THE REPRESSION OF ACTIVISTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: THE VIOLENCE OF DEMOCRACY AND LAW

Human rights defenders (PDD or activists) face violence when mobilizing against impunity, environmental destruction, corruption, and gender inequality. The violence against PDD is often perpetrated by powerful groups. These groups control democratic institutions and the creation of law. Repressive laws are spreading and democratic institutions are used to erode the freedoms to express, participate and associate of PDD. The overlapping of repressive laws and violent democratic institutions creates different forms of violence. I investigate violence against PDD analysing how democratic institutions and laws are used to restrict opportunities and to lessen the effectiveness in the defense of rights. I use qualitative data on violence against PDD in 20 democracies between 2006 and 2017. The results indicate that violence against PDD is implicit in democratic institutions and laws and produces restrictions in institutional and social arenas dedicated to defending rights. This violence is manifested in three mechanisms: (1) control or legitimate elimination, (2) channeling, and (3) coercive response. These findings shed important light on many forms of violence against PDD that affect the integrity, intensity, and dynamism of claims and strategies of PDD.