For Immediate Release
June 9, 2026 - Bonn, Germany--Today, at the UN Climate Change Conference (SB64) in Bonn, the International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), the Indigenous Peoples' Caucus within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), made the powerful and historic decision to reconfirm Daria Egereva as Co-Chair of the Forum until her full release. Cultural Survival welcomes this decision as a profound act of solidarity and a refusal to let repression silence Indigenous leadership.
Egereva, a Selkup Indigenous human rights defender from the Tomsk region of Russia, has served as Co-Chair of the IIPFCC since 2023. She was arrested on December 17, 2025, and ordered into detention the following day on an accusation of participating in a "terrorist organization," a charge carrying a potential sentence of 10 to 20 years. Her detention came within days of her return to Russia from COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where she coordinated the participation of accredited Indigenous Peoples, and is widely understood as retaliation for her decades of Indigenous rights advocacy.
By confirming Egereva in her leadership role rather than replacing her, the Caucus has affirmed that her voice, her mandate, and her place among Indigenous Peoples cannot be taken from her by imprisonment. The decision keeps her seat and her standing as a leader of the global Indigenous climate movement secure until the day she walks free.
“This decision tells Daria, and every Indigenous defender facing persecution, that we will not let a prison cell erase their voice," stated Alicia Moncada (Wayuu), Director of Advocacy and Communications of Cultural Survival
Cultural Survival stands with Daria Egereva, with the IIPFCC, and with all Indigenous human rights and climate defenders whose safety, dignity, and freedom are under threat. We renew our call for her immediate and unconditional release, and we honor the Caucus's decision as a model of how the Indigenous movement protects its own.
About Cultural Survival
Cultural Survival has advocated for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supported Indigenous communities' self-determination, cultures, and political resilience since 1972. For more information, visit www.cs.org.
Media Contact:
Agnes Portalewska, agnes@cs.org
###
