The Tone Has Been Set. But We’re Ready.
A look back at our 2025 victories and a first look at PBI’s roadmap for a challenging year ahead.
Donald Trump has set the tone for the year ahead. Few will miss Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, whose regime was responsible for widespread repression and abuses. But the flagrant violation of international law by the US, coupled with feeble responses from UK and European leaders, hints at continued global turbulence and challenges for those of us working towards peace and rights.
Thankfully for all of us, human rights defenders will continue to do as they always have: developing increasingly creative strategies and actions to hold the powerful to account.
“Solidarity has always been core to PBI’s mission, and at a time of deep funding cuts, government backtracking and persistent risks, we will need you - our allies and supporters - to stand alongside us and the defenders we protect so that we can achieve this mission.”
Ben Leather, Director of PBI UK, at a recent event at Lush. introducing two human rights defenders from Mexico and West Papua who were visiting London in December 2025, speaking to the UK Government and Civil Society.
We saw in 2025 what is possible when they do so. In Kenya, Desire Youth Initiative mobilised communities, chiefs, mosques and schools in the fight against feminicide, while in Guatemala, Indigenous Maya Achi women leaders won a landmark court case which saw paramilitaries imprisoned for raping Indigenous women in the country’s armed conflict. The sentence paves the way for reparations and structural reforms. In Colombia, Corporación para la Libertad Judicial prevented the extension of AngloGold Ashanti’s title for the Québradona copper mine on community land and - in Mexico - the El Bajío community advanced its fight for compensation from UK-incorporated Fresnillo PLC, which extracted over 236,000 ounces of gold illegally from communal land.
Sadly, we can also predict that activists will continue to face a backlash, as those brave enough to challenge power always have, and we know that human rights defenders can feel more alone, exposed, and afraid when the world’s superpowers are so brazenly undermining the international rules-based order.
Whether from the far right, unscrupulous companies or organised crime, the forces colluding to silence those defending their land, rights and environment are increasingly transnational; the threats are digital and judicial as well as physical. But the sharpest end of these reprisals remains unerringly local - in defenders' communities, in their offices, and in their homes.
The threats facing Claudia Ignacio Álvarez exemplify the risks defenders face. Having stood up to pollution and land grabs caused by companies with international investment, she was threatened, harassed and surveilled, both in-person and online. Her niece was murdered in the Indigenous Purépecha communities in Mexico, which she had campaigned to protect. The perpetrators? Local drug gangs with alleged links to business and political elites.
Claudia Ignacio Álvarez speaking in December 2025 at our Lush event, explaining why she is a human rights defender and the threats to her life.
More about Claudia’s visit to London and meeting with the UK government.
In this context, defenders are requesting PBI's presence in high-risk and remote locations. They are asking for support in campaigning across borders and with diverse stakeholders, for connections to a broader range of allies, including other activists, and for immediate protection fused with longer-term capacity building.
This is why PBI’s new Global Strategic Plan builds on and evolves what we have successfully done for 45 years. This is why this year we'll scale up our brand-new capacity-building programme in Southeast Asia, where local and global experts are helping communities, environmental defenders, and women leaders embed resilience, security, and wellbeing into their activism. It is why we'll use our learnings from over four decades of frontline protection to produce tools and tactics in multiple languages for more defenders in more communities to keep themselves safe and heard. And it’s why we’ll bring specialised legal support to rural communities resisting environmentally destructive business operations.
Solidarity has always been core to PBI’s mission, and at a time of deep funding cuts, government backtracking and persistent risks, we will need you - our allies and supporters - to stand alongside us and the defenders we protect so that we can achieve this mission.
We are very proud of our achievements in recent years. They were only possible thanks to those of you who backed our campaigns, attended our events, donated to our fundraisers and spread the word about PBI, defenders and their causes. Thank you.
The tone has been set. It’s not going to be easy. But we are up for the fight. Every time a threatened defender tells us how PBI has helped them stay alive and get heard, we feel more determined than ever. And, with you by our side, we know we can win.
Happy New Year,
Ben
Director, PBI UK
P.S. PBI has stood alongside defenders for 45 years, but we’ve never done it alone. Your solidarity is what makes this "incredible organisation" possible. Every gift, no matter the size, tells a threatened activist that the world is still watching.
