Navigating A Global Crossroads: Human Rights Defenders & Business in 2025

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In 2025, the Business and Human Rights Centre documented nearly 800 (790) attacks on defenders raising concerns about business. This is more than two attacks on average every day. 

Key findings include:

  • Attacks on defenders occurred in relation to almost every business sector in every region of the world, with 42% in Latin America and the Caribbean and 30% in Asia and the Pacific.
  • Three quarters of attacks were against climate, land, and/or environmental defenders.
  • Nearly one third of attacks (30%) were against Indigenous Peoples, despite comprising 6% of the world’s population.
  • 53 defenders were killed in 2025; over 30%  were Indigenous. 
  • The most common type of attack was judicial harassment (52%), including criminalisation and SLAPPs.
  • Mining, fossil fuels and agribusiness continued to be the sectors connected with the highest number of attacks.
  • The projects and companies associated with the highest number of attacks in 2025 were the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda and Tanzania; Grasberg Mine in Indonesia; aerospace, defence and security company Leonardo in Italy; Cobre Panamá Mine in Panama; and agribusiness company Dinant in Honduras. (Responses from the companies involved with these projects are available here)
  • The increasing overlap between security-driven governance and corporate influence, amplified by digital technologies used to restrict civic space, is intensifying limits on civic freedoms and heightening risks for defenders and communities worldwide.

 

Navigating A Global Crossroads: Human Rights Defenders & Business in 2025 report is available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.