Americas 2024

Human rights defenders in the Americas were stigmatized, harassed and attacked, including through arbitrary detention, defamatory campaigns, enforced disappearances, forced displacements, illegal surveillance, killings, threats, torture and unfair trials.

Freedom of expression was at risk due to attacks on and harassment of the press, including the killing of journalists and unlawful surveillance of the population. Restrictive regulations and repression by law enforcement posed obstacles to the right to protest.

States failed to investigate and redress gross human rights violations and crimes under international law, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. There were some limited developments in accountability for political repression and crimes committed in the past. The Inter-American human rights system continued to be a key player in the region’s efforts to achieve truth, justice and reparation.

Unfair trials and arbitrary and mass detentions continued to be a daily occurrence as a form of repression or as part of public security strategies. In some countries, unfair trials were held before tribunals and courts lacking independence.

Anti-Black racism and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples continued to be prevalent in the region. Discrimination against LGBTI people was recorded throughout the region. Violence severely affected transgender people.

States failed to take the necessary actions to minimize the human rights impacts of the climate crisis. Wildfires, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and floods affected communities in several countries.

States did not fulfil their obligations to guarantee economic and social rights, which particularly affected groups that suffer discrimination. Poverty and inequality were prevalent in the region. Health services were inadequate and underfunded, and food insecurity affected millions.

Gender-based violence, including femicide and sexual violence, continued unabated and unpunished throughout the region. Access to abortion was hindered in law and practice, mainly affecting people facing multiple forms of discrimination. Several countries introduced policies in law or practice that reduced access to reproductive health services.

Indigenous Peoples continued to be subjected to violence, discrimination and marginalization, and several states denied them their right to free, prior and informed consent. Abuses by state and non-state actors were often linked to land tenure, titling issues and extractive industries.

Thousands of people continued to leave their countries and move across the region seeking international protection, due to persecution, human rights violations, insecurity and the adverse effects of climate change. Many migrants, refugees and asylum seekers faced violence, xenophobia and racism, and legal and bureaucratic obstacles to exercising their rights.

Human rights defenders

The Americas continued to be dangerous for human rights defenders, with violations including arbitrary detention, defamatory campaigns, enforced disappearances, forced displacements, illegal surveillance, killings, threats, torture and unfair trials. Across the region, the most vulnerable human rights defenders belonged to particular groups, such as women, Afro-descendants, Indigenous persons and LGBTI people. Women searching for disappeared people faced high levels of risk.

Land, territory and environmental defenders were at particular risk of attacks and harassment by governmental authorities and non-state actors including in Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. In Bolivia, park rangers protecting the Madidi National Park were subjected to threats and attacks, while in Peru, four land, territory and environmental defenders were killed, including three Indigenous leaders.

Governments failed to guarantee adequate protection mechanisms for human rights defenders. In Brazil, the Protection Programme for Human Rights Defenders operated in fewer than half the country’s states. In Honduras, local organizations raised concerns over the weakness and ineffectiveness of the national protection mechanism. In Peru, the Ministry of the Interior continued to lack a protocol to coordinate the protection of human rights defenders with the police. Despite this trend, there were some limited advances in Guatemala where the government reactivated the official body responsible for the analysis of risks to human rights defenders.

States must guarantee that human rights defenders are able to carry out their work safely and without fear of reprisals. NGOs and other human rights associations and movements must be respected and allowed to conduct their work.

Freedom of expression, association and assembly

Civic space as an intersection of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly was threatened by governments in the region in a concerning and growing trend.

Freedom of expression was at risk due to attacks on and harassment of the press in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. In Colombia and Mexico, a number of these attacks resulted in violent deaths. In Argentina and El Salvador, female journalists experienced digital violence, including sexual harassment.

Journalists were criminalized and stigmatized by state authorities in several countries. In Cuba, between September and October at least 20 journalists were summoned by the authorities, threatened with criminal prosecution and forced to record videos incriminating themselves. Their mobile phones and laptops were confiscated. In Nicaragua, media outlets had their assets confiscated; in Venezuela, radio stations continued to be shut down and the government hindered access to social media platforms. In Mexico, at least four journalists were killed and the personal information of 324 journalists provided to the presidency for accreditation purposes was leaked and posted on a website.

