Not less than 48,384 people – largely civilians – had been killed in 2024, primarily based on casualties recorded by OHCHR.
“Behind each statistic is a narrative. Behind each information level, an individual,” stated UN rights chief Volker Türk.
This alarming rise in civilian deaths exposes main failures to guard a number of the most susceptible in each peacetime and battle conditions, “portray an image of a worldwide human rights panorama in want of pressing motion,” he stated.
Human rights defenders
Simply over 500 of these killed in 2024 had been human rights defenders, with the variety of journalists killed additionally rising by 10 per cent, evaluating 2023 to 2024.
The extent of focusing on of human rights defenders and journalists remained alarmingly excessive: not less than one human rights defender, journalist, or commerce unionist was killed or forcibly disappeared each 14 days.
Detentions of rights defenders was most widespread in northern Africa, central, southern and western Asia. Killings had been most prevalent in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Alarming rise in deaths of ladies and kids
Violence in opposition to youngsters and girls in armed conflicts has been devastating over the previous two years.
Between 2023 and 2024, roughly 4 occasions extra youngsters and girls had been killed in armed conflicts than throughout 2021–2022.
Ladies reported experiencing gender-based discrimination at greater than twice the speed of males, and the poorest households had been hardest hit, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.
“Discrimination doesn’t exist in isolation,” stated Mr Türk, as OHCHR’s findings revealed widespread and compounding discrimination, with practically one in three individuals with disabilities reporting having skilled discrimination, in comparison with fewer than one in 5 with out disabilities.
