Raízes da resistência

In 2024, 146 land and environmental defenders were murdered or disappeared globally, with 82% of cases occurring in Latin America. Mining remains the most lethal sector, followed by logging and agribusiness. The report highlights systemic failures in state protection, high levels of impunity, and the criminalization of activists. It specifically examines the precarious situation of indigenous and peasant communities in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Honduras, Guatemala, and Chile, while also addressing the environmental destruction and land expropriation in occupied Palestinian territories. The document calls for the ratification of the Escazú Agreement, the implementation of the EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and the guaranteed safe participation of defenders in COP30.

• In 2024, Global Witness documented 146 murders and prolonged disappearances of land and environmental defenders worldwide, averaging approximately three people killed or disappeared per week.
• Latin America remains the most dangerous region, accounting for 82% of all documented cases in 2024. Indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers are the most targeted groups, with 45 defenders from each category killed or disappeared.
• Mining is identified as the most lethal economic sector for defenders, with at least 29 cases in 2024, followed by logging (eight cases) and agribusiness (four cases).
• Organized crime is linked to nearly one-third of the murders and disappearances in 2024, while state forces (military and police) were linked to 17 killings.
• Colombia continues to be one of the most lethal countries globally, recording 48 murders in 2024, representing one-third of all documented fatal attacks worldwide.
• Guatemala experienced a sharp increase in violence, with murders jumping from four in 2023 to 20 in 2024, making it the country with the highest per capita murder rate of defenders in 2024.
• In the Philippines, eight cases were documented in 2024, with at least six linked to government bodies, primarily the armed forces. Defenders face 'red-tagging', where they are falsely accused of being communists or terrorists.
• The report highlights the systematic expropriation of Palestinian lands and environmental destruction in Gaza and the West Bank, noting that 80% of Gaza's arable land was damaged by March 2025.
• State protection mechanisms, such as Colombia's UNP, are often ineffective due to bureaucratic hurdles, lack of collective protection, and a requirement for defenders to continuously prove their risk level to maintain support.
• Criminalization is described as the most common tactic to silence defenders, with laws on terrorism, sedition, and defamation being instrumentalized against them.

APA

dos Santos, S. (2022). Raízes da resistência. Global Witness. https://globalwitness.org/pt/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/raizes-da-resistencia/

Chicago

dos Santos, Selma. Raízes da resistência. Global Witness, 2022. https://globalwitness.org/pt/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/raizes-da-resistencia/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=dos Santos |first1=Selma |title=Raízes da resistência |publisher=Global Witness |date=29 September 2022 |url=https://globalwitness.org/pt/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/raizes-da-resistencia/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dossantos2022razes, author = {dos Santos, Selma}, title = {{Raízes da resistência}}, institution = {Global Witness}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://globalwitness.org/pt/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/raizes-da-resistencia/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }