The hosting agreement signed by Azerbaijan and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) covering the upcoming COP29 conference contains language that potentially gives Azerbaijani authorities the ability to muzzle criticism of their domestic policies, according to a copy of the document obtained by Human Rights Watch.

COP29 is scheduled to run from November 11-22 in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. The hosting agreement was finalized in August. At a meeting in Bonn in 2023, UNFCCC member states issued a report calling for hosting agreements to conform with basic human rights standards and its terms to be publicly available.

The copy obtained and published by HRW creates a free-speech gray area that can leave COP29 participants uncertain over whether they may face legal consequences for anything they say or do in Baku. One article in the agreement states that participants will have immunity “in respect of words spoken or written and any act performed by them in their official capacity in connection with their participation in the meeting.” But the agreement also creates room for Azerbaijani authorities to punish anyone who raises domestic policies and/or abuses, even if they have a plausible connection to environmental issues. 

“All Participants enjoying such privileges and immunities have the duty to respect the laws and regulations in force in the Republic of Azerbaijan and have the duty not to interfere in its internal affairs,” the agreement states. What might constitute “interference” in internal affairs is not defined in any of the hosting agreement’s 16 articles. 

Over the past year, Azerbaijan has conducted a far-reaching crackdown on all forms of dissent. HRW criticized UNFCC for handling of the negotiations with Azerbaijan, adding that it should take steps to force Baku to “facilitate a rights-respecting climate conference.”

“It is regrettable that these agreements are shrouded in secrecy, and it shouldn’t fall to civil society organizations to share them publicly. In the interests of transparency and accessibility, the UNFCCC should publish past, current, and future agreements on its website,” HRW said in a statement.

Frank Schwabe, a prominent member of the German delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and an outspoken critic of President Ilham Aliyev’s regime, described COP29 as a legitimate forum for criticism of the host nation’s human rights record. 

“No one should be afraid of criticizing the government,” Schwabe said in an interview with Azerbaijani journalists. “They have to talk about the situation in Azerbaijan, but not after COP29 ends. … Ilham Aliyev may think that COP29 is like Formula1 or some football cup. But it’s a huge political conference.”

Meanwhile, the British Broadcasting Service’s Azeri-language service, citing an unnamed government source in Baku, reported that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not attend COP29. Putin’s absence would avert a potential complication for COP29’s host, President Ilham Aliyev. Ukraine’s ambassador to the European Union, Vsevolod Chentsov, had called for a boycott of COP29 if Putin had opted to attend.