In the USA, at least 888 people were reported killed by police using firearms, with Black people disproportionately impacted. Six US states still had no use-of-force statutes and, of those that did, none complied with international law and standards regarding the use of lethal force. The US Senate also failed to introduce the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – a bill providing a bipartisan set of proposals to reform certain aspects of policing in the USA. ARBITRARY DETENTIONS AND ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Cases of arbitrary detention were reported in many countries including Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela and at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay. According to the Campaign Defending Freedom, 3,275 people were arbitrarily detained in the context of Colombia’s National Strike. The Working Group on Enforced Disappearances recorded that the whereabouts of 327 people disappeared, remained unknown at the end of the year. The Cuban authorities arbitrarily imprisoned hundreds of people for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the context of the 11 July protests. In Nicaragua, in the months leading up to the re-election of President Daniel Ortega in November, police arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared dozens of human rights defenders, journalists and government opponents, including seven potential presidential candidates. According to the Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal, the country’s security forces arbitrarily detained 44 political activists, students and human rights defenders during the year. Some detainees died in custody, including three whose arbitrary detention was politically motivated. Despite US President Biden’s stated intention to close the detention facility at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, 39 men remained arbitrarily and indefinitely detained in the facility; 10 could face the death penalty. HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS The Americas remained one of the world’s most dangerous regions in which to defend human rights. Human rights defenders were killed in several countries including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. A report by the NGO Global Witness described Colombia as the country with the highest recorded number of attacks on environmental and human rights workers in the world. Human rights defenders were also subjected to threats, violence, prosecutions, arbitrary detention and unlawful surveillance in Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and the USA. Venezuela saw one of the sharpest deteriorations in the situation of human rights defenders. According to the Centre for Human Rights Defenders and Justice, in 2021 there were 743 attacks on activists – an increase of 145% compared to 2020. IMPUNITY AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE Impunity for human rights violations and crimes under international law – as well as a lack of access to justice, truth or reparation – remained a serious concern in more than half of the countries in the region. Amnesty International Report 2021/22 31