COP28 Newsletter

Working with 200+ organisations, Equidem has expressed climate concerns, and called upon governments from across the world to address evidence of human rights abuses in the UAE. It comes ahead of the COP28 climate talks which are set to take place in the country later this year.

In a joint letter, signed by a global network of civil society organisations, we urge governments participating in the COP28 talks to take immediate action.

The letter outlines 7 distinct steps for participating governments to take, each one a central part in addressing the UAE’s ongoing human rights crisis and ensuring that the COP28 climate negotiations produce the ambitious commitments necessary to address global climate change. These steps are as follow: 

1. Demand that the UAE not spy on COP28 attendees and end unlawful state surveillance that violates international human rights law and standards.
2. Call on the UAE to release all prisoners of conscience.
3. Demand action on UAE violations of women’s rights. 
4. Condemn UAE violations of LGBTQI+ rights.
5. Call for workers’ rights reforms and reparations for forced labor.
6. Urge the UAE to stop supporting human rights violators in Yemen and across the Middle East and North Africa.
7. Publicly repudiate UAE greenwashing and fossil fuel hypocrisy

For more information on Equidem’s work on mitigating the human impact of climate change: https://www.equidem.org/our-work/just-transitions