International Solidarity: How the Campaign for Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt Grew
Updated: 4 days ago
From the first urgent appeals in December 2025 to a statement at the UN General Assembly in October 2026, Indigenous organisations, human rights defenders, climate advocates and diplomats have kept demanding the freedom of two women detained in Russia.
When Russian authorities detained Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt on 17 December 2025, they removed two people from the international work they had helped sustain for years. Daria, a Selkup Indigenous leader, represented Indigenous Peoples in climate negotiations. Natalia helped Indigenous representatives participate in international human rights processes. Their colleagues responded almost immediately. Within days, appeals were reaching UN mechanisms and circulating across Indigenous networks. The first Indigenous appeal, Natalia’s work and detention.
Over the following months, those first appeals became a campaign involving more than 100 organisations, ten UN Special Procedures mandates, international media and public actions. By October, both women had been named in a member state’s statement to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee. Yet they remained in detention. This chronology records how colleagues and supporters have continued to raise their cases. Joint civil society statement, UN communication, Estonia’s statement.
December 2025: colleagues speak out immediately
The first response came from people who knew Daria’s work directly. On 18 December, one day after the arrests, the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) submitted urgent appeals to UN mechanisms. Its intervention sought her release and the withdrawal of the charges, bringing the case to the international bodies with which she had worked. The organisation published its account on 19 December. IITC urgent action.
On 19 December, the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia (ICIPR) condemned the arrests and searches as a politically motivated attack on peaceful Indigenous advocacy. It announced an international solidarity action and asked Indigenous movements, governments, academics and human rights organisations to respond. Its appeal contained a sentence that captured the responsibility colleagues felt:
“Solidarity is not optional — it is a shared moral responsibility.”
That same day, the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) demanded the release of its imprisoned Co-Chair. The Forum’s statement mattered because it came from the constituency whose work Daria had helped coordinate at COP28, COP29 and COP30. It described the arrest as retaliation for Indigenous participation in UN processes and asked governments to raise the case through diplomatic channels. IIPFCC statement.
On 20 December, the SIRGE Coalition called for urgent UN intervention and freedom for Daria and all detained Indigenous defenders. Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial-Brussels also issued an appeal, urging international organisations and journalists to speak out. These early statements established an argument that would run through the campaign: peaceful Indigenous advocacy and cooperation with the UN must never be criminalised. SIRGE statement, ADC Memorial-Brussels statement.
The campaign website brings together statements and links from supporting organisations, giving readers a place to follow the appeals and find their original texts. International solidarity archive.
February: an appeal to President Putin from Indigenous Peoples worldwide
One of the campaign’s central documents was the open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, circulated in February and published by Cultural Survival on 9 February 2026. It brought together Indigenous caucuses, regional networks and organisations associated with the seven UN socio-cultural regions. Open letter to President Putin.
The signatories included global Indigenous forums working on climate change, mercury, plastics and world heritage, alongside organisations and regional caucuses from Africa, the Arctic, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. They described Daria’s contribution from their experience of working with her: coordination, technical expertise and constructive dialogue within recognised international processes. The letter asked for her release and warned that her detention undermined confidence that Indigenous representatives could participate in the UN without fear of retribution. Signatories and full text.
This was an important form of testimony. Colleagues from across the world were explaining what Daria actually did in international meetings. Their account challenged the attempt to turn that work into a terrorism allegation.
The letter centred on Daria. As the campaign developed, the public record also made Natalia’s role more visible. Cultural Survival documented her work supporting Indigenous participation and identified her as the second woman detained in the same case. Giving both women a place in the campaign meant recognising the public speaker and the person whose sustained organisational work helped others reach those international platforms. Cultural Survival’s account of Natalia Leongardt.
February and March: sustained human rights intervention
On 6 February 2026, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), issued an urgent appeal concerning Daria’s arrest, detention and prosecution. It asked for her immediate and unconditional release and an end to judicial harassment. The Observatory’s intervention gave the campaign a detailed human rights record through which organisations and governments could follow the case. FIDH–OMCT urgent appeal.
