Repressive governments arbitrarily detained at least 60 human rights defenders across 14 countries in 2025, according to the latest report by the SOS-Defenders platform, a collective initiative of local, regional and international organisations coordinated by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT).
The 2025 edition of the Censorship by Detention report, released on 3 September 2026, documents the use of arbitrary arrest across 14 countries with repressive regimes. The report reveals journalists and bloggers were the single most targeted group, accounting for 28 of the 60 documented detentions, followed by community leaders, academics, NGO members and lawyers. Afghanistan (16), Ethiopia (14) and Guatemala (10) recorded the highest numbers.
Detention is rarely the end of the abuse. Human rights defenders held in 2025 were subjected to physical violence, psychological abuse and forced confessions, secret and prolonged incommunicado detention, and inhuman conditions including prison overcrowding, denial of medical care and prolonged solitary confinement. OMCT’s Global Torture Index rates the risk of torture and ill-treatment for defenders as “Considerable” or worse in 36 of the 38 countries assessed. The report warns that violations behind prison walls remain severely underreported.
“This report is both an alarm and a call to action,” said Stéphanie David, Secretary General of OMCT. “Governments are increasingly using detention not only as punishment, but as a weapon of censorship — and, too often, torture and ill-treatment follow through the prison gates. We refuse to let these defenders be erased: OMCT and its partners will continue to expose these practices.”
“States must act,” added Claudia Virginia Samayoa, President of OMCT and Chair of the SOS-Defenders Advisory Group. “We call on governments to immediately and unconditionally release every human rights defender arbitrarily detained for their peaceful work, to end torture and ill-treatment behind bars, and to guarantee the right to defend human rights for all.”
Conversely, the report highlights that sustained coordinated advocacy, legal action, diplomatic pressure, and collective action contributed to securing the release of 87 defenders across 18 countries, with Belarus (22), Iran (15), Ethiopia (13) and Afghanistan (12) leading.
SOS-Defenders brings together more than 20 local, regional and international civil society organisations, convened under the auspices of the OMCT–FIDH Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The initiative consolidates global data on the arbitrary detention of defenders on a single public platform to drive coordinated action for their release. Since its launch, the platform has published more than 670 cases of arbitrarily detained defenders.
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