News and views

We are hiring an Administrator / Operations manager

First published 28th Jun 2019

ECW is hiring an Administrator / Operations manager more...

ECW May 2019 Newsletter

First published 12th Jun 2019

May 2019 newsletter featuring Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians, UN-OCHA Report on 20 years of PoC, Developments with SDG Indicator 16.1.2: Conflict-related deaths, General Comment on the Right to Life adopted by UN Human Rights Committee... more...

Briefing on Casualty Recording for GA-73 Third Committee

First published 30th Sep 2018

ECW has published a new briefing paper on casualty recording for Third Committee delegates at GA73.  more...

New Advocacy Director at ECW

First published 4th Sep 2018

ECW welcomes new Advocacy Director

UK Government makes new commitment on casualty recording

First published 2nd Mar 2018

The UK Government has committed itself in future to reporting numbers and non-personal details of civilian casualties admitted to UK military field hospitals during combat operations. more...

Standards for Casualty Recording published at launch event at the ICRC in Geneva 

First published 24th Nov 2016

The Standards for Casualty Recording were published November 23rd, 2016, following their international launch at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. more...

Standards for Casualty Recording to be launched in Geneva and London

First published 14th Nov 2016

After three years of collaborative work involving members of the Casualty Recorders Network and other relevant actors, Every Casualty is pleased to announce the publication of the Standards for Casualty Recording, whose international launch will be hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva on November 23rd 2016, and whose first launch with a national focus will be at King's College, London on December 8th.  more...

2016 SIPRI yearbook includes chapter on casualty recording

First published 23rd Sep 2016

For the first time, the highly-regarded SIPRI year-book – "a compendium of data and analysis in the areas of security and conflicts" includes a chapter on casualty recording. more...

UK showed no real interest in monitoring civilian casualties: Iraq Body Count on Chilcot Iraq Inquiry Report

First published 15th Jul 2016

Casualty recording a core commitment for World Humanitarian Summit

First published 6th May 2016

Two clear commitments on casualty recording have been placed on the official agenda of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul.
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Updated Commentaries of Geneva Conventions detail how to record casualties of conflict; Every Casualty hosts side-event at the 32nd Red Cross Quadrennial

First published 31st Mar 2016

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Casualty Recording to be promoted at the 32d Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

First published 11th Nov 2015

The issue of casualty recording will be featured for the first time by the Red Cross movement at their upcoming quadrennial conference in Geneva (8-10 December 2015). more...

Developing standards for casualty recording: plenary meeting in London, September 2015

First published 8th Oct 2015

A group of 15 practitioners and end-users met in London to review the first draft standards for casualty recording. The text is the result of the consultation in working groups coordinated by Every Casualty over the past two years. Following productive discussions and agreement, a second draft version of the standards will now be produced for the next step of consultation. more...

Casualty Recording in Tunisia: Responses to the 2010-2011 Uprising

First published 28th Sep 2015

In a new study, Every Casualty examines the relevance of casualty recording to transitional justice, using Tunisia's National Fact Finding Commission, also known as the Bouderbala Commission, as a case study. more...

Learning from Casualty Recording Experience: new series launched with a study of Nigeria Watch

First published 8th Jun 2015

  Every Casualty resents the first report of a planned series entitled "Learning from Casualty Recording Experience" that will focus on the work done by CRN members. This first report presents and analyses the practice and data uses of practitioner Nigeria Watch.
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Developing standards for casualty recording - 2 years on

First published 29th May 2015

Two years after the first meeting in Bogota that started the collaborative process to develop standards for the field of casualty recording, the first phase of consultation has been completed. Every Casualty gives you an update.  more...

Casualty Recording Contributes to Victim Assistance: New Report

First published 30th Apr 2015

A new report, Acknowledge, Amend, Assist is published today by Action On Armed Violence shows the links between casualty recording and victim assistance. more...

"Every Body Counts" - Small Arms Survey Advocates for Measuring Violent Deaths as SDG Indicator 

First published 19th Mar 2015

Small Arms Survey calls for measurement of violent deaths as indicator for Sustainable Development Goals.  more...

Job posting: Communications Volunteer

First published 9th Mar 2015

Every Casualty Worldwide is looking for a communications volunteer to support its online communication work and outreach.  more...

