Climate activists say U.N. restricting protest at COP28

9/12/2023 7:19

        Activists at the COP28 U.N. climate summit in Dubai said on Friday they had been unable to express their views freely on the Gaza conflict and that their climate protests had been affected by restrictions on when and where they could be held.
        
        Tasneem Essop, head of Climate Action Network International, a network of civil society groups, said the U.N. climate secretariat (U.N. Climate Change) had prohibited demonstrators from using certain phrases with relation to the war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, including "ceasefire now".
        
        She and Asad Rehman, executive director of UK-based social justice group War on Want, said other activists had been stopped from wearing scarves, badges and lanyards showing support for Palestinians, and U.N. security staff had confiscated them.
        
        While wearing those items, they told reporters at COP28 that they had been negotiating with U.N. Climate Change over the rules, which they said had been changing daily.