Teneo, a global public relations firm based in New York City counts the governments of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia among its clients. While representing nations accused of grave human rights abuses, Teneo simultaneously maintains that diversity, equity, and inclusion are among its “core values.”
Teneo began its work with Azerbaijan in June to help the country promote its COP29 climate change conference. COP29, an annual environmental summit sponsored by the United Nations, was controversial from the outset due both to Azerbaijan’s extensive extraction of fossil fuels and its poor record on human rights, including an alleged ethnic cleansing that it carried out in a disputed region inhabited primarily by Christian Armenians in 2023. The State Department has said the country has “significant human rights issues.”