Contentious Casualty Counting: Coming to terms with the Baga massacre 

First published 23rd Jan 2015

Dr. Adeola Adams, Project Coordinator with Nigerian casualty recorder, Nigeria Watch, explains the controversy surrounding the casualty figures from the recent massacre in Baga more...

Event: War Deaths: Knowledge, Pretence and Progress 

First published 16th Jan 2015

Every Casualty Advisor, Professor Mike Spagat will deliver an Inaugural Lecture at Royal Holloway, University of London entitled, War Deaths: Knowledge, Pretence and Progress on 29 January 2015.  more...

Inside the advocacy group recording victims of forced disappearances in Turkey: An interview with Hafiza Merkezi 

First published 14th Jan 2015

Every Casualty speaks with Ozgur Goral, the head of the Documentation Programme at Hafiza Merkezi, a Turkish civil society organisation dedicated to documenting the lives of victims of state abuse.  more...

Iraq civilian deaths have almost doubled every year since 2012, reports Iraq Body Count

First published 7th Jan 2015

A recent press release from Iraq Body Count highlights how civilian casualty figures in Iraq have nearly doubled each year since 2012.  more...

Global Jihad: Counting the Cost - New data from the BBC 

First published 15th Dec 2014

The BBC releases the findings of a project to document every casualty of Jihadism around the world for the month of November more...

UN Secretary General supports victim's right to truth on Human Rights Day

First published 10th Dec 2014

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon highlights victim's right to truth about violations; emphasises the role of recognition in supporting human dignity  more...

Syria: No Word on Four Abducted Recorders 

First published 9th Dec 2014

A year after the abduction of Syrian human rights activist and Syrian casualty recorder Razan Zaitouneh and three colleagues from the Violations Documentation Center in Syria, no information has been released   more...

Civilian casualties from explosive violence up 20% a year: AOAV - Interview with report author 

First published 4th Dec 2014

New data released on 1 December from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) shows that the number of civilians killed and injured globally by explosive weapons has increased by 20% each year since 2011.  more...

'Finding names of dead increasingly difficult': TBIJ and Iraq Body Count 

First published 24th Oct 2014

Podcast: Iraq Body Count's Lily Hamourtziadou and TBIJ's Jack Serle speak with Owen Bennet-Jones on the challenges of casualty recording in conflicts in Iraq and Pakistan more...

Every Casualty: An organisation dedicated to the improvement of casualty recording

First published 1st Oct 2014

October 1st marks the launch of Every Casualty Worldwide, a civil society organisation dedicated to the improvement of casualty recording more...

Casualty figures for Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza: who is providing them and how?

First published 24th Sep 2014

Following the publication of casualty figures for the conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Gaza this summer, we look into the origins of these numbers and what they tell us. more...

The IPN is now the Casualty Recorders Network

First published 22nd Sep 2014

Following consultation with members of the International Practitioner Network, the network has been renamed the Casualty Recorders Network  more...

New Civil Society Organisation for Casualty Recording

First published 1st Sep 2014

Commemorating World Humanitarian Day

First published 19th Aug 2014

Every Casualty commemorates World Humanitarian Day  more...

Press Release: New military tactics impede efforts to record casualties, put civilians at greater risk

First published 12th Aug 2014

A new report from the Every Casualty Programme shows that the use of emerging military tactics, including the use of armed drones and autonomous weapons, private military and security companies, and special operations forces, poses serious challenges to casualty recording.  more...

Video and Audio: Losing Sight of the Human Costs of Conflict

First published 12th Aug 2014

Senior Research Officer Elizabeth Minor discusses the key themes and recommendations from Every Casualty's recent report, "Losing Sight of the Human Cost: Casualty Recording and Remote Control Warfare" with the Remote Control Project, and Radio France International more...

Three Casualty Recording Organisations Work with UN in Gaza to Provide Detailed Casualty Data

First published 6th Aug 2014

Three casualty-recording organisations are providing preliminary figures and identifying information to the news media, the United Nations, and the humanitarian community at large on the current on-going conflict in Gaza. more...

Every Casualty joins scholars from Palestine, Serbia at symposium on Intervention

First published 18th Jul 2014

Several members of the Every Casualty Programme spoke at a two day symposium, 'On the Receiving End of Intervention: Methods Human Security', hosted by the Centre for International Intervention at the University of Surrey more...

