Rights group urges African leaders to prioritize human rights, climate justice at COP28

NAIROBI, Kenya

Amnesty International on Wednesday called on African leaders to prioritize human rights and climate justice at the Conference of the Parties (COP28) summit to be held in Dubai.

In a statement, Amnesty International's East and Southern Africa office emphasized the need for leaders to ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund addresses the protection of human rights, highlighting the shift of the burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to African countries, despite the primary responsibility lying with developed nations.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa said the organization "calls on African leaders attending COP28 in Dubai to ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund focuses on protecting human rights."

"While the Nairobi Declaration is a unified voice aimed at addressing Africa’s climate challenges, some of its proposals do not effectively combat the emissions that cause climate change or provide adequate support to those negatively affected by global warming," he added.


Chagutah was referring to the Inaugural Africa Climate Summit, where numerous African leaders convened in Nairobi on Sept. 4-6 for a summit that culminated with the release of the Nairobi Declaration, which symbolizes the continent's collective stance and readiness for COP28.

Amnesty International expressed concern over the emphasis on carbon trading, stating that this approach “unfairly” places a significant responsibility on African nations.

The rights group emphasized that leaders must advocate for a fair distribution of the burden and work toward holding developed countries accountable for their contributions to the climate crisis.

"The increasing intensity of droughts and floods, as well as rising sea levels, has led to massive human rights violations on the continent. Despite this, African leaders failed to anchor the Nairobi Declaration firmly on human rights principles to both address and protect human rights as the climate changes," said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa.

The statement also laid emphasis on financial support, urging African leaders to push for grants rather than loans to alleviate the debt burden on the continent and to “make it easier for countries to respond to the climate crisis.”

Amnesty International cautioned against repeating the “mistakes” made during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi saying that the Nairobi Declaration fell short in effectively prioritizing human rights and climate justice for the continent.

The rights group urged leaders to learn from this experience and ensure that COP28 results in concrete actions that safeguard both human rights and the environment.


The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12.