discussion of these documents. "It is unacceptable that the Dutch Foreign Minister, Kasper Velkamp, expressed support for these biased resolutions during his speech and called for the release of representatives of the former separatist regime and terrorists arrested by Azerbaijan, portraying them as 'prisoners of war,'" stated Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizade.
Müdafiə Nazirliyində nə baş verir? О чем договорились Алиев и Пашинян в Москве? - беседа с Борисом Навасардяном
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