(RNS) — The latest United Nations Climate Summit, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11 to November 22, will bring together world leaders, diplomats, and climate change advocates to finalize a climate finance deal. are. But the country hosting the annual summit has come under international scrutiny for human rights and religious freedom violations, and some activists are wondering why there hasn’t been more pushback from climate change advocates around the world, including from faith groups. I have doubts.
A few days before the start of the climate summit, COP29, the Azerbaijani government held a summit of religious leaders working on climate issues, calling itself “well-known for its tradition of tolerance, multicultural values, and cooperation between civilizations and religions.” “It is being done.” Despite external observers repeatedly expressing concerns about religious freedom in the former Soviet state.
Official logo of the 29th Conference of the Parties. (Image source: United Nations Climate Change Conference)
The government, led by President Ilham Aliyev, a member of the family that has led the Muslim-majority country since 1993, requires religious groups to register with the government in order to operate legally. According to Azerbaijan’s watchdog Institute for Peace and Democracy, the number of religious activists being held as political prisoners has increased sharply over the past two years, part of a broader campaign of repression. It has also led to the arrest of political prisoners. journalists and other opposition figures;
The country, which is largely funded by fossil fuel revenues, has strengthened its military and recently declared the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, as “ethnic cleansing” in the European Parliament. We carried out activities called It has been ruled by Armenians since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite the Azerbaijani government’s claims that Armenians destroyed religious sites in Azerbaijan, Armenians, who trace their lineage back to the founding of the oldest Christian state, continue to criticize Azerbaijan’s destruction of religious sites in the region. is calling for caution.
These concerns have placed Azerbaijan on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2024 List of Countries of Particular Concern, which designates governments that engage in or condone “particularly serious” violations of religious freedom. It was decided that it would be done.
But when RNS asked religious groups with a leading presence in recent COPs to comment on how they approach their work in light of these religious freedom concerns, most were silent. .
None of the core team of faith groups that organized faith activities at the last COP, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Episcopal Diocese of California, and the Islamic Presbyterian Council, responded to requests for comment.
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development and the Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development did not respond to requests for comment, and PaRD said its team is small and has limited resources. Several other religious groups, which played a secondary role, also did not respond.
The Rev. John Pawlikowski, professor emeritus of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union, said that in the months leading up to the U.S. election, “some in the religious community are now afraid to publicly criticize the COP.” Ta. That could prompt the current president-elect, Donald Trump, to withdraw from the process.
Priest Sarvit, who is also a member of the Parliament of World Religions’ Climate Change Task Force, plans to boycott the COP because he knows religious figures who have boycotted past COPs that have limited what participants can say about local human rights. He said it was. Summit meeting in Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, he said he believes the majority will continue to engage at some level.
Pawlikowski said the Vatican, which is a formal party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, “could raise the issue of human rights and religious freedom more strongly than ever before.”
However, Pawlikowski said religious groups participating in the COP are not ignoring religious freedom, but are simply making a strategic decision not to pursue the issue during the COP.
For some religious groups affected by the Azerbaijani government’s repression, the silence of religious groups attending COP29 is a painful betrayal.
“They don’t care if something happens to the world’s first Christian country,” said Arshak Makichan, an Armenian climate change activist who was stripped of his Russian citizenship after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. The Armenian apostolic Christian, who says his faith underpins his activism, has also staged a solo protest as part of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement. He has become a symbol of Russia’s climate change movement, having been arrested in Russia for his protest activities after attending COP25 in 2019.
“What is happening to Armenians is truly terrible and requires international solidarity,” he said, warning of concerns that Azerbaijan would be emboldened to go to war with Armenia.
The activist believes that the Armenian issue is a natural part of the COP’s discussion on indigenous issues. “If you’re colonized by the West, that’s colonization, but if you’re colonized by Turkey or Azerbaijan, that’s not colonization.” He spoke about Western people’s ignorance of Armenia’s history, including its domination and oppression. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, in what is widely considered a genocide.