Measuring and Monitoring Armed Violence: EC at the Geneva Declaration Regional Review Conference 

First published 17th Jul 2014

Members of the Every Casualty Campaign, including the Every Casualty Programme at Oxford Research Group and Action on Armed Violence, spoke earlier this month at the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development Regional Review Conference for Europe, the Caucuses and Central Asia.   more...

Protecting civilians in Afghanistan: Civilian harm tracking and casualty recording

First published 3rd Jun 2014

A new joint briefing from Every Casualty and the Center for Civilians in Conflict examines how civilian harm tracking and casualty recording have aided in international efforts to protect civilians in Afghanistan.  more...

Syrian Casualties: Who's counting?

First published 3rd Jun 2014

While the UN stopped publishing casualty figures of the Syrian conflict early this year, several organisations continue to keep detailed records of the conflict's casualties. more...

Casualty recording helps reduce armed violence, civilian casualties: new paper from AOAV

First published 2nd Jun 2014

A new policy paper from Action on Armed Violence shows the ways in which casualty records can help to reduce and prevent incidences of violence and resultant civilian casualties more...

Importance of casualty recording in peace operations highlighted at IPI seminar

First published 28th May 2014

Casualty recording was highlighted as a key tool in protecting civilians in peace operations at seminar hosted by International Peace Institute on 20 May at their offices in New York more...

Civilian victims of explosive weapons rises by 15% 

First published 15th May 2014

A new report from Action on Armed Violence finds major increase in global civilian casualties from explosive violence  more...

Press release: Systematically recording the casualties of armed violence can help save lives

First published 16th Apr 2014

Recording and analysing data on the casualties of conflict and armed violence can improve the protection of civilians and save lives. This is the conclusion of two reports released today by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) and the Every Casualty Programme at Oxford Research Group (ORG). more...

Casualty Recording and the Law of Armed Conflict

First published 16th Apr 2014

Professor Susan Breau analyses the recommendations of a joint summary from Every Casualty and AOAV on UN and state casualty recording practice, exploring how casualty recording ensures Member State compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict   more...

PODCAST: Assessing UN and state practice on casualty recording

First published 14th Apr 2014

Every Casualty's Elizabeth Minor and Action on Armed Violence's Serena Olgiati discuss their new reports and how casualty recording can help save lives.  more...

Every Casualty endorses open letter on Sustainable Development Goal targets

First published 7th Apr 2014

Every Casualty joins others in endorsing an open letter on Sustainable Development Goals more...

New paper from Every Casualty in Jindal Journal of International Affairs

First published 25th Mar 2014

A new paper from Every Casualty appears in the latest issue of the Jindal Journal of International Affairs more...

Commemorating International Day for the Right to Truth and the Dignity of Victims

First published 24th Mar 2014

Every Casualty commemorates the International Day for the Right to Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and the Dignity of Victims, March 24  more...

Video: Every Casualty speaks with practitioners at ICMP conference

First published 12th Mar 2014

Every Casualty speaks with attendees of the ICMP conference, The Missing: An Agenda for the Future more...

States recognise importance of casualty data to peacekeeping missions

First published 4th Mar 2014

Protection of Civilians debate: States recognise the importance of timely and accurate casualty information to enhance peacekeeping missions and operations more...

Update on Syrian IPN member abduction 

First published 5th Feb 2014

Syrian based organisation the Violation Documentation Centre again issues call for the release of founder and human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh.  more...

Statement on IPN member abducted in Syria

First published 13th Dec 2013

The co-founder of Violation Documentation Center, a casualty recording organisation based in Syria and member of Every Casualty's International Practitioner Network, was abducted on December 10th by an unknown armed group, along with three other human rights activists.  more...

Ban-ki Moon report gives new boost to Casualty Recording 

First published 9th Dec 2013

UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon highlights the need for increased casualty recording in most recent report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. more...

Press Release: Major new report shows 11,420 children killed in Syrian conflict

First published 24th Nov 2013

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Accepting truth, acknowledging loss: casualty records from Katyn to Afghanistan

First published 28th Oct 2013

A lack of transparency surrounding records of casualties in armed conflict continues to hamper reconciliation efforts everywhere from Poland to Afghanistan - even decades after the end of a conflict. The United States refusal to identify or publicly acknowledge drone strike casualties is a worrying continuation of this trend.  more...