On 9 February, the human rights project Political Prisoners Support. Memorial recognised Daria as a political prisoner and demanded that she be freed and her prosecution ended. Memorial’s assessment argued that equating the defence of Indigenous rights with terrorism was unjustifiable. It added a documented assessment by Russian human rights defenders to the appeals of her international colleagues. Memorial’s recognition statement.
The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) also kept the case in public view. In a statement on 13 March, following a further extension of detention, Sarah Reinke described Daria’s prosecution as an attack on the Indigenous movement in Russia and called for her release. Such follow-up interventions were important: solidarity had to continue through repeated court decisions, long after the initial news of the arrests. GfbV statement, 13 March.
April: Mariana Katzarova names the wider pattern
Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, has a distinct place in this chronology. Her country mandate connects individual cases to the legal and political conditions in which repression occurs.
On 9 April, Katzarova and other UN experts publicly condemned the use of counter-terrorism and anti-extremism laws to dismantle Russian civil society. Their statement explicitly named both Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, describing their detention as arbitrary. It also said that Daria appeared to have been targeted in reprisal for her engagement with the UN. The experts called for an end to proceedings against peaceful defenders and the release of those arbitrarily detained. UN experts’ statement, 9 April.
The campaign’s coverage of an April roundtable with Katzarova during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues records that the arrests were raised directly with her. Taken together, these interventions kept both women’s cases within a wider discussion of the criminalisation of Indigenous and human rights work in Russia. Report of the April roundtable.
April: Amnesty’s urgent action and a coalition of more than 100 organisations
On 8 April 2026, Amnesty International published an Urgent Action on Daria’s detention. The appeal made her case available to Amnesty’s international network, offering supporters a way to take part through appeals to the authorities. Amnesty International Urgent Action, EUR 46/0875/2026.
A major collective intervention followed in the joint statement dated 20 April. More than 100 organisations demanded freedom for both Daria and Natalia. The published signatory list included Amnesty International, FIDH, OMCT, Greenpeace International, the Center for International Environmental Law, Cultural Survival, IWGIA, the International Service for Human Rights, Indigenous organisations and Quakers in Britain. Joint statement and signatories.
The coalition explained that Natalia’s work facilitating Indigenous participation in international processes could not constitute terrorism. It called on other states to use diplomatic influence to help secure release and urged UN mechanisms to respond to reprisals. Its closing message linked the women’s freedom to the purposes of the international work they had supported:
“there is no climate justice without human rights.”
The breadth of this support was also visible in the organisations’ own explanations. Quakers in Britain, for example, grounded their participation in commitments to truth, justice and human dignity. Their statement connected the defence of the two women with protection of people and the planet. Quakers in Britain’s statement.
On 24 April, a group of researchers belonging to the WAGE Circumpolar Partnership announced its own declaration. They stated that neither Daria nor Natalia had supported violence or separation from Russia and called for their release. The declaration was sent through the Russian Embassy for onward transmission to the prosecution and investigative authorities. WAGE researchers’ declaration.
May: attention to discrimination and reprisals
The campaign also developed through sustained engagement with UN human rights mechanisms. In May, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) reported concerns raised by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) about restrictions affecting Indigenous Peoples in Russia. The issues extended to environmental participation, independent organisations and pressure on defenders. ISHR’s account of the CERD intervention.
ISHR also reported that it had submitted Daria and Natalia’s cases to the UN Secretary-General’s annual reporting process on reprisals. This was a concrete step towards documenting whether people were being punished for engaging with UN mechanisms. It connected their imprisonment with the responsibility to protect those who bring information to the international human rights system. ISHR, 7 May.
