Cairo, Aug. 1, (dpa/GNA) – Organizers of the upcoming world climate conference COP28 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) plan to ensure activists will have enough space for peaceful protest, they said on Tuesday.
The Emirates, like last year’s COP27 host Egypt, has come under heavy criticism for its human rights record. According to human rights activists, dozens of people continue to be unjustly imprisoned in the Gulf state.
Human rights group Amnesty International has said it is not possible for the UAE to implement ambitious goals in the fight against climate change due to existing laws on freedom of expression.
Many activists, such as blogger Ahmed Mansur, are unjustly imprisoned, according to human rights activists. There are also reports of extensive surveillance, on the internet, on mobile phones or computers, as well as through facial recognition technology in public spaces.
But COP28 President-elect Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber and UN climate chief Simon Stiell said they wanted to ensure “international standards for human rights” at the Dubai conference.
They said COP28 should be “more inclusive than any UN climate conference before it.”
“We pledge to uphold the rights of all participants, and to ensure that all views are heard and their contributions to the climate challenge are heard,” they continued.
COP28, which hosts representatives from around 200 countries, begins on November 30. At the UN conference, delegates will discuss how and if the internationally agreed to 1.5-degree limit for increases in global warming is still realistic and how the worst consequences of the climate crisis can be averted.
GNA