The case highlights ongoing risks facing Indigenous and environmental activists who challenge threats to ancestral lands, while raising questions about state accountability and protection from reprisals.
A speaker says Daria, an Indigenous woman from Russia, remains detained after defending Indigenous peoples’ rights at COP30 in Brazil.
Concerns over the safety and freedom of human rights defenders have surfaced at COP31 in Antalya after Thomas Joseph, an observer from the Center for Biological Diversity, raised the reported detention of an Indigenous rights advocate who spoke out for her people’s rights at last year’s climate summit in Brazil.
Joseph said Daria, an Indigenous woman from Russia and a co-chair of his group, remains in detention following her participation in COP30 in Brazil. According to him, she was detained for speaking up for Indigenous peoples’ rights, defending their lands and territories and demanding accountability from states.
“This is very important: this is not something of the past. This is continuing on, and it needs to be addressed,” Joseph said.
Describing Daria as someone who stood up for climate justice and “for our mother earth”, he said she was being held by a party to the UN climate process.
Joseph thanked DCJ and other participants for bringing the case to the floor, describing their support as an important expression of solidarity.
The case has brought renewed attention to the risks faced by human rights defenders, particularly Indigenous peoples and environmental activists who challenge threats to their lands, territories and livelihoods.
Around the world, human rights defenders working on environmental and climate issues face intimidation, criminalisation, harassment and violence for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and participation in public affairs. Indigenous defenders are particularly vulnerable when they challenge activities affecting their ancestral lands and natural resources.
The reported detention also raises questions about the responsibility of governments to protect human rights defenders and ensure that participation in international climate negotiations does not expose them to reprisals.
Climate action cannot be separated from human rights. Protecting the environment requires protecting the people who defend it.
At the time of publication, this report could not independently verify Daria’s detention or establish the circumstances of her case. No official response from the Russian authorities or other authorities concerned had been independently confirmed.
