Kamran Mammadli, an animal rights activist and member of the Vegan Collective group, was forcibly detained by security after staging a solo protest against the killing of stray dogs in Azerbaijan during the COP29 climate conference in Baku on November 15. 

The incident has shone a spotlight on Azerbaijan's human rights record as it hosts the major UN climate summit from November 11-22. Animal rights activists have repeatedly demonstrated against the shooting of strays, claiming the government's Toplan Stray Dog Care Center is responsible for the killings and must be stopped. Toplan denies the accusations, calling them slander.

Mammadli held up a sign reading "Stop killing street dogs!" and shouted "Azerbaijani authorities are shooting dogs on the street. The Azerbaijani dictatorship is committing massacres against stray street dogs."

After being released, Mammadli told RFE/RL the guards had confined him in a toilet for up to 90 minutes before escorting him out.

"Today, I protested against the shooting of stray dogs in the streets by the Azerbaijani authorities at the venue of the COP29 and was violently detained," Mammadli wrote on X (formerly Twitter). 

"Although the Azerbaijani authorities announced the participation of civil society in the conference in advance, they once again showed that they are intolerant and violent against any protest voice," he added.

The Internal Affairs Ministry has not commented on the incident. Journalists Khayala Aghayeva and Aytaj Tapdig, who were covering the protest, said their phones were forcibly taken away. "When I was covering the action, they forcibly took my phone from my hand from behind, no matter how much I asked for it, they didn't want to give it back. After a while, they returned our phones," Tapdig told Voice of America.

In a report, Amnesty International said the country's already dire human rights situation has worsened since it was awarded the COP29 presidency in December 2023: "The authorities claim at the summit that they are 'ensuring that everyone's voice is heard', but this year they have persecuted more than a dozen activists and journalists and killed key figures fighting the climate crisis."

Around 20 journalists and activists have been arrested in Azerbaijan since 2023 on various charges, including Ulvi Hasanli, director of AbzasMedia; Sevinj Vagifgizi (Abbasova), editor-in-chief of AbzasMedia; Alasgar Mammadli and Mushfiq Jabbar, co-founder and employee of Toplum TV; Imran Aliyev, head of meclis.info; and Anar Mammadli, head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Education Center. All deny the charges against them, alleging they were targeted for corruption investigations and human rights work. The government rejects criticism of its record as biased, insisting all are equal before the law.

COP29 is being held at Baku Olympic Stadium until November 22, with a focus on climate impacts and financing for affected countries. The previous COP28 was hosted by the UAE in Dubai.