Silencing Human Rights Defenders Once and for All? Determinants of Human Rights Defenders’ Killings

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129231217282
• Author: Matthew Krain,Amanda Murdie,Abigail Beard
• Date: 01 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(1) 401–416

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129231217282

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Silencing Human Rights Defenders Once

and for All? Determinants of Human Rights

Defenders’Killings

Matthew Krain

1

, Amanda Murdie

2

, and Abigail Beard

1

Abstract

When are human rights defenders at risk of being killed? Echoing research on journalist killings, we argue that a

democratic context makes it easier for human rights defenders to operate and incentivizes them to continue

activities and to pursue information that puts them at risk. De jure protections that defenders have may not be

enforced or may not protect defenders from bad actors engaging in politically motivated murder. These factors

make human rights defenders more likely to be killed by actors trying to avoid the spotlight and exposure in

democratic systems than in other types of regimes. Autocratic regimes provide fewer opportunities to freely

advocate for human rights and to pursue or disseminate information about human rights violations by state or non-

state actors, reducing the likelihood of defender mortality. Using two new sets of cross-national data on the number

of killings of human rights defenders between 1997 and 2010 and from 2014 to 2020, we f‌ind that these arguments

are generally supported when controlling for other factors that affect the killing of human rights defenders,

particularly in democracies with lower state capacity.

Keywords

human rights, human rights defenders, democracy, killings

On March 2, 2016, environmental and indigenous peo-

ples’rights activist Berta C´

aceres was murdered in her

home in Honduras. C´

aceres had recently highlighted

concerns about corruption and human rights abuses that

led a major company to have to withdraw from a dam-

building project. Authorities later arrested the president of

the company and charged him with plotting her murder

(Ramirez 2018). Five years later in the Philippines, on

March 7, 2021, police killed Emmanuel “Manny”

Asuncion at the Workers’Assistance Center in the city of

Dasmariñas. Asuncion, a labor advocate who was in

charge of reporting rights abuses in the province to local

human rights monitors, was one of nine human rights

defenders killed during “Bloody Sunday,”a coordinated

state crackdown across the Philippines (Bolledo 2023).

On May 2, 2023, criminal gangs in Celaya, Guanajuato, in

Mexico, were suspected of killing Teresa Magueyal. Ms.

Magueyal, whose 31-year-old son went missing 3 years

prior, was a member of a collective of families of the

disappeared who conducted searches for loved ones

“given the lack of effective investigation or response from

the authorities”(Frontline Defenders 2023b).

The murders of Berta C´

aceres, Manny Asuncion,

and Teresa Magueyal are part of a larger pattern of

targeted killing of members of civil society in general,

and of human rights defenders (HRD) in particular. In

2022 alone, at least 401 human rights defenders were

killed because of their work, up from 136 in 2014

(Frontline Defenders 2015;2023a). Whether targeted

by violent or corrupt non-state actors trying to silence

activists or by state actors engaging in crackdowns on

civil society, activists, lawyers, family members, non-

governmental organization (NGO) workers, and others

f‌ind themselves at risk because of the key roles that they

play at the local or national level in defending human

rights.

1

College of Wooster, Wooster, OH, USA

2

University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Amanda Murdie, International Affairs, University of Georgia, 327

Candler Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA.

Email: murdie@uga.edu

During the last decade, human rights defenders have

seen an increase in both the importance of, and risk in-

herent in, their roles (Forst 2018). Research on the closing

of civil society space has focused on the repressive tar-

geting of NGOs, as states or violent non-state actors make

it harder for local NGOs and transnational advocacy

networks to monitor behavior, operate within a country, or

disseminate information about rights abuses (Bakke et al.

2020;Chaudhry and Heiss 2022). Yet we know little

about where and why HRDs who work in, alongside, or

independent of NGOs are most at risk of lethal violence

(Landman 2006).