Some governments continued their efforts to control, restrict or close down NGOs. Paraguay and Venezuela approved bills that would increase control over civil society organizations and lead to arbitrary restrictions, including closure and criminal proceedings against their members. A similar bill was proposed in Peru but was still pending approval at the end of the year.

Unlawful surveillance and other privacy violations continued. In Argentina and Chile, there were reports of mass surveillance through facial recognition and other technologies. In the USA, similar concerns were raised about a mobile application with facial recognition and GPS tracking, which was mandatory for migration and refugee processes. In Colombia, there was controversy around the alleged purchase in 2021 of Pegasus, highly invasive spyware that enables full and unrestricted access to a device, and its use.

Repression and the obstruction of protest continued to be a concern in the region. Protests were repressed by law enforcement in Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, the USA and Venezuela, among others. In Canada and the USA, peaceful university demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza were met with violence from law enforcement officials. According to the NGO the Venezuelan Observatory on Social Conflict, between 29 and 30 July, 915 protests were registered in the country, out of which 138 were repressed by security forces and pro-government armed groups. New restrictive regulations on the right to protest were approved or proposed in Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru, highlighting the deterioration of civic space.

States must protect civic space and repeal laws and practices that hinder the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and prohibit unlawful surveillance by state and private actors.

Right to truth, justice and reparation

States failed to investigate and redress enforced disappearances in the region. In Argentina, the executive ordered the closure of the Special Investigation Unit for the search of children appropriated and forcibly disappeared during the 1976-1983 military regime. In Peru, a law instituting a statute of limitations to crimes against humanity and war crimes committed before 2002 came into effect. New cases of enforced disappearances occurred in Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela.

Unlawful killings were committed with impunity; some cases might constitute extrajudicial executions. In Ecuador, the Public Prosecutor’s Office noted a spike in reports of possible extrajudicial executions during the first half of the year. In Mexico, military personnel attacked and killed people in several states, including migrants and children. In Venezuela, at least 24 people died as a result of government repression of protests after a contested presidential election. Detainees in Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela experienced torture and other ill-treatment in prisons.

In Haiti, abuses by criminal gangs continued unabated. Gangs were responsible for countless abuses, including killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, abductions and denial of humanitarian access.

Lack of accountability for human rights violations during protests and other political repression in previous years continued in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. Some positive developments were registered during the year, however, including the start of criminal proceedings in recent cases of repression in Chile and Peru. In Brazil, five military police officers were charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment in the case of Davi Fiuza, who was forcibly disappeared in 2014. In October, two men were convicted for the 2018 killing of councillor and human rights defender Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes. In Paraguay, a former police officer was sentenced to 30 years in prison for torture committed in 1976, during the military regime.

Truth and reparation mechanisms were fruitful but remained insufficient. In Brazil, memory and truth policies were partially resumed, including the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances. In Mexico, the Mechanism for Truth and Historical Clarification presented two reports addressing grave human rights violations between 1965 and 1990. In Peru, a court order initiated the process of comprehensive reparations for victims of forced sterilizations during the 1990s. The ICC authorized the resumption of the investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in Venezuela.

The Inter-American human rights system continued to be a key player in the region’s efforts to achieve truth, justice and reparation. Among other issues, it expressed concern about mercury poisoning of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, promoted land recovery for the Garifuna community in Honduras and issued protection orders for people arbitrarily detained in Nicaragua. It also determined Colombia responsible for a campaign of persecution against the Lawyers Collective “José Alvear Restrepo” and Argentina responsible for failing to adopt reasonable measures to prevent the 1994 attack at the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association centre.

States must guarantee truth, justice and reparations for human rights violations and crimes under international law and bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian tribunals.

