More than 1,100 human rights defenders in 90 countries like Colombia, China and Russia were targeted for their activism last year and many were murdered, tortured or jailed, a report released on Wednesday showed.

"This year again, the list is long of the women and men who risked everything in order to promote and defend human rights," the report said.

It cited a wide variety of repression tactics including assassinations, torture, ill-treatment, death threats, arbitrary arrests and detentions, judicial proceedings and adoption of restrictive legislation.

In all, 1,172 cases of repression were reported. This included some 117 murders or attempted assassinations, 92 cases of ill-treatment or torture, 56 physical attacks and 315 arbitrary detentions.

Colombia, where 47 human rights defenders were killed and 15 others kidnapped or tortured last year, remained among the most dangerous in the world for activists who denounce their government's policy on security and human rights, it said.

The report blamed paramilitaries for most of the executions in Colombia, which also had the most trade union activists assassinated -- 29 during just the first six months, it said.

Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, paid tribute to all defenders in a foreward to the 289-page tome:

"They are the guardians of our fundamental freedoms. Without defenders, human rights would not exist. They are the conscience of the international community forbidding us to avert our eyes."