A Crucial Gap: the limits of official data on attacks against defenders and why it's concerning

More than six years after Agenda 2030 was adopted, crucial gaps in state-reported data severely undermine our ability to monitor the situation of land and environmental defenders.

Through a review of data on indicator 16.10.1 available in the Global SDG Indicators Database and an assessment of the 195 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted since 2015 to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), A Crucial Gap documents the state of reporting of attacks on HRDs, specifically those working on environmental, indigenous peoples’ and land rights, and examines potential pathways towards building a better dataset that could inform better, evidence-based policies and protection mechanisms.