Rights Defenders Under Threat in Ecuador: How Government Protection is Insufficient and Favors Industry Interests

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, in her report for the Human Rights Council of December 24th of 2020, noted that 1,323 human rights defenders have been murdered since 2015, with Latin America being the most dangerous region. Frontline Defenders corroborated this in its 2019 Global Analysis report, indicating that human rights defenders in South America are at risk of being considered ?enemies of the State? and that the media?s agenda has framed the work of human rights defenders as working against political regimes and other interests. Furthermore, in its last report in 2021, the organization reported that of the 331 murders of social leaders registered globally in 2020, 69% of those murders occurred in context of defending territory, nature, and indigenous rights.