Azerbaijan intensifies its repression against opponents of the regime, denounces Human Rights Watch in a vitriolic report

Almost a month to the day before the COP29 climate summit kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan, Human Rights Watch publishes a vitriolic report on how the regime that will host the entire world is repressing activists. The Azerbaijani government is accused of “want to eradicate civil society” in “contemptuous of public freedoms”, in contradiction with the supposedly inclusive spirit of the climate summits. Did the COP do the right thing by settling in Baku this year?

To measure the ferocity of the repression, you have to listen to Mahammad Mirzali. He has over 300,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. For years he has denounced the corruption of the regime. He had to flee Azerbaijan to settle in France. But even here he was the victim of several assassination attempts. He is now under very high police protection. “There have been many assassination attempts, death threats, I have filed many complaints, the police station has opened numerous investigations, he says. The regime does not accept people speaking against it, because it is a great dictatorship.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the repression in Azerbaijan is institutional. It targets activists, journalists, experts. And the COP approach doesn’t help matters, explains Myrto Tilianaki, advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “For several months, the Azerbaijani authorities have been intensifying repression against critical voices, and this repression, which has existed for several years, but which has intensified for about a year, aims to stifle dissident voices in the country.”

The NGO asks governments participating in the COP to put pressure on the host country to release political prisoners. This is the third time in a row that the climate summit has taken place in a country accused of repressing activists.