are engaging in increasingly brutal crackdowns on human rights defenders by co-opting states or collaborating with transnational criminal organizations, paramilitary groups, and other actors to silence critical voices. (7) Such tactics are not limited to autocratic regimes and are now used in every region of the world, accelerating a global decline in respect for human rights and democratic principles. (8) Few attacks against human rights defenders are investigated or prosecuted, and rampant impunity has only spurred further violence, creating a chilling effect on the work of others seeking to promote human rights and democratic principles. (9) Human rights defenders who speak up on behalf of communities that have historically faced discrimination face the highest levels of violence, such as those advocating for Indigenous communities, environmental and climate change justice, and respect for LGBTQ+, women’s, and religious rights. (10) Attacks on human rights defenders are not limited to individuals residing in-country, and many foreign governments engage in transnational repression, reaching across borders to target human rights defenders outside of their country of origin. (11) Although the United States has long played a critical role in supporting human rights defenders, the United States must increase support at United States embassies, consulates, and foreign missions in order to meet the needs of the growing number of human rights defenders at risk. (12) Diplomats of the United States often lack sufficient training or guidance on how to best respond to reprisals against human rights defenders, while human rights defenders often lack clear guidance on how to safely contact United States officials abroad and what support human rights defenders can request when threatened, imprisoned, in exile, or in hiding. (13) Given the dramatic increase in attacks on human rights defenders globally, the current approach by the United States Government to address such attacks is insufficient to adequately respond to the