UN Rights Commissioner: attacks on rights defenders reached alarming levels in 2025 – JURIST

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report on Wednesday documenting record level attacks against human rights defenders in 2025.

The Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders (HRDs) defines HRDs as “people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner.”

Preliminary data shows that 743 HRDs were killed and 202 were forcibly disappeared, which is more than double the recorded cases in 2015. According to a UN press release, a HRD, journalist, or trade unionist is now killed or disappeared every 10 hours. At least 5,995 HRDs have been killed since 2015.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed his concern, stating: “Human rights defenders are the pillars of free and open societies…they must be protected, wherever they are.”

The Front Line Defenders (FLD), an international human rights organization which seeks to protect HRDs, published its own independent findings on Monday that were largely similar. According to the FLD findings, the highest numbers of killings are in Colombia (165), Mexico (43), and Palestine (43). Speaking to the need for international response to this crisis was FLD CEO Alan Glasgow, who said:

From drastic funding cuts and raging conflicts, to creeping repression even in countries that once supported them, 2025 saw some incredibly challenging times for human rights defenders around the world. Human rights defenders’ ongoing work and courage in the face of these risks far exceeds the level of protection and support available to them. This must be a wake-up call for rights-respecting States to do more to protect them and support their fearless work.

The OHCHR report also sheds light on civilian deaths in conflict and worldwide patterns of discrimination. These are paired with the statistics on HRDs because of key connections the OHCHR notes across these concerns:

The rise in attacks against defenders reflects a broader erosion of protection in many parts of the world. That same deterioration is visible in armed conflicts, where civilians continuously bear the cost of violence.

In terms of conflict-related deaths, the OHCHR findings show a recorded instance of civilian death every 14 minutes. “Conflict is a human rights wasteland,” Türk said of this statistic. With respect to discrimination, the OHCHR reports that one in five people globally have indicated experiencing discrimination in the past year. Importantly, the report also recognizes that without strengthened data collection, discrimination tends to remain invisible and inadequately addressed.

This report was published the same day the Economic and Social Council, a gathering of UN Member States, other UN officials, UN partners, and private sector representatives, began its annual three-day humanitarian affairs segment to discuss critical issues in this realm. At the opening session, attention was drawn to the need for all those in attendance to play their part in upholding support, respect, and protection of humanitarian aid.

The UN has previously reported on specific countries with serious safety risks for HRDs, such as an April OHCHR statement on Mexico, highlighting extensive threats and significant obstacles to government response measures.