"The scale of attacks against land rights defenders is particularly preoccupying and should attract our utmost reaction and urgent mobilisation. The toll they pay, together with their families and communities, is dramatic, be it killings, forced disappearances, harassment or criminalisation. Caught in the crossfire between poor land users fighting for the respect of their basic human rights and powerful economic actors fighting for juicy profits, they account as one of the most vulnerable categories of human rights defenders. This particular vulnerability is due to various factors including the fact that they challenge important economic interests pushed by powerful actors such as States and corporations, the fact that they generally operate in remote areas in which the rule of law is weak and the access to protection mechanisms is difficult. Moreover, land rights defenders operate within a weak legal framework governing land rights and land deals, in a global context of intense pressures over land and resources. Behind attacks against them, the situations on which they intervene are those where authorities are shunning their obligation to ensure the fulfilment of their human rights obligations. This, in turn, portrays a world where development plans and investments impacting on land, are made at the expense of the local users who depend on these lands for their survival. Authorities and political actors often favour economic actors, be they national or transnational ones, at the expense of the rights of their own populations. The balance of power becomes dramatically unequal and the efforts to bring the respect for human rights at the centre of so-called development are clearly insufficient..."