As Egypt hosts COP27, human rights advocates seize their opportunity

The obstacles activists have had to overcome in order to protest at this year’s climate change conference in Egypt, COP27, have been immense: interrogations over planned chants, the vetting of handwritten signs, questions over whether one’s traditional attire implied a political message, to name just some.

“There is almost no space for protests or activism. We are concerned on how this will affect the outcome at this COP,” says Joseph Sikulu, from Tongatapu, quickly rolling up his sign after a two-minute protest in the conference’s “blue zone.”

“It is the job of civil society to be here to hold these conference negotiators to account,” says Mr. Sikulu, a member of the Pacific Climate Warriors, “and so many voices that should be here are not present.”

And yet this tightly controlled climate conference seems a bastion of freedom compared with what Egyptian citizens confront beyond the walls of this