[JURIST] Human rights activists around the world were subject to murder, assaults, imprisonment and other forms of repression in 2005 according to a joint report [PDF] issued Wednesday by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) [advocacy website] and the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) [advocacy website]. The study revealed more than 1,100 reported cases of repression against activists last year, in over 90 countries, including Colombia, China, Iran, Nepal and Russia. In all 1,172 cases of repression against human rights activists were catalogued, involving 117 murders or attempted assassinations, 92 cases of ill-treatment or torture, 56 physical attacks and 315 arbitrary detentions.

An introduction to the 289-page report honors all defenders: "there are men and women who, regardless of the danger they face, persist in denouncing the violations they have witnessed, convinced that law – international human rights law – will triumph over violence and arbitrariness." Reuters has more.