BY HRAIR BALIAN

World leaders who stand for a rules-based international order must decline participation in the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku during November, unless 23 Armenian political prisoners jailed illegally in Azerbaijan are released.

On the surface, of course, the issues are unrelated. The UN has clearly not made democratic behavior a condition for hosting these conferences, which aim at finding ways for the world to collaborate on mitigating the effects of global warming. The last two summits were in Egypt and the UAE – hardly paragons of democracy.

But Azerbaijan, one of the most corrupt despotisms on the planet, is of a different order of magnitude. Greenwashing evil regimes to this extent is wrong; better to use the rare moment when miscreants care about the world to force them to improve behavior. The time to do that is now, as preparations for the conference are underway.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev shocked attendees at a Berlin conference planning the agenda for the November Baku summit, when he emphasized his country’s unrestricted right to expand its development of fossil fuels, the main source of greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Beyond its brazenness on climate issues, Azerbaijan wants to turn the COP29 into a “Cop of peace”, urging countries participating in the summit to observe a “Cop truce”, modeled on the Olympic truce that warring countries often respect during the games.

Beyond its gloomy record on climate matters, Azerbaijan can hardly boast about peacebuilding. Major global jurists declared that its nine-month blockage last year of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh was a genocide, and the September 2023 attack on the starving population causing the ethnic cleansing of all 120,000 Armenians there – a war crime. Nagorno-Karabakh was a self-governed territory for the past three decades.

Of particular concern now is the ethnic Armenian prisoners held by Azerbaijan, who can fairly be described as hostages. Among them are eight leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh arrested as they attempted to flee to Armenia in September, including Ruben Vardanyan, a philanthropist and former State Minister in the territory. Vardanyan is the founder of the annual “Aurora World Humanitarian Award” and a recent nominee for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. In April, he was on hunger strike demanding the release of all Armenian prisoners.

Other prominent leaders arrested include three former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, a parliament speaker, a foreign minister, and two army commanders. These leaders are detained solely because of their political role. Such attacks on the leadership of a community at risk is another indication of genocide, as it signifies the intent to destroy the community, especially when coupled with the mass deportation of the totality of its members.

In addition, an unknown number of Armenian civilians have been taken hostage since 2020 by Azerbaijani security personnel in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and from within the borders of Armenia. Seven are now confirmed to be in Azerbaijani custody. Among the hostages is Vicken Euljeckjian, a dual citizen of Armenia and Lebanon, who was arrested in 2020, convicted on trumped-up charges and sentences to 20 years in jail. He is in poor health and his life in jeopardy.

Also, at least six Armenian prisoners of war remain in Azerbaijani jails – violating a promise to release all POWs make in a November 2020 ceasefire agreement (Article 8) that ended the 2020 war. Moreover, all detainees taken during wars must be freed immediately after the secession of hostilities, under the Geneva Conventions.

To make matters worse, in March, Azerbaijani television announced it would broadcast staged interviews with Nagorno-Karabakh’s hostage former leaders. Surely, these leaders are being coerced to take part in the charade. Azerbaijani media have already publicized some footage from the interviews and segments have been posted on social media. As protected persons, international law prohibits the exposure of war-time detainees to public curiosity and humiliation.

The Armenian prisoners in Baku cannot expect fair treatment in Azerbaijani jails and courts. While Azerbaijan purports to be a country that complies with its international obligations, the country’s human rights record is dismal, as confirmed in numerous reports by UN Human Rights institutions, the U.S. Department of State, the Council of Europe, and non-governmental human rights organizations.

These institutions have documented credible human rights violations in Azerbaijan, ranging from arbitrary killings to torture, from the detention of political prisoners numbering 300-400 to restrictions on free expression and the media, from violence against journalists to their incarceration on questionable charges, and from systemic government corruption to impunity.

The evidence of abuse against human dignity and life write large in Azerbaijan does not inspire confidence that the 23 Armenian prisoners will be treated in accordance with international human rights standards.

What is more, Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, won his fourth presidential coronation in a sham election on February 7. Former Irish President Mary Robinson characterized the election as a fraud and said that for the international community “to address the egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the Aliyev regime (is) particularly critical as Azerbaijan will host COP29.”

In mid-December, more than 150 major global leaders – including humanitarian and business leaders, Nobel Laureates and former heads of state like Mary Robinson of Ireland, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, signed an appeal calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan. The appeal has garnered more than 3,500 signatures from over 90 countries and raises serious concerns over the conditions and treatment of the 23 prisoners.

Additionally, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone on April 28 with President Aliyev, urging Azerbaijan to adhere to its international human rights obligations and commitments and to release those unjustly detained in Azerbaijan.

All of it is an outrage. World leaders must reach out urgently to Aliyev to demand freedom for the Armenian prisoners and for all political prisoners languishing in his jails – and if he says no, they should steer clear of the Baku event. Saving the planet does not require lending legitimacy to a criminal regime.

Hrair Balian is a peacebuilding practitioner, currently focusing on the South Caucasus. He has served in leadership positions in the UN, OSCE/ODIHR & NGOs (International Crisis Group, Carter Center), working on conflict resolution, elections and human rights in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East and Africa.