Front Line Defenders records hundreds of threats and human rights violations against human rights defenders (HRDs) each year. The Human Rights Defenders Memorial is a global initiative committed to gathering information and verifying data about HRDs who have been killed. In this report, they present a verified dataset on the scale of these killings worldwide, keeping alive the memory of defenders who have been killed while celebrating their courage and achievements.
The data presented in this report includes 401 killings of HRDs for their human rights work, covering 26 countries between 1 January and 31 December 2022. The five countries that accounted for over 80% of the global killings are Colombia, Ukraine, Mexico, Brazil, and Honduras. In particular, defenders working on land, environmental, and Indigenous peoples’ rights were the most frequently targeted (48% of killings).
In addition to global statistics, the report presents region-specific data analysis for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.
To learn more, download the report using the button above.