Makicyan was due to return to the COP this year, but said Azerbaijan denied him a visa even after the United Nations said it had approved his eligibility to attend the COP.
Red Azerbaijan is located on the border between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. (Map provided by Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
The U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Office did not respond to RNS’ requests for comment on Makicyan’s visa denial.
“I think it’s very important to raise the Armenian issue at the conference,” Makicyan explained, explaining that he was motivated to go “even though my grandfather’s uncle was killed in Baku and my grandparents were expelled from Nakhchivan.” said. current Azerbaijan.
At COP29, Makicyan called on the international community to demand the release of Armenians and other political prisoners held by the Azerbaijani government, sanctions, the right to return “Artsakh Armenians to their indigenous lands,” and an end to anti-Armenian violence. Be part of the group making the request. In addition to promises to destroy cultural heritage and propaganda, divest from Azerbaijani oil, and cancel COPs in countries with political prisoners.
Azerbaijan has dismissed international concerns about religious freedom in the country as pro-Armenian bias.
Kamal Gasimov, an Azerbaijani Islamic scholar who is currently a visiting assistant professor of Arabic at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, said the USCIRF report was written by a third party rather than relying on Armenian scholars to write about monuments in Armenia. He said he should have cited sources.
Gasimov said the USCIRF report is a “political document” that shows relations between Azerbaijan and the United States, and that some Azerbaijanis see the document as evidence of U.S. imperialism, but that some Azerbaijanis have family members imprisoned. said he was grateful.
Commissioner Mohamed El-Sanousi, who joined the USCIRF after the deliberation process for the latest report was completed, said: Our goal is to improve religious freedom. ”
USCIRF is comprised of individuals appointed by the President of the United States and Congressional leaders. A minority of the four opposed Azerbaijan’s decision, expressing concern that the country should receive a less stringent designation for violations of religious freedom.
Despite the controversy surrounding the report, Gasimov said the Azerbaijani government has adopted a Soviet approach common to former Soviet states and plays an important role in regulating religion in the Muslim-majority country. said.
“If you are a religious organization registered with a state agency and the state issues you a passport, you exist. If the state refuses to register you, you do not exist. ” he said.
Its goal is to “make Islam part of the state bureaucracy, making it predictable, monitorable, and controllable.” They also accomplish this by “controlling the books” and “attempting to co-opt religious and charismatic leaders by offering them government jobs.”
Other religious groups, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, have not been able to register. Jehovah’s Witnesses also highlight that the state has not implemented exemptions from military service for conscientious objectors, and some members have been subject to beatings and legal sentences.
USCIRF cites a 2009 Azerbaijani law requiring registration as the main cause of violations of international human rights standards, but Gasimov said the Arab Spring protests motivated governments to double down on controls in the name of preventing radicalization. and justified those actions by juxtaposing them with “human rights violations.” What is happening in the Middle East and Azerbaijan’s security. ”
The Institute for Peace and Democracy, Azerbaijan’s watchdog, said that of the Muslim-majority country’s 319 political prisoners, the majority were “peace believers” and 228 were members of the Islamic Unity Movement or others. It states that Islamic theologians are also included. Until early 2023, the number of religious political prisoners was less than 100.
El-Sanousi said the USCIRF has several documents showing that “law enforcement agencies have also used and threatened torture, sexual assault, and other abuses against nonconforming Shia Muslims in state custody.” said.
The Islamic Unity Movement, a Shiite group, gained popularity by mixing religious discourse with concerns about social issues such as bribery and police violence, Gasimov said.
Makicyan said Azerbaijan has previously used “greenwashing” to portray Azerbaijan as an environmental state to get away with human rights violations, including against Armenians.
Looking to the future, he emphasized the importance of religious pluralism. As a Christian who is aware of the genocide experienced by indigenous Muslim peoples, he says, “It is very important to oppose Islamophobia, because we Armenians can hopefully return to western Armenia and coexist with other peoples.” Because I hope so,” he said.
