Cairo, Europe Brief News- The UN climate summit kicked off at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday.
The international event will continue till November 18.
Delegates from nearly 120 countries have attended the summit, despite calls for boycott over the country’s poor human rights record.
Local Egyptian media reported on October 29 that Egyptian authorities had in previous days arrested dozens of people for calling for anti-government protests on November 11, during the conference.
The Human Rights Watch said that Egypt is hosting COP27 following years of intensifying restrictions on human rights and environmental groups in the country, amounting to one of the harshest government clampdowns in decades.
The result has been diminished space for independent organization and assembly. The restrictions have curtailed environmental groups’ ability to carry out independent policy, advocacy, and field work essential to protecting the country’s natural environment.
“In the days ahead, countries should make good on longstanding promises to prevent the most devastating impacts of climate change,” said Richard Pearshouse, environment director at Human Rights Watch. “At the same time, they should reaffirm to Egypt’s government and other authoritarian administrations that independent environmental activism is indispensable for the robust climate policies the world so urgently needs.”
