Quito, September 10, 2026. Seven international organizations have released a joint report warning of an accelerated deterioration in human rights defense and environmental protection in Ecuador. The document, titled “Attacks and Criminalization Against Civil Society in a Context of Militarization and Extractivism,” was published by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), Front Line Defenders, CIVICUS, 11.11.11, AJUFIDH, and Peace Brigades International (PBI). The findings are based on an observation mission conducted in March 2026.
Militarization and State of Exception
The report notes that since March 2024, the state has repeatedly adopted states of exception and declared internal armed conflict, expanding the role of the Armed Forces in citizen security. These exceptional measures have not reduced insecurity; instead, violent death rates have reached historical records. In militarized zones, serious human rights violations have been reported, disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and peasant populations.
Soraya Gutierrez, Secretary General of FIDH, stated that Ecuador faces a crossroads: it must either strengthen the rule of law or deepen the crisis. She emphasized that exceptional measures cannot become the new normal and that socio-environmental conflicts cannot be resolved through the militarization of territories. Security policies must address the multidimensional causes of violence and adhere to international law.
Criminalization of Defenders and Judicial Weakness
The organizations observed attacks against the Constitutional Court, challenges to judicial independence, delays in justice administration, and insufficient responses from the Ombudsman’s Office regarding the criminalization and blocking of accounts of defenders. Cesar Sivo, president of AJUFIDH, asserted that judicial independence is non-negotiable and that without autonomous powers, the rule of law vanishes.
Eduardo Marenco of CIVICUS highlighted a worrying and accelerated deterioration of civic space. He pointed to the violent repression of the 2025 strike, increased threats against journalists, and administrative and financial sanctions against civil society organizations as evidence of a increasingly hostile environment for civic liberties.
Extractivism and Territorial Conflicts
The report identifies patterns of violent repression against peaceful protests led by indigenous movements since 2025, including stigmatization and the persecutory use of administrative, financial, and legal measures. Álvaro Gómez del Valle of Front Line Defenders stressed that defending human rights and nature is not a crime under the Ecuadorian Constitution and called for an immediate end to criminalization and attacks on defenders.
Carla Mocoso from 11.11.11 noted that extractivism, linked to mining, oil, agro-industrial, fishing, and hydroelectric sectors, emerges as a network of normative and security decisions favoring economic growth at the expense of community governance and livelihoods. The report urges the Ecuadorian state to align security policies with principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, guarantee judicial independence, end the criminalization of protesters, protect defenders with gender and intercultural approaches, and respect the free, prior, and informed consent of affected communities.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
