No fewer than 950 human rights activists, journalists, and trade unionists were assassinated or made to disappear worldwide in 2025, preliminary estimates from the United Nations reveals.
The figure was included in the most recent global dataset monitoring attacks on rights advocates, named “Human Rights Count.”
It was issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
According to the data, one human rights activist, journalist, or trade unionist is killed or kidnapped every 10 hours.
“Every 10 hours, a human rights defender, journalists, or trade unionist is killed or disappears,” the report stated, adding, “Every hour, a child dies in armed conflict.
“One in five people have experienced discrimination in the past year.”
Projected totals for 2025 show that at least 743 defenders were slain and 202 disappeared, with no signs of a turnaround in the increasing trend.
In 2025, at least 37,163 civilians were killed, down from a record high of 48,011 the year before.
It said, “Every 14 minutes, a civilian dies in armed conflict. Nearly one in five people worldwide indicate that they have experienced discrimination in the past 12 months.”
OHCHR regretted that violence against human rights defenders had reached all-time highs, with at least 5,995 dead since 2015.
According to the UN human rights office, violence against human rights defenders has reached all-time highs, with at least 5,995 dead since 2015.
It stated that the number of human rights defenders killed or vanished in 2025 would be more than quadruple that of a decade earlier.
According to the research, attacks on human rights advocates have peaked in the last year.
The OHCHR regretted an increase in attacks on defenders, civilian casualties in wars, global patterns of discrimination, and the status of institutions tasked with preserving universal human rights.
According to Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, each data point represents a genuine life lived or lost.
Turk said, “These new global human rights data show that discrimination, violence, and exclusion are systemic and continue to affect those already at the margins.”
