Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Voices Concern Over Azerbaijan Hosting UN Climate Summit
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, Ben Cardin, has expressed concerns over Azerbaijan hosting the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, known as COP29. He pointed to Baku’s ongoing imprisonment of Armenian prisoners of war as well as arrests of environmental activists.
“Hosting a major international conference like COP29 should come with responsibilities and expectations that host countries allow frank discussion of information and issues, which requires recognizing freedoms of speech and assembly,” Cardin said in a statement issued on Monday. “Azerbaijan has not done so.”
“If Azerbaijan seeks to create a durable relationship with the Euro-Atlantic community, I urge President Aliyev to release those unjustly imprisoned by his government, including Armenian detainees, and community activists who peacefully demonstrated against poor labor practices and harmful environmental impacts of the Chovdar gold mine operation,” Cardin added.
“Azerbaijan has the potential to be an important member of the international community and partner to the United States,” but to do so, Cardin said, Azerbaijani authorities must release human rights and environmental activists currently imprisoned.
“Ahead of COP29 in November, I urge the Azerbaijani government to demonstrate its commitment to upholding human rights by releasing these individuals without delay,” Cardin added.
Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, has been a staunch advocate for the right of the Armenians of Artsakh and on numerous occasions has condemned and demanded action regarding Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh and its indigenous population.
As recently as July, Cardin slammed the lack of Western, specifically U.S., protest against Azerbaijan’s ongoing occupation of strategic territories in Armenia.
“Azerbaijan is now occupying a strategic part of Armenia, and there has been no real protest about their controlling the highlands next to Nagorno-Karabakh, that puts Armenia at tremendous risk of the corridor that could divide the country. I haven’s seen much of a fuss made by the international community,” Senator Cardin said during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation in July.
Cardin’s comments come as international human rights advocates mount a campaign to use the COP29, scheduled to take place in Baku in November, to expose Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing policies and abhorrent human rights practices. One such advocate, the former prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has led the charge in raising awareness about Baku’s genocidal policies.