Arbitrary detention and unfair trials

Unfair trials and arbitrary detentions continued to be a daily occurrence as a form of repression or as part of public security strategies. In Cuba, 14 people were convicted for participating in peaceful protests in 2022 in the municipality of Nuevitas. In Guatemala, former prosecutor Virgina Laparra was declared guilty in an unfounded criminal proceeding shortly after being released in another arbitrary proceeding, which forced her to go into exile. The Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua documented at least 151 individuals in the country detained for political reason. In the USA, Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, continued to serve two life sentences despite serious concerns about his conviction and sentencing. In Venezuela, human rights defenders and journalists continued to be criminalized and arbitrarily detained, but people from all walks of life were at risk with at least 2,000 arbitrary detentions recorded after the elections, including 200 children.

Mass detentions, as well as detention without due process, in relation to security strategies continued to be a concern. In Ecuador, thousands of possible arbitrary arrests were carried out by law enforcement with apparently little justification. A report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) confirmed that the state of emergency in El Salvador had led to mass arbitrary detentions. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed concern regarding the systematic use of arbitrary detention in Mexico, including the use of arraigo (precautionary detention without charge) and automatic pretrial detention. Despite this, the Mexican Congress increased the list of offences to which automatic pretrial detention applies. In the USA, authorities expanded the system of arbitrary mass immigration detention.

In some countries, such as Venezuela, arbitrary arrests were accompanied by short-term enforced disappearances and often followed by unfair trials before courts lacking independence. The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers expressed concern for the right to independent and impartial judges in Bolivia, after judicial elections were delayed for more than a year. During a country visit to Guatemala, the IACHR pointed out that unfounded criminalization was evidence of a lack of judicial independence in the country. Mexico amended its constitution to incorporate the election of judges at all levels, undermining judicial independence.

Authorities must take all the necessary measures to put an end to arbitrary detentions and to guarantee the right to a fair trial.

Discrimination

Anti-Black racism and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples continued to be prevalent in the region. In August, the IACHR recognized that structural racism and racial discrimination posed barriers to the full enjoyment of the rights of Afro-descendant people and tribal communities and called on states to implement comprehensive reparatory justice.

Law enforcement actions were targeted against, or disproportionately affected, Afro-descendants in Brazil, Ecuador and the USA. In Canada, the Federal Court heard an application to certify a class action brought by current and former federal public service workers against the government for anti-Black racism in recruitment. In the Dominican Republic, racial discrimination remained widespread and structural, particularly towards Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian asylum seekers seeking protection.

In Brazil, 537,941 Indigenous individuals faced food insecurity, according to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. In Canada, the police killed nine Indigenous People in separate incidents in one month. In Colombia, Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendant communities continued to experience disproportionate impacts from human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law and were disproportionately affected by large-scale forced displacement.

Discrimination against LGBTI individuals was recorded in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the USA and Venezuela. Violence severely affected transgender people. In Brazil, in a report published in 2024, the human rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia reported 257 violent deaths in 2023, mainly affecting young Black transgender individuals. In Colombia at least 21 transgender women were killed, according to the NGO Affirmative Caribbean. In Mexico, the media and civil society organizations reported at least 59 femicides of transgender women.

States must take the necessary measures to end racism, discrimination and other forms of intolerance and ensure redress for victims.

Right to a healthy environment

States failed to take the necessary actions to minimize the human rights impacts of the climate crisis. Governments did not properly address their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and phase out the use of fossil fuels. Countries including Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela increased oil extraction and gas flaring. Canada and the USA, both high-income and high-emitting countries, failed to address the use of fossil fuels in the production of energy and remained major emitters of greenhouse gases. They also blocked agreement on an adequate new climate finance target at COP29.

Fires in the region, especially in the Amazon basin, caused massive loss of fragile ecosystems and affected the ability of carbon sinks to mitigate global warming. There were extensive wildfires in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and the USA. The response of governments to the effects of fires on ecosystems and human rights, including those of Indigenous Peoples and rural communities, was insufficient.