April–June: ten UN Special Procedures mandates intervene together
One of the most substantial documents in the campaign is the joint communication AL RUS 3/2026, dated 7 April 2026, which became public in June. It brought together ten UN Special Procedures mandates: eight Special Rapporteurs and two Working Groups. Original UN communication.
The mandates covered Russia, arbitrary detention, climate change, a healthy environment, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, counter-terrorism, and discrimination against women and girls. That combination reflected the different rights at stake in the same prosecution.
The communication raised serious concerns about both women’s detention and possible reprisals linked to UN engagement. It urged their immediate and unconditional release, the dropping of all charges, and protection of their work with UN mechanisms. Its significance lies in the breadth of expert scrutiny: the case reached mechanisms concerned with Indigenous participation, women’s rights, civic freedoms, environmental protection and the misuse of terrorism laws. AL RUS 3/2026.
June: keeping Daria’s place at the climate negotiating table
At the June climate negotiations in Bonn, the campaign took a particularly powerful form. On 9 June, the IIPFCC reconfirmed Daria as Co-Chair until her release. Her colleagues preserved the mandate entrusted to her and kept her place within the constituency. Cultural Survival’s account of the decision.
Cultural Survival’s Alicia Moncada expressed the meaning of the decision:
“…we will not let a prison cell erase their voice.”
For a campaign confronting an attempt to silence Indigenous leadership, this decision carried particular weight. Daria’s imprisonment could prevent her from attending the negotiations, but her colleagues could continue to recognise her leadership and make her absence visible. The decision was something the international Indigenous movement could do itself, while continuing to demand her freedom.
July: empty chairs and direct appeals in Geneva
During the period of the 19th session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) in Geneva, solidarity became visible in meeting rooms and public spaces. The campaign reported that empty seats were left for Daria and Natalia at an Indigenous coordination meeting. Olga Kostrova reminded participants that the two women should have been there and thanked those sending letters of support. Campaign report of the coordination meeting.
The case was also raised in discussions with Albert Kwokwo Barume, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and in a meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. The account of the latter meeting records Maria Michurova’s appeal to continue monitoring the case and to help secure both women’s release. Türk acknowledged the cases and the seriousness of reprisals against Indigenous representatives cooperating with the UN. Report on Barume’s intervention, account of the meeting with Türk.
These meetings linked individual imprisonment to a collective loss. When Indigenous defenders are removed from international forums, their communities lose people with the knowledge, relationships and experience needed to make their concerns heard.
July–September: public pressure and the question of diplomatic action
Around the second anniversary of the 1 August 2024 prisoner exchange, the Society for Threatened Peoples called for stronger diplomatic efforts to secure Daria and Natalia’s freedom, including consideration of future exchange mechanisms. This was a proposal for action, rather than evidence of an agreed exchange. GfbV’s appeal, published by Cultural Survival.
On 24 September, the campaign reported that GfbV’s Sarah Reinke delivered one thousand signatures to Germany’s Federal Foreign Office. The signatures translated public support into an appeal addressed to a government able to pursue diplomatic channels. Report of the handover.
Meanwhile, the public announcement of Daria’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination brought further attention to her work. According to the nominators’ public account, S. James Anaya and Øyvind Ravna submitted the nomination in January. Its announcement in September gave audiences another reason to learn about Daria’s leadership and the campaign for both women. The nomination was reported by its supporters; it was not an endorsement by the Nobel Committee. Nomination and its significance.
September: preserving international scrutiny
In a letter dated 4 September, Human Rights House Foundation and other human rights organizations urged governments to support renewal of the UN Special Rapporteur’s mandate on human rights in Russia. Daria and Natalia’s detention was cited as an example of the widening repression of civil society. The organizations sought to preserve independent international monitoring needed to document such cases. Joint letter.
September: Katzarova’s warning and Germany’s statement
Katzarova’s work remained relevant as the campaign continued. In a 21 September press release presenting her report on Russia’s transnational repression, she identified heightened risks for Indigenous advocates abroad. Her warning broadened the protection question: defenders and colleagues forced into exile could still face pressure beyond Russia’s borders. Katzarova’s September statement.
