Kenneth Roth, who was the head of Human Rights Watch organization from 1993 to 2022, and is currently a visiting professor at Princeton SPIA, tweeted again about COP29. The tweet reads: “An inauspicious beginning. Chosen to host the COP29 climate summit, Azerbaijan: 1. Chooses as summit president Mukhtar Babayev, who has worked with the Azerbaijani state oil company for 26 years. 2. Appoints an all-male 28-member organizing committee.”

Faktyoxla Lab. has tried to clarify these claims

First of all, Mukhtar Babayev, the president of the Azerbaijan summit chosen to host the COP29 climate summit, has worked for many years in economy-related fields, including the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, and has accumulated experience in this field. In SOCAR, he worked in the field of foreign economic relations, and in the position of vice-president for ecology, he directly led projects related to the environment. Mr. Roth should pay special attention to this point: he served as the vice president of ecology at SOCAR and has been the minister of ecology and natural resources for more than five years. For many years, he has been representing Azerbaijan in the implementation of regional and international environmental programs, and has close contacts with the international environmental team. source

That is, it is personnel fully connected to the environmental field, which is in accordance with the general principles of the COP.

Secondly, as for the claim that the composition of the organizing committee consists of only men, there is also a mistake here.

Thus, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On amending Order No. 4264 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dated January 13, 2024, “On the establishment of the Organizing Committee regarding the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and the 6th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.”

According to that decree, “The composition of the Organizing Committee established in Part 1 of Order No. 4264 of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dated January 13, 2024, “On the establishment of the Organizing Committee regarding the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and the 6th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement” should be modified as follows:

Sabina Aliyeva - Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Farah Aliyeva – Head of the Department of Humanitarian Policy, Diaspora, Multiculturalism and Religious Issues of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Ilhama Gadimova – Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Umayra Taghiyeva – Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Mariana Vasileva – Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Saadat Yusifova – Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Nigar Arpadarai – Deputy of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Sevinj Fataliyeva – Deputy of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Bahar Muradova – Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Aygun Aliyeva – Executive Director of the Agency for State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations of the Republic of Azerbaijan,

Firuza Sultanzade – Chairperson of the Board of “EkoSfera" Socio-Ecological Center,

Zakiyya Mustafayeva – Deputy Chairman of the Food Safety Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Conclusion:

- Kenneth Roth is newly familiar with the guidelines of the campaign launched against COP29 and uses theses circulated in the initial phase. Had it not been so, he would have learned about the executive order signed on January 19, 2024, and would not have repeated the outdated thesis of the biased and unfair smear campaign seven days later (January 26, 2024).

- It seems that the biased and unfair position of Mr. Kenneth Roth, who presented old and fake information as new and true, played a special role in the formation of the biased and unfair position of the Human Rights Watch organization against Azerbaijan in the last 20 years.