In this study, we ask when human rights defenders

are at risk of being killed. Echoing research on jour-

nalist killings, we argue that a democratic context

makes it easier for HRDs to operate and incentivizes

them to continue activities and pursue information that

puts them at risk. De jure protections that defenders

have may not be enforced, or may not protect defenders

from bad actors engaging in politically motivated

murder. These factors should make HRDs more likely

to be killed by actors trying to avoid the spotlight and

exposure in democratic systems than in other types of

regimes. Autocratic regimes may provide fewer op-

portunities to freely advocate for human rights and to

pursue or disseminate information about human rights

violations by state or non-state actors, reducing the

chance of defender mortality. Using two new sets of

cross-national data on the number of killings of HRDs

between 1997 and 2011 and from 2014 to2020, we f‌ind

that these arguments are generally supported when

controlling for other factors that affect their murders.

Who or What are Human

Rights Defenders?

Human rights defenders are ordinary individuals who

make the extraordinary decision to openly and peace-

fully advocate for “the defense and promotion of the

human rights of others”(Wiseberg 1991, 527; see also:

Nah et al. 2013,403;UN 1998;OHCHR 2004). They

can act alone or in groups, in a professional capacity or

as private members of civil society—as a lawyer ad-

vocating for the human rights of a detainee, a student

organizing a hunger strike to call attention to abuses, or

a family holding a vigil for a loved one who has been

“disappeared.”Some HRDs are staff members of es-

tablished NGOs which directly or indirectly advocate

for rights. Many others are union organizers, lawye rs,

health care workers, and social movement participants

seeking a halt to abuses of civilians, environmental

justice advocates, local activists demanding human

rights for marginalized communities, writers, peace

builders, even groups of families of rights abuse victims

(Bennett et al. 2015;Landman 2006;Wiseberg 1991).

The UN General Assembly, the Off‌ice of the UN High

Commissioner for Human Rights, and numerous human

rights NGOs all categorize HRDs by what they do, not

by who they are (UN 1998;OHCHR 2004,6;IFDHRD

2011;Jilani 2011;Frontline Defenders 2023a). They

are recognized by Article 1 of the UN Declaration on

Human Rights Defenders as having “the right, indi-

vidually and in association with others, to promote and

to strive for the protection and realization of human

rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and

international levels.”(UN 1998,3).

Human rights defenders play a crucial role in the

attainment and maintenance of human rights within

countries. As the former Deputy Director of The In-

ternational Foundation for the Protection of Human

Rights Defenders (or Frontline Defenders) argues, “the

people who make the most signif‌icant contribution to

the better realization of human rights around the world

are people working at the local and national levels. ”

(Lawlor and Anderson 2014, 366). They are crucial to

protecting justice, rights, and the rule of law (Ramirez

2018,20),andare“often the only force standing be-

tween ordinary people and the unbridled power of the

state…[and] are vital to the development of democratic

processes and institutions, ending impunity, and the

promotion and protection of human rights”(IFPHRD

2011,9).

They also play a crucial role in the maintenance and

enforcement of human rights around the world. HRDs

are key local actors upon whom transnational advocacy

network campaigns and rights-based movements de-

pend (Keck and Sikkink 1998;Smidtetal.2021, 1286).

They can raise awareness of local issues, reframe is-

sues, reinforce or challenge rights-based norms, spot-

light abuses, identify perpetrators, and use their

platforms to broadcast this information to a wider au-

dience (Keck and Sikkink 1998;Murdie and Davis

2012). As the former Special Representative of the

UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders has

argued, “exposing human rights violations and seeking

to redress them is largely dependent on the degree of

security enjoyed by human rights defenders”(Jilani

2001, 4). The consequence for not protecting HRDs

is often decreased human rights for all (Wiseberg 1991).

Yet the very things that make human rights defenders

important also put them at risk.

The Risk Environment

The risk environment within which HRDs operate is

fraught, and has become more dangerous over the last

402 Political Research Quarterly 77(1)