Syria and beyond: data demands and intervention policy

First published 18th Oct 2013

In this article originally published on Open Security, Jacob Beswick, of the Every Casualty programme at Oxford Research Group, looks at the parliamentary debate on the question of UK intervention in Syria, and the importance of casualty and other data to such policy decisions. more...

Social media likely to provide key evidence for war crimes in Syria

First published 7th Oct 2013

Evidence gathered from social media will likely play a key role in the prosecution of war crimes in Syria, explained Every Casualty Co-Director Hamit Dardagan in an article recently published in German daily, Deutsche Welle. more...

Every Casualty featured in El Pais article,  La misión de contar muertos

First published 7th Oct 2013

The work of Every Casualty featured in an article written last month for Spanish Newspaper El Pais by Nairara Gortazar. more...

IPN member reports show 24 dead in Pakistan from US drones in September

First published 2nd Oct 2013

According to a report released on Monday by Islamabad based IPN member, Conflict Monitoring Center (CMC), 24 people were killed by U.S. drones strikes in Pakistan in the month of September.  more...

MoD commissions report on how to 'sell wars to the public'

First published 30th Sep 2013

Reducing the visibility of military causalities may be one way to ‘sell wars to the public’ according to a Ministry of Defence strategy report recently obtained by the Guardian through the Freedom of Information Act. more...

Every Casualty marks the launch of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's 'Naming the Dead' Project

First published 26th Sep 2013

On the evening of the 24th of September, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in partnership with the Every Casualty Campaign, held an event at Somerset House to mark the launch of TBIJ’s new ‘Naming the Dead’ project. 
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Statement on Casualty Recording and Military Intervention in Syria

First published 5th Sep 2013

In light of the debate currently taking place among many states on proposed military intervention in Syria, members of the Every Casualty Campaign call on all parties involved to ensure that every casualty of the conflict in Syria is promptly recorded, correctly identified, and publicly acknowledged. more...

Protection of civilians, accountability and recording

First published 28th Aug 2013

Casualty recording and campaigning against weapons

First published 6th Aug 2013

Casualty recording plays a crucial role in efforts to curb the use of certain weapons through drawing attention to their humanitarian impact, shows a recently published article by Every Casualty Campaign member Article 36. more...

"Dead man walking" Journalists appeal to the UN, as casualties for their profession are on the rise world-wide

First published 19th Jul 2013

Every Casualty contributes to the Reclaiming the Protection of Civilians initiative, Oslo 2013

First published 13th Jun 2013

Casualty recording is recognised as a key factor in improving the protection of civilians during major international conference in Oslo in May 2013. more...

Casualty recording, weapons and victims' rights

First published 31st May 2013

On 15 April 2013 every casualty campaign members Article 36 and Action on Armed Violence held an event at the Intersessional Meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The importance of casualty recording for violence reduction, victims' rights, and drawing attention to the impact of certain weapons were discussed. more...

The Iraq Sanctions Myth

First published 29th Apr 2013

A piece by Prof.Michael Spagat – advisor to the Every Casualty programme, Spagat highlights the how casualty figures from a few surveys claiming that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children died under sanctions have been repeated without question in numerous statements from high profile political actors, including statements made by UK and US officials justifying the invasion of Iraq, despite the surveys themselves being discredited.
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Every Casualty and International Law: presentation to the ISMLLW

First published 19th Apr 2013

The Every Casualty team is dedicated to tracking developments in international law relating to casualty recording. On Friday February 15th, we presented on the topic of 'Casualty Recording: Legal Obligations and Current Practice', to the UK National Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War (ISMLLW). more...

Every Casualty presentation at the Royal Society of Medicine

First published 18th Apr 2013

On Friday 12th April, Every Casualty presented at the Royal Society of Medicine Conflict and Catastrophes Forum's Annual Medicine Overseas Conference, 'Research and Response in the Middle of Chaos'. The presentation is summarised here. more...

Video: Naming the dead project

First published 3rd Apr 2013

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) has recorded at least 2,537 people reported to have been killed by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, but fewer than 20% are named. Their new Naming the Dead project aims to identify as many as possible of those killed, civilian or militant. In this video, International Practitioner Network (IPN) member TBIJ explain the project and a crowd-funding appeal to support it. more...

Casualty recording as an evaluative capability: Libya and the protection of civilians

First published 28th Mar 2013

In a new paper, Every Casualty examines the relevance of casualty recording to the Protection of Civilians (PoC) framework, using NATO's intervention in Libya as a case study. We argue that the acquisition and analysis of information about casualties needs to be given a clear and fundamental role when drafting Security Council resolutions that mandate protection. more...

