For Immediate Release, December 18th, 2025
Daria Egereva during a recent UNFCCC COP meeting. Photo courtesy of L&DC
Geneva, Switzerland: On December 18th, 2025, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) sent Urgent Action alerts to several United Nations Human Rights Mandate holders and processes on behalf of Indigenous leader, Daria Egereva. These included submissions to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Human Rights Defenders, Promotion and Protection Human Rights while countering terrorism and Human Rights in the context of Climate Change, as well as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.
Ms. Egereva, a Selkup Indigenous woman from Russia, was arrested by Russian security services on 17 December 2025, accused of “terrorism”. A court hearing held today, 18 December, determined she will continue to be detained for two months. It is unknown what will happen to her after that time period.
Daria Egereva, a highly respected Indigenous leader, has served as Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) since 2023. In this leadership role she coordinated Indigenous Peoples participation at recently concluded 30th Conference of the Parties (COP 30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belem Brazil. Ms. Egereva also served as a representative of Indigenous Peoples of the Russia region on the Facilitative Working Group of the UNFCCC’s Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform.
Ms. Egereva is a long-standing member of the Centre for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North (CSIPN), an Indigenous rights organization with decades of engagement with the UN system. The UN Human Rights Council has explicitly recognized CSIPN not as a terrorist group, but as a victim of persecution and “mass forced shutdowns” (Resolution 60/21, 2025).
IITC’s submissions on behalf of Ms. Egereva state that this is a “grave case of intimidation and reprisal against an Indigenous leader in direct connection with her participation in the UNFCCC process.”
According to local sources, on 17 December, in the early morning, Russian security services raided Ms. Egereva’s home and detained her. The arrest forms part of a wider coordinated operation, as simultaneous raids and interrogations targeted other Indigenous leaders in several regions of the Russian Federation.
Ms. Egereva is being accused of participation in a ‘terrorist organization’ on the basis that the Indigenous human rights defenders’ network ‘Aborigen Forum’ (of which CSIPN was a collective member at the time) was administratively labelled a ‘structural unit’ of an alleged ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ designated as extremist in 2024. The prosecution relies on this retroactive and arbitrary linkage to criminalize her association with CSIPN. This legal construction is fabricated: the ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ does not exist as a real organization, and CSIPN has never engaged in or advocated violence or any conduct that could be characterized as terrorism under international law.
IITC’s submissions call for the UN Human Rights system to support Ms. Daria Egereva’s immediate release and the dropping of all terrorism-related charges against her by the Russian Federation Government. IITC also sent a communication to the UNFCCC Secretariat calling for them to uphold the Code of Conduct regarding this attack on an Indigenous leader attending COP30, as well as an urgent appeals to the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council’s Reprisals Focal Point.
The International Indian Treaty Council is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of their rights, treaties, traditional cultures, sacred lands and waters. IITC was the first Indigenous Peoples organization to receive Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1977, and in 2011 was the first to be upgraded to General Consultative Status with ECOSOC.
Download: IITC Submits UN Urgent Actions for Daria Egereva.Final
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IITC Submits UN Urgent Actions calling for the release of jailed Russian Indigenous Human and Climate Justice Defender, Daria Egereva
For Immediate Release, December 18th, 2025
Daria Egereva during a recent UNFCCC COP meeting. Photo courtesy of L&DC
Geneva, Switzerland: On December 18th, 2025, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) sent Urgent Action alerts to several United Nations Human Rights Mandate holders and processes on behalf of Indigenous leader, Daria Egereva. These included submissions to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Human Rights Defenders, Promotion and Protection Human Rights while countering terrorism and Human Rights in the context of Climate Change, as well as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.
Ms. Egereva, a Selkup Indigenous woman from Russia, was arrested by Russian security services on 17 December 2025, accused of “terrorism”. A court hearing held today, 18 December, determined she will continue to be detained for two months. It is unknown what will happen to her after that time period.
Daria Egereva, a highly respected Indigenous leader, has served as Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) since 2023. In this leadership role she coordinated Indigenous Peoples participation at recently concluded 30th Conference of the Parties (COP 30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belem Brazil. Ms. Egereva also served as a representative of Indigenous Peoples of the Russia region on the Facilitative Working Group of the UNFCCC’s Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform.
Ms. Egereva is a long-standing member of the Centre for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North (CSIPN), an Indigenous rights organization with decades of engagement with the UN system. The UN Human Rights Council has explicitly recognized CSIPN not as a terrorist group, but as a victim of persecution and “mass forced shutdowns” (Resolution 60/21, 2025).
IITC’s submissions on behalf of Ms. Egereva state that this is a “grave case of intimidation and reprisal against an Indigenous leader in direct connection with her participation in the UNFCCC process.”
According to local sources, on 17 December, in the early morning, Russian security services raided Ms. Egereva’s home and detained her. The arrest forms part of a wider coordinated operation, as simultaneous raids and interrogations targeted other Indigenous leaders in several regions of the Russian Federation.
Ms. Egereva is being accused of participation in a ‘terrorist organization’ on the basis that the Indigenous human rights defenders’ network ‘Aborigen Forum’ (of which CSIPN was a collective member at the time) was administratively labelled a ‘structural unit’ of an alleged ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ designated as extremist in 2024. The prosecution relies on this retroactive and arbitrary linkage to criminalize her association with CSIPN. This legal construction is fabricated: the ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ does not exist as a real organization, and CSIPN has never engaged in or advocated violence or any conduct that could be characterized as terrorism under international law.
IITC’s submissions call for the UN Human Rights system to support Ms. Daria Egereva’s immediate release and the dropping of all terrorism-related charges against her by the Russian Federation Government. IITC also sent a communication to the UNFCCC Secretariat calling for them to uphold the Code of Conduct regarding this attack on an Indigenous leader attending COP30, as well as an urgent appeals to the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council’s Reprisals Focal Point.
The International Indian Treaty Council is an organization of Indigenous Peoples from North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, working for the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and the recognition and protection of their rights, treaties, traditional cultures, sacred lands and waters. IITC was the first Indigenous Peoples organization to receive Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1977, and in 2011 was the first to be upgraded to General Consultative Status with ECOSOC.
Download: IITC Submits UN Urgent Actions for Daria Egereva.Final