The worsening effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion and floods, affected communities throughout the Americas region. Flooding in Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil affected 2.3 million people and displaced 600,000. In Honduras, communities in the Gulf of Fonseca reported negative impacts on their livelihoods caused by rising sea levels. In Mexico, families from the El Bosque community, who had been evacuated in 2023 due to sea level rises attributed to climate change, were relocated and received new homes following legal actions by community members.

Governments must urgently address the effects of the climate crisis on human rights by taking local, national and region-wide action, including phasing out fossil fuels and by seeking international assistance and climate finance when needed. High-income, high-emitting countries must provide adequate climate finance.

Economic and social rights

States did not fulfil their obligations to guarantee economic and social rights, which particularly affected groups that suffer discrimination. Poverty and inequality remained problematic in the region. In Argentina, the introduction of austerity measures had a disproportionate impact on children and older people.

Health services were inadequate and underfunded, affecting access to services and medicines in Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. In Brazil, dengue fever cases surged leaving 6,041 dead, compared with 1,179 deaths in 2023. In Haiti, the health system faced serious challenges that brought it to the brink of collapse. In Puerto Rico, the health and lives of people dependent on electrical equipment were put at risk by the inadequate electricity supply. In Uruguay, access to mental health services was insufficient in the face of growing demand. Despite the recommendation of a 6% GDP health expenditure by the Pan American Health Organization, Mexico allocated only 2.9% of GDP and Paraguay only 4%, to name two examples.

Food insecurity affected millions, including children, in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. In Argentina, the minimum pension benefit failed to cover the cost of living. In Cuba, the government significantly reduced the supply of subsidized “basic food baskets” and people had to stand in long lines to access groceries. Almost half the population in Haiti needed humanitarian assistance, with alarming levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food visited Venezuela and reported that nearly 53% of the population was exposed to extreme poverty with insufficient income to purchase a “basic food basket”.

States must take all necessary measures to tackle poverty and inequality and to meet their human rights obligations regarding economic, social and cultural rights.

Sexual and gender-based violence

Gender-based violence, including femicide, continued unabated and unpunished throughout the region. A variety of sources reported alarming numbers of femicides in the region, including in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Neither Cuba nor the Dominican Republic had legislation making femicide a specific criminal offence.

In Argentina, a femicide was reported every 33 hours; despite this, the government implemented budgetary cuts to policies addressing gender-based violence. There were limited developments in Guatemala as the government acknowledged state responsibility for the feminicides of Maria Isabel Véliz Franco and Claudina Velásquez in the early 2000s, as ruled by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Other forms of violence also affected women and girls in the region. In Brazil, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office was actively monitoring cases of gender-based political violence against women. In Canada, organizations called on the Ontario state government and municipalities to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic. In the Dominican Republic, the media reported sexual and gender-based violence during immigration operations. In Haiti, sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, increased in the first half of the year. In Peru, the government registered 12,924 cases of rape against women and girls. In the USA, government data indicated that American Indian and Alaska Native women were 2.2 times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-Indigenous women.

Authorities must end impunity for violent crimes against women and girls and increase efforts to prevent them.

Sexual and reproductive rights

Access to abortion continued to be hindered in law and practice, disproportionately affecting people facing intersecting forms of discrimination. The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua continued to prohibit abortion in all circumstances. Partial criminalization of abortion remained a source of concern. In Brazil, the Ministry of Women reported that the prohibition of abortion disproportionately affected women living in poverty. In Peru, only therapeutic abortion was legal and access to such abortions was inadequate. Venezuela made no progress in improving sexual and reproductive rights, and abortion remained criminalized.

Several countries introduced policies in law or practice that reduced access to reproductive health services. In Argentina, the National Directorate of Sexual and Reproductive Health announced that there was a shortage of essential supplies for abortion services. In Chile, healthcare institutions and professionals refused to perform abortion services on the grounds of their moral or religious views, undermining pregnant people’s right to access abortion. In Puerto Rico, the Senate approved Bill PS 495, introducing restrictions on abortions for minors, requiring the authorization of a parent or guardian for the procedure. In the USA, bans and restrictions on abortion threatened people’s rights to life and health, and exacerbated barriers to abortion for Black and other racialized people, Indigenous Peoples, undocumented immigrants, transgender people, rural residents and people living in poverty. Medical professionals increasingly left states with severe abortion bans, increasing regional inequality in access to reproductive healthcare and particularly affecting rural and low-income areas.

