A/HRC/43/51/Add.3 AMERICAS REGION 102. During the reporting period, the Special Rapporteur sent 74 communications to 34 countries in the Americas region, with a response rate of 47%, slightly lower than last year. The Special Rapporteur commends some Governments, such as Argentina, Brazil, the United States of America, and Uruguay for their efforts in responding comprehensively to every communication sent and takes good note of the improved level of response and engagement by the Governments of Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador and Mexico. The Special Rapporteur would like to encourage all governments to engage fully with the mandate and provide substantive replies to those communications that remain unanswered thus far. 103. The Special Rapporteur would like to commend the Government of Peru for its invitation to visit the country, and for its cooperation with the Special Rapporteur during his visit. The Special Rapporteur remains committed to provide technical support and welcomes the commitment and will of the Government of Peru to address the situation of human rights defenders and take measures to ensure a safe and enabling environment for them, in compliance with the “Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” or in its abbreviated form, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. 104. The Special Rapporteurs notes with concern the shrinking civic space in many countries in the region. This year was marked by a wave of demonstrations, which were in many cases met with excessive use of force by law enforcement and/or the military. Serious restrictions and attacks on freedom of peaceful assembly and association and freedom of expression, were subjects of communications sent to Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela. 105. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about existing legal frameworks and new legislative initiatives that restrict the ability of civil society, and human rights defenders in particular, to exercise their rights to protest peacefully, to participate in public affairs, to establish and run non-governmental organizations, and that restrict the right to freedom of expression, including of journalists, as evidenced in the communications sent to Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, and Mexico. 106. As stated in previous reports, the Americas region remains one of the most dangerous regions in the world for human rights defenders, although the level of risk varies from country to country. Attacks on human rights defenders in the Americas were common and included threats, online and offline attacks, killings, arbitrary detention, judicial harassment and criminalisation, in connection to their legitimate human rights work. Human rights defenders in the region often challenged the interests of powerful businesses, local politicians and elites, corruption and reported on violations and abuse related to armed and criminal groups. 107. In a large number of countries in the region human rights defenders operate in an environment, where there is a prevailing negative narrative about them in the societies they live in. They are stigmatised by a variety of state and non-state actors, including government officials, international and national corporations, and some media, religious groups, and private individuals, as criminals, anti-development, terrorists, etc. 108. Lack of accountability and impunity for crimes committed against human rights defenders is pervasive in some countries in the region. As the Special Rapporteur has stressed on a number of occasions, this perpetuates further the cycle of violence against human rights defenders. Unless access to effective justice for human rights defenders and their families is guaranteed, and unless the perpetrators of crimes are sentenced and violations they commit are punished, human rights defenders in the Americas will continue to be killed, attacked and threatened, with women human rights defenders facing additional gender-based violence and harassment. 109. The Special Rapporteur reiterates his concern at the situation of indigenous land and environmental rights defenders. As illustrated in the communications sent to Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru, the threats they face are often related to the absence of free, prior and informed consent, or related to their work challenging the negative impact of public or private development and/or extractive projects 19