Press release: The war in Iraq: 10 years and counting

First published 19th Mar 2013

This press release from International Practitioner Network (IPN) member Iraq Body Count, on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, draws attention to the human toll of the conflict since 2003 through a statistical overview of its casualties. more...

Launch event: 'Hitting the Target?' RUSI Whitehall Report, publishing paper from Every Casualty

First published 15th Mar 2013

On Tuesday March 26th, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) is holding a discussion event to mark the launch of a new 'Whitehall Report': 'Hitting the Target? How New Capabilities Are Shaping International Intervention'. The Whitehall Report publishes a new paper from Every Casualty: 'Casualty Recording as an Evaluative Capability: Libya and the Protection of Civilians'. more...

Developing standards in casualty recording: first meeting of a process

First published 13th Mar 2013

A process to develop standards in casualty recording practice has been started by Every Casualty, involving members of the International Practitioner Network (IPN) and users of casualty data. Standards have been demanded by practitioners, institutions that use the information they produce, and representatives of states and intergovernmental organisations. more...

Forensic anthropology in Guatemala: video interview with Fredy Peccerelli

First published 12th Mar 2013

In this video, Fredy Peccerelli describes the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG)'s work to identify and analyse the remains people missing from the decades-long conflict in Guatemala. He describes the contribution of this work to criminal proceedings relating to events during the conflict, the context of the work, and its challenges. more...

Video: casualty recorders discuss their motivations and work

First published 12th Mar 2013

In this video interview, representatives of NGO casualty recorders from Colombia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, and India discuss their reasons for, and the power of, casualty recording. They are members of the International Practitioner Network (IPN) of casualty recording organisations. more...

New project at TBIJ: Naming the dead

First published 5th Feb 2013

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has launched a funding appeal for their new project, Naming the Dead, which intends to find the names of all people killed by the U.S drones strike in Northern Pakistan. more...

"Bosnian Book of the Dead": A Book for the Living

First published 29th Jan 2013

Research and Documentation Center (RDC) -member of the International Practitioners Network has launched "The Bosnian Book of the Dead" a Book which recalls  the names of over 95 000 victims of the 1990's conflict in the Balkans. more...

Libya's government announces significant revision of its own casualty figures

First published 9th Jan 2013

The Libyan Government announced significantly lower figures of people killed during the revolution. more...

‘UN Syria study’: The Guardian asks EC to comment

First published 3rd Jan 2013

(The Guardian's Middle East Live blog invited Every Casualty to comment on the UN's report of 59,648 deaths in the Syria conflict.) more...

The Halabja Project: Uncovering the truth 25 years later

First published 11th Dec 2012

25 years later, the Kurdish Regional Government is still decontaminating  the town of Halabja from the horrific chemical  attacks in 1988 and beginning to uncover the truth behind the attacks. more...

Towards the Recording of Every Casualty: Summary of the methods research launch at USIP

First published 6th Nov 2012

In this article originally published on the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) website, USIP comment on the launch of the casualty recording practice research launched at their Washington D.C. headquarters in October 2012, and which they funded. more...

Oxford Research Group joins other NGOs in calling for stronger disarmament initiatives world-wide

First published 5th Nov 2012

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 90 representatives from non-governmental organizations and global coalitions gathered in New York for a Humanitarian Disarmament Campaigns Summit convened by Human Rights Watch. These civil society representatives work in a variety of fields with the shared objective of protecting civilians from the harmful effects of armed violence. The Summit Communiqué issued by 31 signatories, including the Oxford Research Group, calls for strong disarmament initiatives driven by humanitarian imperatives to strengthen international law and protect civilians. more...

Analysis: How Washington Post strips casualties from covert drone data

First published 5th Nov 2012

New report on recording casualties of drone strikes

First published 2nd Nov 2012

The Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School in the United States has done a cross comparison research of organisations who have been recording compiling and publishing casualties of U.S drone strikes in Pakistan. The  report examined the methodology of three organisations whose casualties figures are the among the most quoted figures in the debate about the effectiveness and humanitarian costs of drones.  more...

