Amnesty International Highlights Daria Egereva’s Case in Global Report on Environmental Human Rights Defenders
Amnesty International has included the case of Indigenous human rights defender Daria Egereva in a new report to the United Nations on the growing persecution of environmental human rights defenders worldwide.
The report, “Environmental human rights defenders: Vital voices face attacks and lack protection,” was published in August 2026 as Amnesty International’s submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment.
For Daria Egereva, the report is significant because Amnesty places her arrest not simply within the broader repression of civil society in Russia, but specifically among cases of reprisals against environmental and climate defenders for their advocacy work.
Arrested after COP30
Amnesty states that environmental human rights defenders face physical attacks, threats, harassment, surveillance, criminalization, arrest and prolonged arbitrary detention.
The organization also warns of a broader global trend of shrinking civic space. Peaceful environmental and climate defenders are increasingly stigmatized as “extremists”, “criminals” or threats to public order and national security, providing authorities with a pretext to restrict their rights.
Against this background, Amnesty cites the case of Daria Egereva.
“After participating in COP30 in 2025, Indigenous human rights defender Daria Egereva’s home in Russia was raided and she was arrested for her alleged participation in ‘Aborigen Forum’.”
The report notes that the “Aborigen Forum” had been designated by Russian authorities as an “extremist” and “terrorist” organization in 2024.
Natalia Leongardt, Eduard Baltykov and Konstantin Borobiyev were also arrested and placed in pre-trial detention, with their detention extended in June 2026. Amnesty further notes that several other activists who had left Russia were issued detention orders.
Indigenous defenders face particular risks
Amnesty places these cases within a much broader global pattern.
The organization notes that nearly three quarters of attacks against environmental human rights defenders are linked to business activities, according to analysis by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Indigenous Peoples are particularly affected because extractive and infrastructure projects are frequently located on or near their territories and resources.
This makes the protection of Indigenous defenders inseparable from the protection of land, water, traditional livelihoods and the right to participate in decisions affecting Indigenous communities.
Amnesty also stresses that Indigenous and other marginalized communities are more exposed to environmental harm and more likely to come into conflict with powerful state and corporate interests when defending their lands, water, environment and livelihoods.
From climate advocacy to a terrorism case
The contrast is stark.
A few weeks after participating in an international process devoted to climate change and after bringing Indigenous perspectives into global climate discussions, Egereva returned to Russia and became the target of a criminal case under terrorism legislation.
Amnesty does not present her case in isolation. It places it alongside cases from Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Türkiye and other countries where environmental defenders have faced criminalization, detention, intimidation or other reprisals.
The report therefore provides an important international framework for understanding what happened to Egereva and other Indigenous defenders in Russia.
A growing international response
Amnesty’s report is part of a broader and steadily growing international response to the cases of Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt.
The organization subsequently included her case in its Write for Rights 2026 campaign, publishing a special poster dedicated to Daria on September 1.
The cases of Egereva and Leongardt have also been raised by UN Special Procedures, Indigenous organizations, human rights groups and environmental organizations around the world.
In January 2026, Daria Egereva was nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize by James Anaya, former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Øyvind Ravna, Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
For Indigenous defenders, this means protecting not only individual activists, but also the right of Indigenous Peoples to defend their lands, environment, cultures and communities.
Daria Egereva’s case shows the consequences when peaceful Indigenous and climate advocacy is treated as a security threat.
Her detention has not stopped her case from reaching international institutions. Instead, her name is now appearing across several interconnected international agendas: Indigenous rights, climate justice, environmental human rights, protection of human rights defenders and the right to participate in international decision-making without reprisals.
Amnesty International’s new report adds another powerful voice to that growing international record.
Sevr Nuu
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