Between January and March 2021, the Information System on Aggressions against Human Rights Defenders – SIADDHH – of HRD Memorial partners El Programa Somos Defensores confirmed 180 aggressions against human rights defenders in Colombia. That is to say, an average of two aggressions per day were committed through different types of violence: assassinations, threats, attacks, arbitrary detentions, prosecutions, forced disappearances and theft of information.
Threats are the aggression that reported the highest number of incidents (125), with 9% more than in the same period in 2020. Attacks (16 events) showed an increase of 14% (2 more events). Also confirmed were: assassinations (28 events), forced disappearances (5 events), arbitrary detentions (3 events), theft of information (2 events) and prosecutions (1 event).
Every 3 days a human rights defender was killed in the country. The leadership role that registers the highest number of assassinations is indigenous peoples rights defenders, followed by peasant and community leaders.
