The following statistics are derived from Front Line Defenders’ urgent actions and approved grant applications between 1 January and 31 December 2025. The statistics are based on 2,739 reported violations in 119 countries. Front Line Defenders often documents multiple violations per case or grant, as this is the reality of the situation for many human rights defenders.
The information Front Line Defenders receives is dependent on HRDs being aware of the organisation and sharing information about their situation; as such, this data cannot be seen as wholly representative for all HRDs in all countries. This data should serve as an indicator – but not a comprehensive report – of the scope of the violations that human rights defenders face on a daily basis. The data are not exhaustive but reflect key trends reported through Front Line Defenders’ work. Furthermore, incidents of killings have been removed and are addressed in the HRD Memorial data.
The tables below show the breakdown of the most common violations as reported to Front Line Defenders in 2025, as well as the most targeted groups of human rights defenders. The full list of violations and groups of HRDs that the organisation documented violations against is set out in the methodology section of this report.
