Silent COP17 Protest Supports Daria Egereva, Natalia Leongardt and Indigenous Rights Defenders
On 23 October, a silent protest in support of Indigenous rights defenders and environmental human rights defenders took place on the sidelines of COP17 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Yerevan. Participants also expressed solidarity with Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, who have been under arrest in Russia for almost a year.
The action, “A Silen[ced] Protest for Indigenous and Environmental Human Rights Defenders,” took place after an Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) event at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) pavilion. Participants marched silently through the conference grounds.
In protest, they taped their mouths shut and carried placards addressing the criminalization of Indigenous rights defenders and environmental defenders, the persecution of activists, and the shrinking space for civil society.
Their silence symbolized the situation of human rights defenders whose voices are being suppressed and excluded from decision-making processes that directly affect their lands, territories and natural resources.
During the action, participants expressed particular support for Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, who have been under arrest in Russia for almost a year. Their names were raised in the context of the broader problem of the criminalization and persecution of Indigenous representatives and people defending the rights of their communities.
One of the central themes of the action was the “justice gap”: the gap between international commitments to protect environmental human rights defenders and the actual circumstances of people who face persecution for their work.
The action was also linked to the implementation of Target 22 of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which provides for the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in decision-making, access to information and justice, and protection for environmental human rights defenders.
The silent march was one of the events marking the end of COP17’s first week in Yerevan. Participants reminded conference delegates that global biodiversity goals cannot be achieved without protecting the people who defend their lands, territories, communities and the environment.
The message of the action was simple: biodiversity cannot be protected by silencing those who defend nature and the rights of their peoples.
Source: Indigenous Russia, 23 October 2026.
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