401 human rights defenders killed in 2022: Front Line Defenders Global Analysis 2022 report

Front Line Defenders has released its Global Analysis 2022.

It reports: “In 2022, the HRD Memorial investigated and verified the killings of 401 HRDs in 26 countries.”

Notably, of the 401 human rights defenders killed in 2022, 186 were in Colombia, 45 in Mexico, 17 in Honduras, and 4 in Guatemala, countries where PBI physically accompanies at-risk human rights defenders. That figure represents 62% of the global total.

The report also says: “Colombia recorded the highest number of lethal attacks against human rights defenders in 2022, with 88 environmental and indigenous rights defenders killed, 47% of the national total of 186.”

Furthermore, this chart reveals key overall numbers:

The report further notes: “In 2022, criminalisation in all its forms was one of the most pervasive and complex threats facing HRDs and their organisations globally. According to Front Line Defenders data, criminalisation of HRDs, in the form of arrest, detention and legal action, was the most prominent form of attack – comprising 34% of all violations recorded against HRDs during the year.”

And with respect to climate change, it highlights:

“A stark disconnect persisted between the urgency for climate action and the glaring absence of political will to ensure the protection of land, environmental and indigenous peoples’ rights defenders on the frontlines of the global climate justice movement. As world leaders, business elites and experts gathered to negotiate climate change mitigation at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), communities and defenders dedicated to environmental protection and climate justice continued to be relentlessly and violently persecuted and excluded from decision-making spaces, while their collective ancestral knowledge was frequently disregarded.”

The full 88-page can be read here.