Joint Statement of the Regional meeting of Human Rights Defenders

4 November 2025

Organisations and movements defending human rights in Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, as well as international organisations such as Front Line Defenders, SweFor for Peace Service Programme, Global Witness, Civil Rights Defenders, ANSUR, Misereor, Mundubat, Amnesty International and Protection International Mesoamérica, gathered at the ‘Meeting for the Right to Defend Human Rights in Latin America’ to condemn the serious violence faced by human rights and environmental defenders and communities in Latin America.

As human rights defenders, we act both individually and collectively to promote, protect, support and demand the guarantee of human rights for those subjected to violations. In this way, we act as the pillar that strengthens democratic society.

According to the most recent reports from Front Line Defenders, Global Witness and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Latin America continues to be the most dangerous region in the world, with at least 257 human rights defenders murdered and disappeared in 2024, of whom 119 are environmental defenders, representing 79.3% of murders and disappearances globally. Systemic patterns of criminalisation, impunity, institutional co-optation, stigmatisation and repression of protests are worrying crises in Latin America.

We are raising the alarm about the increase in violence and threats against human rights defenders in the region such as murders, gender-based violence, digital espionage and enforced disappearances. These have become practices used to silence those who denounce and demand truth and civil, political, social, economic, cultural and environmental rights, with women, campesino, indigenous, afrodescendant, garifuna and LGBTQ+ people being disproportionately affected.

As highlighted in the aforementioned reports, state agents, members of organised crime groups, companies and individuals colluding with the authorities, are primarily responsible in most cases. Additionally, illegal political-economic networks consolidate power structures that threaten the lives and work of those who defend the land, water, forests, environment, collective rights, labour rights, sexual and reproductive rights, memory, freedom of expression and association, and social justice in the face of a structurally racist, colonial and exclusionary system.

We are deeply concerned about how stigmatisation of human rights defenders is used as a strategy to delegitimise their work. This is aggravated by the weakening of the rule of law, illegal surveillance and the lack of judicial independence. Furthermore, we denounce the closure of public civic spaces for participation, the adoption of anti-NGO laws, and other regulatory mechanisms that persecute human rights defenders throughout the region and restrict international cooperation.

That is why we condemn the widespread pattern of setbacks in the guarantee of rights, democratic rule and constitutional order in the region. Evidence of this includes: the instrumentalisation of the ‘state of emergency’, the enforcement of extractivist agendas, the abuse of the use of public security forces to repress social protest and militarise territories, and the persecution of, and transnational violence against human rights defenders. Such events are taking place in the context of the United State’s current and openly militaristic foreign policy.

With this in mind, we urgently call on States to comply with international human rights frameworks, including the Escazú Agreement, to respect and protect the work of individuals and groups that defend rights, and to abstain from adopting regressive legislation.

We call for regional and international solidarity and cooperation to maintain and expand political, social, and economic support for those who defend human rights. Defending rights is not a crime, rather a legitimate and essential act for upholding democracy, justice, and dignity.

Defending rights is defending life.

Solidarity is our greatest protection.

Participating organisations, networks and platforms:

• Alianza de Organizaciones por los Derechos Humanos - Ecuador
• Amnesty International
• Ansur - Colombia
• Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos - Argentina
• Asociación Comunidades Construyendo Paz en Colombia
• (CONPAZCOL) - Colombia
• Asociación de Abogadas y Abogados, Jueces y Fiscales de Derechos Humanos de Latinoamérica y el Caribe (AJUFIDH)
• Asociación de Comités Ecológicos del Sur de Honduras (ACESH) -Honduras
• Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca (ACIN) - Colombia
• Asociación Minga - Colombia
• Asociación Unidos por la Vida (ASUVI) - Guatemala
• Caribe Afirmativo - Colombia
• Casa Xitla / Lejil Kuxlejal - México
• Centro de Documentación e Información Bolivia CEDIB - Bolivia
• Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas - México
• Centro Hondureño de Promoción para el Desarrollo Comunitario (CEHPRODEC) - Honduras
• Centro Intercultural de Derechos y Justicia “Kapak” - Ecuador
• Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) - México
• Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia (CDJ) - Venezuela
• Ciudadanía Inteligente - América Latina
• Civil Rights Defenders
• Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU) - Ecuador
• Comité Brasileiro de Defensoras y Defensores de Direitos Humanos (CBDDH) - Brasil
• Conpazcol - Colombia
• Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos - Ecuador
• Coordinadora Nacional en Defensa de Territorios Indígena Originario Campesinos y Áreas Protegidas - CONTIOCAP - Bolivia
• Coordinación Colombia, Europa y Estados Unidos (CCEEU) - Colombia
• Coordinación Social Política Marcha Patriótica - Colombia
• Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (CODEHUPY) - Paraguay
• Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos - Perú
• Coordinadora Nacional de Inmigrantes - Chile
• Corporación Alianza Migrante - Ecuador
• Corporación Claretiana - Colombia
• CRPC - Colombia
• Departamento Ecuménico de Investigación (DEI) - Costa Rica
• Enraizar Comunidad - Chile
• Espacio OSC para la Protección de Personas Defensoras de
• Derechos Humanos y Periodistas - México
• Fondo de Acción Urgente para América Latina y el Caribe
• Fondo Noruego para los Derechos Humanos
• Front Line Defenders - Internacional
• Fundación Acceso
• Fundación Escazú Ahora - Chile
• Fundación Ciudadanía Inteligente
• Fundación Regional de Asesoría en Derechos Humanos (INREDH) - Ecuador
• Global Witness
• Karina Riquelme Viveros Defensoría de Derechos Humanos - Chile
• Justiça Global - Brasil
• MIREDES Internacional
• Misereor
• Movimiento Nacional de Direitos Humanos (MNDH) - Brasil
• Mundubat - Colombia
• Pervivencia - Colombia
• Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia (PCN) - Instancia
• Regional Palenque Kurrulao Tumaco - Colombia
• Programa Somos Defensores - Colombia
• Programa Venezolano de Educación y Acción en Derechos
• Humanos (PROVEA) – Venezuela
• Proyecto Socioambiental Dulcepamba - Ecuador
• Protection International Mesoamérica – Central America
• Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos - Honduras
• Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos “Todos los
• Derechos para Todas, Todos y Todes” (Red TDT) - México
• Serpaj - PY - Paraguay
• Sociedad de Derechos Humanos de Maranhão - Brasil
• Swefor – Programa Servicio de Paz
• Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos - Guatemala - UDEFEGUA
• Corporación Sisma Mujer – Colombia
• Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en Honduras