On 23 February 2016, armed police officers arrested and detained Patricks Vandalark, on charges of criminal libel and sedition. Police held him at Monrovia Central Prison until 1 March 2016. During his arrest, police officers injected him with an unknown substance, and his health has subsequently deteriorated.

On 31 May 2016, judicial authorities in Manama ordered to suspend the sentence against human rights defender Zainab Al-Khawaja and release her on "humanitarian grounds”. She was jailed in Isa Town Women’s Prison with her one-year-old son, for over three months. Charges brought against her include "destroying public property" after she tore up a picture of the King of Bahrain twice.

On 19 April 2016, human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus were allowed to leave Azerbaijan and travel to the Netherlands, where they reunited with their daughter. The human rights defenders will then go to Germany to receive urgent medical treatment. On 11 March 206, a Court in Baku had refused to grant Leyla Yunus and her husband special permission to temporarily leave the country to receive medical treatment abroad. Leyla and Arif Yunus appealed the decision.

On 13 September 2016, Joel Ogada's hearing was adjourned to 13 October. According to the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders – Kenya (NCHRD-K), "[t]he hearing of his petition could not take place at Malindi Law Courts as his lawyer on record did not show up".

On 15 March 2016 human rights defender Mr Nelson García was killed in the aftermath of a violent eviction conducted in Río Lindo, Department of Cortés, Honduras. The human rights defender was returning home following a violent eviction conducted by the Public Order Military Police (Policía Militar de Orden Público) and the Cobras Special Force (Comando Especial Cobras) in the municipality of Río Lindo when he was intercepted by unidentified men who shot him in the face four times and killed him.