Front Line Defenders was founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk, people who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Front Line Defenders addresses the protection needs identified by defenders themselves.

The report highlights some of the main global and regional trend in the repression of human rights defenders in 2015 including killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, fabricated prosecutions, unfair trials, long prison sentences, defamation and restrictive legislation.