Human rights organizations are raising the alarm about the crackdown by COP29 hosts

According to human rights organizations, the Azerbaijani government is using COP29 to crack down on environmentalists and other political opponents.

This is the third year in a row that a country hosting the climate summit has been accused of oppression and restricting the legal right to protest.

Climate Action Network, a group of almost 2,000 climate groups, told BBC News that protecting civil society is crucial if countries want to see progress on climate change.

The Azerbaijani government rejects the claims and says the government does not hold political prisoners.

World leaders are currently meeting in Azerbaijan to discuss solutions to a warming planet. But rights groups have called for an overhaul of the way countries are selected to host the climate summit, following what they say is a worrying increase in the number of environmental prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Amnesty International’s Natalia Nozadze told BBC News that since Azerbaijan was announced as the host country for COP29 last November, it has become harder to oppose the government.

“We have seen a dramatic increase in arrests and addressing all issues that the government considers critical or contrary to its political agenda,” she said.

For the first time since the early 2000s, the number of political prisoners – including journalists, environmentalists and political opponents – has reached 300, according to The Union ‘For Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan’.

Gubad Ibadoglu, a 53-year-old professor at London’s LSE university, researches Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector and environmental issues, but in the summer of 2023 he was arrested on fraud charges.

More than a year later, he is still under house arrest. Human Rights Watch called the allegations “questionable” and the daughter of Gubad Ibadoglu has appealed to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for help in releasing her father.

“I think it is one of the rules of the authoritarian government to arrest and detain people who have the power to influence opinion,” Ibadoglu said in an interview with the BBC this week.

He says his life is in danger for health reasons.

Anar Mammadli was arrested in April on smuggling charges, just two months after he co-founded an organization calling on the Azerbaijani government to do more to join the Paris Agreement – an important international treaty on reducing fossil fuel emissions.

Environmentalists want Azerbaijan to reduce its dependence on oil and gas, which finance about 60% of the government budget.

But in January it was announced that Azerbaijan plans to expand production of natural gas – a fossil fuel – over the next decade. President Ilham Aliyev said this at the COP29 climate conference that oil and gas are a ‘gift from God’.

“COP29 – which was intended to be an open and inclusive platform for climate action – will be anything but,” a close friend of Mr Mammadli, Bashir Suleymanli, told the BBC.

“Civil society groups that should play a crucial role in holding governments to account have been sidelined or suppressed,” he said.

Nazim Beydemirli, 61, was sentenced to eight years in prison for extortion in October. He was arrested last year after protesting against gold mining activities near his village. No evidence was produced during his fifteen months of pre-trial detention. His lawyer, Agil Lajic, insists the allegations are baseless and part of a broader pattern of silencing dissent in Azerbaijan ahead of COP29.

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt, which hosted previous COP climate summits, have faced similar criticism for their treatment of civil society groups.

“I think it is a big mistake if countries – such as Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates or Egypt – that systematically violate human rights are accepted as eligible host countries,” said Azerbaijani journalist and environmental activist Emin Huseynov.

“President Aliyev has nothing to do with climate change, but he sees COP29 as a unique opportunity to whitewash and green himself, his toxic image,” he said.

Before the start of the conference, Elchin Amirbayov, an official from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told the BBC: “I do not accept these kinds of accusations because they are not based on facts.

“Azerbaijan does not make (differentiation) in terms of participation in this global event of state and non-state actors, including members of civil society.”

Each year the host is chosen from a different region of the world, and all countries from that region must agree on where the COP summit will be held. How to stop them from choosing a country that is hostile to civil society is unclear.

“All countries must be involved, that is the point of the United Nations,” said Andreas Sieber of climate campaign group 350.org. “The question is: what rules do you set?”

He has called on the UN to ensure that the host country agreement – ​​the contract between the UN and the host country – includes a clause banning the use of spyware against participants – which he said has been a concern at previous conferences.

The UN is allowing activists to protest at the COP and in response the UNFCCC – the branch of the UN responsible for climate change – said: “This year’s host country agreement includes provisions for the first time on the protection of human rights, which we welcome as a positive step forward.”

But Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, said: “The UN cannot tell the host country what they can and cannot do about their human rights record – that is the challenge.”

She said it is up to other countries to raise the issue, but Ms Essop and Mr Sieber both agreed that this is difficult as support for civil society is declining globally, and not just in Azerbaijan.

In October, Members of the European Parliament condemned Azerbaijan’s “repression” against activists, journalists and opposition figures, deeming human rights violations incompatible with hosting COP29.

But Emin Huseynov believes the international community has largely ‘given up’ on this issue, citing in particular the apparent silence of the British government compared to previous years when it publicly challenged Egypt’s record on the issue as host country of COP27 of human rights.

On Tuesday, Mr Starmer met with Azerbaijani President Aliyev at COP29, but did not discuss human rights or Mr Ibadoglu’s case, as his daughter had requested.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said the issue was “regularly raised” by ministers.

Tasneem Essop said solving this problem is critical because of the crucial role civil society plays in advancing the climate change agenda.

“It was civil society that led the fight to establish a loss and damage fund (to help poorer countries deal with the effects of climate change), after more than thirty years of negotiations and fighting,” she said.

“Our presence really keeps our feet to the fire. We will hold them accountable.”