Civil society organisations participating in the United Nations climate negotiations have condemned what they describe as the UNFCCC Secretariat’s censorship of expressions of solidarity with Palestine.
On Friday, June 20, 2025, CAN International reportedly distributed a special edition of its ECO newsletter at the Bonn venue, focusing on the UNFCCC Secretariat’s demand for the removal of the phrase “End the Siege” from a planned peaceful civil society action highlighting the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – despite a similar protest which went ahead on Monday in front of the Bonn venue which was allowed to use the phrase “End the Siege”.
The newsletter also set out the detailed history of the past two years of struggle during which “the UNFCCC Secretariat has systematically censored and suppressed advocacy for Palestine, even as a genocide unfolds”.
The situation in Gaza is said to have been described as a “siege” by a string of UN leaders, agencies and international human rights bodies – including UN Secretary-General António Guterres; Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner‑General; Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner Human Rights; Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs; Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine; and WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In an email sent by the UNFCCC, CAN International was informed that: “the phrase ‘end the siege’ cannot be authorised for use in the banner or any accompanying text.”
Civil society groups describe this demand as not only baseless, but a grave moral and political failure. In light of this explicit censorship, civil society groups have taken the unprecedented step of suspending all future applications for Palestine solidarity actions within the UNFCCC framework.
Rachitaa Gupta, from Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ), said: “For the past two years, the UNFCCC Secretariat has tried to silence our movement’s unwavering solidarity with Palestine. We have been censored, edited, erased – while a genocide unfolds in Gaza. Let’s not pretend this is about procedure. This is political. The UNFCCC secretariat is choosing to censor words like genocide, occupation, and siege – as Israel starves, bombs, and massacres an entire population.”
The climate justice movements engaging within the UNFCCC process have historically used the space inside Blue Zone, a region administered by the UNFCCC Secretariat and under the UN rules, to hold “actions” – peoples-led demonstration and protest – as a tactic to raise their demands.
In the past two years the UNFCCC Secretariat has increasingly brought new rules to censor phrases like “From river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and in its latest attempt the word “siege” in the demand “End the Siege” for an action being registered by activists.
Hajar al-Betalji, from Alliance of Non Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY), said: “Two days ago we were told that within these halls it would be inappropriate to call to ‘End the Siege’. Because according to the UNFCCC, objecting to the enforced starvation of Palestinian children is not politically sensitive enough, not related enough to the climate. How many times must we explain that colonialism and climate injustice are inseparable? How many times must we explain before you understand that white supremacy is killing us?”
Activists highlighted the approach that UNFCCC Secretariat has taken on the ongoing genocide in Palestine compared to the other UN bodies and UN Rapporteurs that have named this siege for what it is and have urgently called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Jacobo Ocharan, Climate Action Network International, said: “A red line was crossed this week. The UNFCCC claims to stand for climate justice, but how can there be justice when it silences the voices of those being annihilated? When a Palestinian cannot even say ‘I am Palestinian’ in a UN space during a genocide, we are not dealing with neutrality – we are witnessing erasure. The same powers driving the climate crisis are driving this genocide – and now they are trying to silence civil society for speaking the truth. We will not be silenced. We will not back down. Justice for Palestine is justice for all.”
The UNFCCC Secretariat is also accused of repeatedly trying to hide behind the words and phrases like “neutrality”, “party driven process”, and “this is a climate conference, and this action is not related to climate”.
Gina Cortés, representing the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), said: “Censoring us to call things by their names is not protecting neutrality – it is protecting impunity. It prioritises the comfort of perpetrators over the survival of impacted. This is not neutrality. This is not what the secretariat calls ‘a constructive environment’. This is censorship, cowardice, and failure – in the face of military occupation, siege warfare, and systematic environmental destruction.”