Human Rights Defenders

Over 600 Attacks Against 20,000 Human Rights Defenders In 2023

May 9, 2024 The Canary. Educate! Big Ag, Human Rights Defenders, Mining, Violence

Mining, big agribusiness, and the fossil fuel sectors have unleashed an astronomical spate of attacks on human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout 2023. Crucially, perpetrators linked to companies and projects in these sectors account for the majority of over 600 attacks across the course of the year. This is according to a new damning report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). Staggering scale of attacks against human rights defenders On Tuesday 7 May, the BHRRC published its annual briefing on attacks against HRDs. Alarmingly, the data recorded 630 attacks which directly impacted an estimated 20,000 people. In particular, these were those involved in speaking out against business-related harms during 2023.

Over 400 Human Rights Defenders Murdered Worldwide Last Year

April 4, 2023 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. Educate! Assassination, Human Rights, Human Rights Defenders, Violence

For the first time since such killings have been tracked, more than 400 human rights defenders were murdered worldwide last year, with nearly half of these targeted killings occurring in Colombia, a report published Tuesday revealed. According to Front Line Defenders' annual global analysis, at least 401 human rights defenders (HRDs) in 26 countries were victims of targeted killings in 2022, up from 358 people murdered in 35 countries the previous year. The report notes that five countries—Colombia, Ukraine, Mexico, Brazil, and Honduras—accounted for over 80% of HRD murders in 2022, with Colombia alone accounting for 46% of the total with at least 186 killings documented and verified.

India: Groups Demand Release Of Mohammed Zubair And Teesta Setalvad

July 2, 2022 Bharat Dogra, Popular Resistance. Resist! Human Rights Defenders, India, Press Freedom, State Repression

The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) has demanded the release of both Mohammed Zubair and Teesta Setalvad, a prominent journalist as well as human rights activist, who too was arrested very recently. This statement has noted the contradiction, observed also by other media organizations, between such arrests and the statements endorsed internationally by the Government of India regarding freedom of media and civil society organizations. In fact very recently at the G7 summit and meeting of several countries in Germany the Indian government committed itself to the 2022 Resilient Democracies Statement which involves a pledge to guard the freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors and protect the freedom of expression online and offline.

Death Squads Threaten Human Rights Defender Darnelly Rodriguez

November 25, 2021 James Patrick Jordan, Alliance For Global Justice. Resist! Assassination, Colombia, Human Rights Defenders, Violence

Darnelly Rodriguez is the Centro Pazífico coordinator and the coordinator for the Francisco Isaías Cifuentes Human Rights Network (REDDHFIC)’s Valle Del Cauca chapter. On November 19 2021, she received the second of two death threats in two weeks. This threat came from the AGC paramilitary group. She was listed along with several other social movement and union leaders in a pamphlet that was left under the door of Cali’s largest labor federation.

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