Missing voices

In memory

This report and our campaign are dedicated to all those individuals, communities and organisations bravely taking a stand to defend human rights, their land, and our environment.

Last year, 196 people were murdered for doing this work.

We also acknowledge that the names of many defenders who were killed last year may be missing, and we may never know how many more gave their lives to protect our planet. We honour their work too.

Shell was looking for oil and gas off the coast of South Africa, close to where I live. Not that anyone had bothered to inform us – not our government, not Shell, not anyone else. We heard it in the news.

Little did it matter that our Constitution clearly states that we must be consulted. Like so many other land and environmental defenders around the world, we found our basic rights violated. Yet I count myself lucky because I am here to tell my story.

As this new report documents, 196 fellow defenders can’t tell their stories; they were brutally murdered in 2023.

This report shows that in every region of the world, people who speak out and call attention to the harm caused by extractive industries – like deforestation, pollution and land grabbing – face violence, discrimination and threats.

We are land and environmental defenders. And when we speak up many of us are attacked for doing so.