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On 7 March 2021, during coordinated operations led by the police and military in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila, five human rights defenders were among those killed and four human rights defenders were arrested. Human rights defenders Emanuel Asucion, Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee Coros Bacasno, Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista were among those killed, whilst human rights defenders Nimfa Lanzanas, Esteban Mendoza, Eugene Eugenio and Elizabeth Camoral were arrested during the raids.

On 19 January 2021, LGBTIQ+ rights defender Paschal Raymond was brutally killed by unknown assailants in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

On 4 September 2020, human rights defender Abdel Fattah Bouchikhi was released from prison after completing his four month sentence.

On 28 May 2020, the Court of First Instance of Jorf El Melha sentenced human rights defender Abdel Fattah Bouchikhi to four months' imprisonment. He is charged with defamation regarding a social media post he made in the context of COVID-19.

On 19 July 2020, at around 3pm, human rights defender Bandeko Namuhenda was released by his abductors. During his time in captivity, the defender was beaten and tortured, and is in need of medical attention.

On 16 July 2020, human rights defender Bandeko Namuhenda was abducted by six armed unknown assailants at his home in Uvira, in South-Kivu province.

On 28 May 2020, human rights defender Ibrahim Ebrat succumbed to his injuries after he was shot by unknown assailants on 20 May 2020 while on his way home after his Ramadan prayers.

On 23 April 2020, the body of disappeared human rights defender and journalist Sajid Hussain was recovered from a river in Uppsala, Sweden. Sajid Hussain, a Pakistani journalist and Baloch rights activist, had sought refuge in Sweden as he was compelled to leave Pakistan in 2012 due to threats to his life. On 2 March 2020, the human rights defender went missing, after he was last seen boarding a train from Stockholm to Uppsala. His body was found nearly two months later.

On 3 February 2020, indigenous peoples’ rights defender Julio Gómez Lucas was placed under house arrest by Judge Alberto Calmo, a judge of the court of first instance specialising in drug and environmental crimes in the municipality of Santa Eulalia, department of Huehuetenango.

On 29 May 2017, the house of human rights defender Maitree Chamroensuksakul was raided by police while he was returning from a meeting with the U.N. Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, during an unofficial visit to Bangkok on 26 and 27 May 2017. The raid took place in the the village of Chaiyaphum Pasae, a Lahu human rights defender who was shot dead by military officials earlier this year, during an alleged anti-drug operation in Ban Kong Phak Ping, in the Chiang Dao district of Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province.

On 22 November 2021, officials of National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s federal counter-terrorism agency, raided human rights defender Khurram Parvez’s home and office in Srinagar, seized several electronic devices and documents, and arrested him on charges of terrorism funding, being a member of a terrorist organization, criminal conspiracy, and waging war against the state under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).