At the Human Rights Council’s September discussion of reprisals, Germany explicitly raised the cases of Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt. The campaign’s report identifies the statement as part of a discussion about protecting people who cooperate with the UN. It marked a further step from civil society appeals towards public diplomatic attention to the two named defenders. Germany’s intervention, with UN webcast.
2 October: both names at the UN General Assembly
On 2 October, Rein Tammsaar, Estonia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, named both women during the General Assembly Third Committee’s general debate. His statement described Daria and Natalia as Indigenous Peoples’ representatives who were:
“arbitrarily detained under unfounded charges of terrorism.”
This placed their names and Estonia’s assessment of their prosecution directly in a member state’s public intervention at the General Assembly. It gave the campaign another documented diplomatic reference point, alongside the appeals of Indigenous colleagues, the civil society coalition and UN experts.
Solidarity must continue until both women are free
As of 7 October 2026, Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt remain in pre-trial detention. Their detention has been extended until 9 December 2026, and they face up to 20 years in prison on terrorism-related charges. Latest detention update.
The early supporters, the Indigenous appeal to President Putin, the coalition of more than 100 organisations, the ten UN mandates and the later diplomatic statements have created a substantial public record. That record must continue to support action: letters to both women, careful reporting, further diplomatic interventions and sustained demands for their immediate and unconditional release.
Free Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt. Protect the right of Indigenous Peoples to speak, organise and participate in the United Nations without fear of reprisals.
“It Was Not in Vain”
In a letter from pre-trial detention, Daria Egereva thanked the international community for its support after the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change decided to retain her mandate as a leader of the Forum. She also referred to the UN experts’ intervention in her case.
"I am very moved by the Forum's decision and, as always, I cried. I thought about the SBSTA, about how they gathered, how they prepared the statement — did they make a statement at the Permanent Forum? I thank each and every one for their solidarity, as well as the Special Rapporteurs — those I know personally, and I am very grateful to all the others.
…In one of your letters, you wrote that "it was not in vain." Perhaps this was indeed necessary for the international movement at the UN to understand the full meaning of their work, why they are there, and why such a thing can happen…" — Daria writes. Daria’s letter
Her message reflects the broader significance of the international campaign. For Egereva, international solidarity is not only about her own freedom. It is also about the ability of Indigenous representatives to participate in international institutions and speak about the rights of their peoples without fear of retaliation.
The cases of Egereva and Leongardt therefore raise a fundamental question:
Can representatives of Indigenous Peoples freely speak about the rights of their communities, participate in UN mechanisms and cooperate with other Indigenous Peoples around the world without fearing that this work will later be used against them in a criminal case?
This is no longer only the story of two women.
It is a question of whether Indigenous Peoples will continue to have the ability to speak independently about their rights — both in Russia and on the international stage.
Following the December 17 operation, some Russian Indigenous activists left the country, while others stopped their public activities. The cases of Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt have become a symbol of what happens when peaceful human rights advocacy is treated as a threat.
A campaign reaching different audiences
Throughout this chronology, reporting carried the case beyond the organisations already involved. Grist followed it through the perspective of Indigenous climate advocacy, while The Guardian reported on the pressures facing Indigenous Peoples in Russia. Grist’s June reporting, The Guardian’s May article.
The campaign’s press archive also documents APTN News in Canada, SVT’s Sápmi coverage in Sweden, NRK’s Sámi reporting, and Catalan-language coverage by Nacions Sense Estat. These publications brought the case to audiences with different languages, regions and experiences of Indigenous rights. APTN coverage, SVT, NRK, Nacions Sense Estat.
Media reporting, organisational statements and formal UN interventions play different roles. Together, they allow readers to follow the case, check the evidence and understand why the freedom of two women matters to Indigenous participation in international life.
Freedom for Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt!
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