US senator calls on Azerbaijan, host of COP29, to release activists. September 10, 2024

Key US senator calls on Azerbaijan, which chairs COP29, to release journalists and activists.

By AFP - Agence France Presse

US senator calls on Azerbaijan, host of COP29, to release activists.

A leading US senator on Monday called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release 15 activists and journalists arrested ahead of the United Nations COP29 climate summit in Baku in November.

“Hosting a major international conference like COP29 must come with responsibilities and expectations that host countries allow for frank discussion of information and issues,” said Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This requires the recognition of freedoms of expression and assembly, said the Democratic senator from Maryland, adding that “Azerbaijan has not done this”.

The UN conference will be held from November 11 to 22.

Among those Cardin has called for to be released are former pro-environment MP Nazim Baydamirli and activists Gubad Ibadoghlu and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev.

Others include anti-corruption editors and journalists such as Ulvi Hasanli, Sevinj Vagifgizy, and Nargiz Absalamova, as well as economist Farid Mehralizada.

“If Azerbaijan wants to create a lasting relationship with the Euro-Atlantic community, I ask President Aliyev to release the people unjustly imprisoned by his government,” said Cardin, referring to President Ilham Aliyev.

Among them are the Armenian detainees and “community activists who peacefully demonstrated against the poor labor practices and harmful environmental impacts of the Chovdar gold mine operation,” he said in a statement.

The COP29 summit will largely focus on how much rich industrialized nations should contribute to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.

The richest countries - the ones most responsible for climate change - are being pressured to allocate more money to help developing countries.

However, there is strong disagreement over how much they should pay, and some have pushed for big polluters such as China and Saudi Arabia to contribute as well.

Azerbaijan, a gas-rich nation on the Caspian Sea, said earlier this year that it hopes to raise money from fossil fuel producers for green projects in developing countries - drawing criticism from activists who called it “greenwashing”.

bys/bjt