The impacts on Indigenous populations around the world are starkly disproportionate, said Chris Madden, lead author on the Global Witness report. Colombia topped the Global Witness list with 64 deaths recorded in 2019, two and a half times the number a year earlier. The Global Witness report counted some 33 people killed defending the Amazon, a vital but threatened repository for atmospheric carbon. Killings of women human rights defenders in Colombia rose nearly 50% in 2019 over the year before, a U.N. human rights council report found. As in years past, mining is responsible for the greatest number of defender deaths recorded in the Global Witness report.

Source: Huffington Post July 29, 2020 00:00 UTC