In July 2021, Protection International published a three-part series on COVID-19 and human rights defenders (HRDs). The analysis shows increased digital and physical threats to HRDs and the role of surveillance and extractive companies.

HRDs across the world have been exposed to a wide range of dangers and threats, from smear campaigns and harassment to arbitrary detentions, abductions, and assassinations. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has worsened the conditions for a kind of work that is already extremely mentally, physically, and emotionally  arduous. Many HRDs, communities, and organizations are now further exposed to online surveillance, harassment, doxing, hacking and censorship. At the same time, some private corporations, especially transnational extractive companies, have seized 2020 as a chance to move forward with their business plans without due consultation with local and Indigenous communities.

The series mentions the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre's analysis, according to which there were 286 business-related attacks against HRDs between March and October 2020, which represents a 7.5% increase compared to the previous year.