Nevertheless, some progress was registered with health authorities in Colombia publishing regulations granting access to lawful abortion services up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, as mandated by a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling. In Mexico, seven states adopted legislation decriminalizing abortion, although another one reduced it from 12 to six weeks.

Authorities must guarantee access to safe abortions and other sexual and reproductive rights.

Indigenous Peoples’ rights

Indigenous Peoples continued to be subjected to discrimination and marginalization, and states failed to respect their rights. The right to free, prior and informed consent was denied in several countries. The Bolivian government failed to implement meaningful processes to guarantee consent for extractive projects affecting Indigenous territories. Canada negotiated a free trade agreement with Ecuador without consulting with Indigenous Peoples in the country.

Abuses by state and non-state actors were frequently linked to land tenure and titling issues. In Brazil, hundreds of conflicts affecting Indigenous Peoples largely stemmed from the lack of land demarcation and the demarcation process advanced slowly. In Guatemala, dozens of peasant (campesino) and Indigenous communities were at risk of forced evictions. In Paraguay, the Tekoha Sauce Indigenous community of the Avá Guaraní Paranaense people were still waiting for the restitution of their ancestral territory, appropriated by the Itaipú Binational hydroelectric dam. The IACHR expressed concern about the ongoing impacts of illegal mining on the life, health and survival of the Yanomami people in Venezuela.

Indigenous Peoples continued to face harassment and violence throughout the region, including a lack of state protection against violence in Brazil, harassment by law enforcement officials in Chile, and internal forced displacement in Mexico and Nicaragua. In Colombia, the Ombudsperson’s Office reported that 50% of children recruited by armed groups were Indigenous People. In Canada, the report of the Independent Special Interlocutor acknowledged that Indian Residential Schools were “colonial institutions of genocide”. In the USA, the Department of the Interior published its final report on the Federal Indian Boarding School initiative, identifying at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 schools and at least 973 confirmed deaths.

States must respect and protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including ownership and control over their lands and resources, and take measures to eliminate discrimination and violence against them.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Thousands of people continued to leave their countries and move across the region, due to persecution, human rights violations, insecurity and the adverse effects of climate change. Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers faced xenophobia and racism in the Americas. By the end of the year, more than 7.89 million Venezuelans had fled the country since 2015, while people also fled from Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras due to violence and human rights violations. In June, the IACHR noted with concern that many states’ responses to migration included externalization and militarization of borders and deportation without due process.

Refugees and migrants faced legal and bureaucratic obstacles to exercising their rights. In Canada, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program continued to tie migrant workers to a single employer who controlled their legal status and labour conditions, putting migrant workers at heightened risk of labour exploitation. In the Dominican Republic, authorities failed to inform new arrivals about the asylum process, imposed undue barriers for visas and residence permits, summarily and collectively expelled Haitians and implemented racist migration policies. In Mexico, the National Institute of Migration failed to expedite humanitarian visas to asylum seekers, preventing them from accessing their rights to health, education and work. In Peru, authorities continued to expel migrants and refugees without the guarantee that another country would receive them. The USA suspended the entry of asylum seekers at the USA-Mexico border, violating their right to seek safety and forcing them to wait in Mexico where they were exposed to extortion, abducted, and experienced discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence.

Refugees and migrants continued to face violence, harassment and threats. In the Dominican Republic, violence and excessive use of force were recurrent in raids, according to local NGOs. In Chile, Congress continued to discuss bills proposing the criminalization of refugees and migrants.

Authorities must cease unlawful deportations and respect the principle of non-refoulement. States must combat racism and xenophobia and guarantee all internationally recognized rights to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.