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On the evening of 21 January 2023, Thulani Rudolf Maseko was gunned down at close range, shot through the windows of his home, in front of his wife and children in Luhleko, Mbabane by unknown assailants. Front Line Defenders believes, and is deeply concerned that, the killing of Thulani Rudolf Maseko appears to be a deliberate targeting and silencing of the lawyer and human rights defender, in direct retaliation to his legitimate work in defence of human rights.

On 8 March 2022, land rights defender and member of the grass-roots movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, Ayanda Ngila, was shot and killed by four armed men. At the time of the shooting, the human rights defender had been working on repairing an irrigation pipe in the eKhenana community garden. The gunmen fled the scene through the river. A suspect has been detained for questioning by the Cato police.

On 10 March 2021, Jaseb Hatteb, father of human rights defender Ali Jaseb Hatteb, was assassinated by an unknown militant in the city of Amarah. The family of the human rights defender believes that Jaseb Hatteb was assassinated as result of his efforts to find his son Ali Jaseb Hatteb who was abducted and disappeared on 8 October 2019.

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 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 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 07 June 2024, Pakistan authorities filed a First Information Report (FIR), including false sedition charges, against Baloch woman human rights defender Dr. Mahrang Baloch. The FIR is linked to a full day conference held by Mahrang Baloch in the Quetta Press Club on 18 May 2024, which was unjustly disrupted by local authorities.

On 25 January 2024, the Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong’s top court, overturned the December 2022 ruling by the High Court acquitting woman human rights defender Chow Hang-tung of “inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly” in the 2021 vigil to commemorate the victims of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989.

On 13 August 2021, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 10 in Legazpi City granted human rights defender Dan Balucio’s motion to quash and to suppress alleged evidence, dismissing the trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against the human rights defender.

On 12 July 2021, the Regional Trial Court of Davao del Norte dismissed the fabricated charge of murder filed against indigenous rights defender Windel Bolinget by the Tagum City Police.

On 21 January 2021, human rights defender Windel Bolinget presented himself before the National Bureau of Investigation in Baguio City following the filing of a fabricated murder case against him. The human rights defender is keen to prove his innocence and to access protection in a climate where extra-judicial killings of human rights defenders regularly take place

Approximately three weeks since he was last seen on, 5 March 2016, the whereabouts of human rights defender Mr Fidencio Gómez Sántiz remain unknown. He was last seen leaving his family in Ocosingo, Chiapas. The prominent local human rights organisations Comité Cerezo believes that  Fidencio Gómez Sántiz's disappearance may have been carried out with the participation or acquiescence of Mexican law enforcement agents in what would constitute an enforced disappearance.