At least 300 human rights defenders killed in 2023: Front Line Defenders report

Published by Brent Patterson on May 22, 2024May 22, 2024

Image from video for the report.

Front Line Defenders reports: “In 2023, the HRD Memorial documented the killings of 300 HRDs in 28 countries” including 142 in Colombia, 30 in Mexico, 19 in Honduras and 6 in Guatemala where Peace Brigades International accompanies defenders.

Among their findings:

– “Indigenous peoples’ rights defenders were the most targeted group in 2023, with a total of 92 killings registered in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and the Philippines.”

– “A total of 64 people who defended environmental and land rights were killed in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines.”

– “49 of the defenders killed identified as women, including transwomen, and 14 were members of the LGBTIQ+ community and defended its rights.”

– “199 human rights defenders were shot to death either by state or non-state actors, including paramilitary and criminal groups.”

– “HRDs denouncing business-related human rights abuses continued to be subjected to numerous attacks, both online and offline, perpetrated by multiple actors, including State forces, company staff and company-linked individuals. Agribusiness, extractive industry and energy and development projects are amongst the most dangerous sectors for HRDs to work on, putting environmental, indigenous people’s and land rights defenders at particular risk.”

Image: Attacks in the Americas, page 47.

Honduras

One of the examples related to PBI accompaniment is in Honduras. The report states:

“In Honduras, 2023 was marked by deadly violence against defenders; according to HRD Memorial, 14 land, indigenous people’s and environmental defenders were killed throughout the year. On 7 January, water rights defenders Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla were killed by armed men in La Concepción, in Tocoa, in an attack believed to be in retaliation for their work to protect the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers from an illegally sanctioned iron-ore mine. Prior to his killing, Aly Domínguez had been criminalised along with 31 other leaders. On 18 January, Omar Cruz, another defender and member of the Plataforma Agraria del Valle del Aguán, was killed in his home in Tocoa.”

Canada

Canada is also mentioned at least twice in the report:

– “Canada is home to almost ‘half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies’ and Canadian mining companies have been linked to attacks against HRDs. In 2020, HRD Adán Vez Lira was killed in Actopan, Mexico. Adán was a vocal opponent of human rights violations caused by mining in the Veracruz region, including by mining projects owned by Canadian companies Almaden Minerals and Candelaria Mining. With the track record of risk posed by the extractive industry to HRDs, it was disappointing that in Canada’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in November, none of the States most vocal on HRDs internationally – including the US, the UK, the EU, or Norway – made recommendations in relation to Canadian companies abroad and the safety of defenders. The only recommendations it received relating to the conduct of its companies in third countries were from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Japan.”

– “In Canada, several indigenous Wet’suwet’en HRDs stood trial in 2023 for charges related to their peaceful opposition to the laying of a natural gas pipeline passing through unceded traditional territory of the Wet’suwet’en indigenous peoples in British Columbia. The project was implemented without FPIC [free, prior and informed consent]. A number of defenders were arrested in a series of police raids carried out by the heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The project is removing indigenous peoples from their homelands, damaging the natural environment and threatening the cultural heritage of the Wet’suwet’en. By the time this report was written the trials of three indigenous defenders were ongoing.”

Palestine

While the number is undoubtedly higher, the report lists 9 Palestinian human rights defenders killed in 2023.

In their section on “Israel’s war on Gaza” (pages 18 to 20), Front Line Defenders notes: “HRDs were among those killed, including journalist and cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa who was killed in Khan Yunis by an Israeli strike in December. He had been covering the aftermath of an Israeli attack on a United Nations-run school sheltering displaced people in the city. He is one of dozens of journalists killed in Gaza since 7 October in what appears to be a concerted effort on behalf of the Israeli military to silence reporting on the scale of the devastation.”

Samer Abu Daqqa was killed on December 15, 2023.

Image on page 97.

In a second section titled “Israel – War” (pages 96 to 99), the report notes: “The impact on HRDs, as on the population at large, has been devastating. Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

To read the full report, go to: Global Analysis 2023/24.