Latin America Is the Deadliest Region for Human Rights Activists Anastasia Moloney - Thomson Reuters Foundation
go to original January 7, 2016

Inside the Americas – Defending human rights defenders (teleSUR English)

Latin America is the deadliest region for human rights activists with scores killed defending land rights, the environment and the rights of LGBTI and indigenous people, a campaign group said on Wednesday.

In the first 11 months of 2015, 156 human rights defenders globally were killed or died in detention, up nearly 15 percent from the previous year, with more than half of the killings taking place in Latin America, and Colombia alone accounted for 54 murders, according to a report by Front Line Defenders.

"Defending human rights in Latin America remained extremely dangerous and the criminalization of the defense of human rights and peaceful protest movements persisted. The most worrying issue remained extreme violence," the report by the Dublin-based campaign group said.

Outside of the Americas, the Philippines fared worst with 31 killings of human rights activists, the report said.

The persecution and harassment of human rights campaigners globally included death threats, arbitrary detention, physical attacks, police brutality and the homes and offices of activists being broken into, the report said.

"Human rights defenders face increasingly restrictive and brutal environments in every region of the globe," said Mary Lawlor, head of Front Line Defenders, at the launch of the group's annual report in Dublin.

Read the rest at GMA News Online

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