Bogotá, Apr 14 (EFE).- Violence against social leaders in Colombia persisted in 2025, with 165 murdered leaders and 874 recorded attacks, a 5% increase from 2024, according to the annual report by the NGO Somos Defensores.
The report, based on figures from the Information System on Attacks against Human Rights Defenders (SIADDHH), warned that the situation remains critical, especially for women, who accounted for 15% of fatalities, with 27 murders, a 42% increase from the previous year.
Furthermore, the report highlights the persistence of high levels of impunity, as between January 2002 and September 2025, 1,840 murders of human rights defenders were recorded, of which only 12% resulted in convictions.
Along the same lines, the document noted a “worrying rate of impunity” of nearly 86%, highlighting that, between 2016 and 2025, the perpetrators remained unknown in 59% of cases.
The organization warned that this situation reflects that «the recognition and protection of those who defend human rights in Colombia have not been prioritized.»
The report dedicates one of its chapters, titled «You Said You Would Change,» to questioning the actions of President Gustavo Petro’s government, arguing that structural changes in the protection of social leaders have not materialized.
According to the organization, there are persistent failures in the implementation of comprehensive protection measures and in the institutional response to the risks faced by these individuals, in a context marked by the expansion and conflict between illegal armed groups.
In this regard, the report argues that the increase in violence is also due to «the unwillingness to listen to the demands of the social movement.»
Threats remain the primary form of violence, accounting for 55% of cases, followed by murders (19%), attacks, and forced displacement, both at 8%.
Compared to 2024, attacks increased across several categories, particularly forced displacement, which rose by 64%, followed by kidnappings, with a 38% increase.
Likewise, threats rose by 19%, attacks by 16%, forced disappearances by 24%, and murders by 5%.
Prosecutions, which were not recorded in 2024, totaled 15 cases in 2025.
The report concludes that the persistence and increase in these figures show that “targeted violence against human rights defenders has worsened” and that security conditions continue to lack structural improvement.
However, figures on violence against social leaders vary depending on the source.
The NGO Institute for Development and Peace Studies (Indepaz) reported that at least 187 social leaders were murdered in 2025, a figure higher than that of Somos Defensores.
The United Nations has documented at least 972 murders of human rights defenders between 2016 and 2025, and warned that Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for carrying out this work. EFE
pc/mcd
