At least 331 human rights defenders who promote social, environmental, racial and gender justice in 25 countries were murdered in 2020, with dozens more beaten, detained and criminalized for their work, according to the analysis.
Latin America, the most dangerous continent in the world to protect the environment, land and human rights, was responsible for more than three quarters of all murders of human rights defenders in 2020. In Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted of armed groups despite a 2016 peace agreement, 177 of these deaths were recorded, more than half of the global total. The Philippines was the second country with the most deaths, with 25 murders, followed by Honduras, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil and Guatemala.
Although the majority (69%) of the dead worked with the environment, land or the rights of indigenous peoples, activists also found themselves targeted simply for providing Covid-19 aid to their communities, according to a report published Thursday. by the defense group Frontline Defenders (FLD).
In a year in which many countries have implemented blocking measures to help stem the spread of the pandemic, human rights defenders have provided much-needed support, providing PPE, medicine and food to the sick and elderly, filling gaps left by their governments. Despite this assistance – or perhaps because of it – they faced a variety of reprisals, ranging from arrest and harassment to physical violence and murder, said FLD head of protection Ed O’Donovan.
“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed many shortcomings in many societies – notably systemic inequalities and government failures to provide effective services to their citizens, which is sometimes intentional,” said O’Donovan.
“Much of this can be traced back to corruption and undemocratic systems in which transparency and accountability are anathema to the interests of ruling elites, both political and economic. Human rights defenders and civil society have filled these gaps – although they are still targets – by offering services and an alternative vision for societies. “
O’Donovan said it was not surprising that, in the Americas, activists working with issues of impunity and justice have suffered the second highest rate of violations against them, after those working with indigenous, land and environmental rights.
Twenty human rights defenders working to combat corruption were also killed in 2020 – the highest number ever documented by the FLD.
The report also found that:
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Indigenous activists accounted for almost a third of the total of 331 human rights defenders killed worldwide, although indigenous peoples represent only about 6% of the global population
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A significant number of those killed worked to prevent extractive industry projects. They included South African environmental activist Fikile Ntshangase, who was shot dead after opposing the extension of a coal mine near his home.
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13% of all registered deaths were women
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Six transgender human rights defenders were killed in 2020, all of them in the Americas
Although Covid-19 has paralyzed part of the momentum of the protest movements started in 2019, human rights defenders have helped to remobilize and, in some countries, start movements during the last half of 2020, the report says. In Poland, activists fought for reproductive rights; in Bulgaria, they fought the corruption of the political elite; in the United States, protests broke out against systemic racism; in Hong Kong, activists took to the streets to fight the introduction of an “Orwellian” national security law.
The fact that fewer countries were responsible for a higher number of deaths of human rights defenders in 2020 than in 2019 – 331 murders in 25 countries last year compared to 304 murders in 31 countries in 2019 – proves that the Impunity reigns when it comes to crimes against activists, even amid widespread blockades and a global pandemic, said O’Donovan.
“Human rights defenders are always at risk and the lack of accountability and judgment for their murders is practically at no cost to the perpetrators,” said O’Donovan, adding that a handful of countries – including Afghanistan, Colombia and Peru – were responsible for significant damage increased killings in 2020.
“In Peru, deaths increased from one in 2018 to eight in 2020; 75% of those killed in 2020 were indigenous, while everyone worked on land or indigenous issues, meaning that most, if not all, were located in more remote areas and face corporate and state actors seeking control of land and resources natural ”. said O’Donovan.
“In Colombia, armed groups have imposed their own Covid-19 checkpoints and patrols in the areas they control, thereby exposing human rights defenders to greater risks.”
The report was published in the same week that Amnesty International accused the UK government of failing to deliver on its promise to protect human rights defenders abroad. According to the report, health professionals, lawyers, journalists and human rights activists around the world are struggling to get support from British embassies.
The FLD made a special note of the “attempts by China and India to reduce and reshape normative human rights standards” on the global stage. The report also highlighted the ongoing persecution in China of its mostly Muslim Uighur population, which resulted in arbitrary mass arrests and surveillance, forced labor, forced sterilization of Uighur women and the death of at least one Uighur human rights defender, Tursun Kaliolla, the former civil servant killed in December 2020 while in custody in Xinjiang.
FLD deputy director Olive Moore said the 2020 numbers demonstrate an “unscrupulous” trend of violence against activists and called for human rights defenders to be included in governments’ post-Covid planning and Cop26 climate negotiations scheduled for November this year.
“Although 2020 was a difficult year for everyone, it was especially challenging for human rights defenders, who stood up to face unprecedented challenges. They have faced increasing attacks, economic insecurity and the impact of disease and death in their communities, but have worked to fill the gaps left by the government’s insufficient responses to the pandemic, ”said Moore.
“That they are under attack, as detailed in this report, is unfair.”