22, Dec 2017 | CJP Team

Reuters has reported that the United Nations has said that 105 human rights activists have been killed in Colombia this year. Last year, Colombia’s government signed a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), ending a civil war that lasted more than 50 years. The UN’s human rights office in the country said that defenders are particularly vulnerable in areas where the exit of rebel fighters resulted in a power vacuum, according to Reuters. UN figures indicate that 127 rights activists and community leaders were killed in 2016, with 59 such killings in 2015 and 45 killings in 2014. The UN has said that in 2016, three in four killings of human rights defenders globally occurred in the Americas, where it has warned that attacks on activists are steadily rising.