This was contained in the latest global dataset documenting attacks on rights defenders titled, “Human Rights Count”, published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

According to the data, one human rights defender, journalist or trade unionist is killed or disappears every 10 hours.

Projected totals for 2025 indicate that at least 743 defenders were killed and 202 disappeared, with no sign of reversal in the upward trend.

OHCHR said civilian deaths in armed conflict documented by UN Human Rights continued at alarming levels.

At least 37,163 civilians lost their lives in 2025, from a record high of 48,011 in the preceding year.

OHCHR lamented that violence against human rights defenders had reached record levels, with at least 5,995 killed since 2015.

The UN human rights office said the number of human rights defenders who were murdered or disappeared in 2025 was more than double the number a decade ago.

OHCHR regretted a surge in attacks on defenders, civilian deaths in conflicts, patterns of discrimination worldwide and the state of institutions tasked with protecting universal human rights.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, behind every data point is a real life lived — or lost”.

“These new global human rights data show that discrimination, violence and exclusion are systemic and continue to affect those already at the margins.”

In January this year, The ICIR reported the Media Rights Agenda warning against persistent attack on journalists in Nigeria. The organisation described the menace as one of the biggest threats to media freedom.

The organisation said the failure to punish attacks on journalists and citizens emboldened perpetrators and pushed many journalists into fear and self-censorship.

In addition to journalists, activists and labour unionists have persistently come under attacks, orchestrated by state actors in Nigeria.

(NAN)