The question of the day. Are you shocked that Cop29 is taking place in Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijani human rights defender and climate activist Anar Mammadli was going to pick up his son from daycare when police apprehended him in front of the children.

> Question of the day. Are you shocked that Cop29 is taking place in Azerbaijan? To respond, use the window below or click on this link:

His arrest is just one example among others of the repression taking place in the host country of the Cop29 climate conference, which will begin on November 11, at the risk, according to critics, of discrediting the authorities of the former -Soviet Republic.

Behind bars since his arrest on April 29, Anar Mammadli faces eight years in prison for smuggling if he is found guilty, his colleague Bashir Suleymanli told AFP.

Together, they founded the Climate of Justice Initiative to promote environmental justice in this oil-rich, iron-fisted nation.

The organization was forced to close under government pressure before it had even begun to raise awareness of environmental issues report M. Suleymanli.

We have no platform to make ourselves heard, not to mention the fact that we will not be able to organize protests during Cop29 he laments.

Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, a US senator and the UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders have denounced the prosecution of Mr Mammadli and demanded his release.

The European Parliament, for its part, denounced on October 24 the resurgence of human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, judging this situation incompatible with the organization of the UN conference.

“Severe measures”

In Baku, the roads are being repaired and the buildings repainted: the authorities want the capital to appear in its best light when it welcomes tens of thousands of delegates and participants to the COP, from November 11 to 22.

International human rights groups are calling on the UN and the Council of Europe to take advantage of the dynamics of Cop29 pour put an end to the persecution of critical voices in Azerbaijan.

According to Kenan Khalilzadé of the ecological organization Ecofront in Baku, preparations for the climate conference are giving rise to government pressure increased on activists.

He himself claims to have been briefly arrested last year during a demonstration in Soyudlu, a remote village in the west of the country.

In 2023, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at villagers protesting the construction of a pond meant to collect toxic waste from a nearby gold mine.

Several protesters were arrested in a violent crackdown and Soyudlu remained cordoned off by police for weeks.

The police threatened me with severe measures if I ever tried to return to Soyudlu,” confides Mr. Khalilzadé to AFP.

An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of investigative journalists, determined that the mine, formally operated by the British company Anglo Asian Mining, was in fact owned by the president's two daughters. Azerbaijani, Ilham Aliev.

Repression of opponents

Any sign of dissidence in Azerbaijan is generally the subject of a vigorous response from those in power, strongly criticized in the West for the persecution of political opponents and the muzzling of the media.

At 62, Ilham Aliev has ruled Azerbaijan with implacable authority since 2003 and the death of his father, Heydar Aliev, a Soviet-era communist leader and former KGB general.

The Union for Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan published a list of 288 political prisoners, including opposition politicians, rights activists and journalists.

Among them, several reporters from AbzasMedia and Toplum TV, media critical of President Aliev, as well as anti-corruption lawyer Gubad Ibadoghlu.

“Unacceptable” accusations

Placed under judicial control which prevents him from leaving the country and obliges him to report any travel outside Baku, he risks 17 years in prison in a case of counterfeiting, charges manufactured according to Amnesty International. A slayer of corruption, he notably asserts that the energy windfall has allowed President Ilham Aliev and his family to remain in power for more than thirty years.

Human Rights Watch and the NGO Freedom Now published a report in October documenting 33 high-profile cases of criminal prosecution, detention and harassment which, according to them, illustrate the government's efforts to decimate civil society .

For its part, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry rejects accusations biased and unacceptable and castigates inappropriate political motivations .

But for Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist who spent several months behind bars after revealing cases of corruption in the public sphere, Cop29 delegations should look into Azerbaijan's rights record humans.

Countries participating in Cop29 must be aware that civil society is crushed and oppressed she assures.