In November 2024, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, marking the third year in a row that the meeting has convened in a country with significant fossil fuel reserves and a dismal human rights record. As Azerbaijan prepares for COP29, the authorities have arrested and detained dozens of independent journalists and the country’s leading anticorruption expert focused on the oil and gas sector. Surveillance inside the country and abroad threatens civil society and media, and snap elections in February, which were held ahead of the scheduled elections that should have been set to take place in October 2025, have ensured President Ilham Aliyev’s presidency for another seven years.

Please join us for a panel discussion on Azerbaijan’s human rights record, and the current environmental and human rights risks associated with the holding of COP29 in Baku.