Towards the recording of every casualty: methods research launch at USIP

First published 1st Nov 2012

On October 22, 2012, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) hosted a roundtable discussion to launch the findings of Oxford Research Group (ORG)'s two year research project into casualty recording practice, which mainly focused on the work of NGOs. The panelists and participants discussed how the recording of conflict casualties is often done by NGOs where there is a lack of official recording. The motivations behind and benefits of casualty recording were also examined by the panelists. more...

Published: Study into good practice in conflict casualty recording

First published 22nd Oct 2012

The Every Casualty programme at Oxford Research Group has published the largest-ever study into casualty recording practice worldwide. Conducted over two years, the study examines the work of 40 practitioner groups and individuals working in different conflict and post-conflict environments. more...

Syria's Bloodiest Day: Interview with the Every Casualty Programme

First published 8th Oct 2012

Headlines from the Syrian conflict claimed that last Wednesday, 26 September 2012, was Syria's bloodiest day since the beginning of the confict. Syrian activists said that there were over 340 deaths in a single day, making it the highest death toll figure for a single day from the Syrian conflict to date. Hana Salama of Every Casualty, was interviewed by the Guardian for the Middle East Live Blog about the issues surrounding the reporting of Syrian Casualty numbers. more...

Announcement: Centre for the Study of Political Violence at the Jindal School of International Affairs joins the IPN

First published 3rd Sep 2012

We are very pleased to announce that the Centre for Study of Political violence (CSPV) of the Jindal School of International Affairs has just joined the IPN.   more...

TBIJ's Analysis on U.S Drones Strikes during Muslim Holidays. 

First published 3rd Sep 2012

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, one of our network members, has released a new analysis on drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This analysis which shows that there is no increase in the frequency of drone attacks during the Muslim holidays, such as Ramadan, but also no decrease, as the frequency of attacks remains largely the same.  more...

LRA Attacks Increase in 2012 

First published 3rd Sep 2012

IPN member, LRA Crisis Tracker, has just released their mid-year security brief which covers LRA attacks from January to June 2012. According to the report, LRA attacks in the analysis period has risen sharply from the latter half of 2011.  more...

Presentation: Recording Casualties and the Protection of Civilians

First published 21st Aug 2012

This presentation was given during an advocacy trip to New York in May 2012 to engage UN agencies, states' representatives, and NGOs on casualty recording in the context of the protection of civilians in armed conflict. more...

AOAV's July 2012 Explosive Violence Monitoring Report

First published 20th Aug 2012

This report, based on casualty records compiled by practitioner network member Action on Armed Violence, highlights the extent and impact of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, which overwhelmingly affects civilians.  more...

The struggle against the toxic politics of casualty numbers in Syria

First published 26th Jul 2012

The way that death toll figures are often presented in press and media reports might lead one to think that we don't (and can't) know very much about the deadly violence in Syria. However, attempts are being made by civil society groups to replace unsubstantiated rhetoric with reliable records. Hana Salama, Coordinator of the ORG-facilitated  International Practitioner Network (IPN) of casualty recording organisations, explores how these organisations do their work, and how their work should be assessed. The article was first published on guardian.co.uk's Comment is Free on 14 July 2012. more...

Casualty Recording at the Protection of Civilians Debate

First published 12th Jul 2012

On June 26, 2012 the Security Council met under the Chinese presidency  for the Open Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (PoC). Some 45 countries spoke during the debate, with a number of them explicitly recognising the need for improved casualty recording practices in armed conflict in their statements. To our knowledge this is the first time that the issue of casualty recording methods has been explicitly raised at the Security Council, and this offers a significant new opportunity for making progress on this issue in collaboration with states and inter-state bodies.
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Leading by example: The UN Human Rights Council's report on casualties in Libya

First published 20th Mar 2012

Although out of the spotlight, the intervention in Libya remains a point of contention internationally. The publication this month of the UN Human Rights Council's International Commission of Inquiry's second report provides both new information on civilian casualties and a formal call upon NATO to do its share to record them. more...

NATO Watch Press Brief

First published 28th Feb 2012

Towards drone attack accountability

First published 23rd Feb 2012

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is one of the handful of organisations globally that thoroughly investigate drone casualties in Pakistan.  more...

LRA Crisis Tracker Annual Security Brief, 2011

First published 20th Feb 2012

LRA Crisis Tracker (LCT) has released its Annual Security Brief for 2011, covering the actions and outcomes of the Lords Resistance Army. more...

100 additional NGOs and associations sign up to the charter

First published 14th Feb 2012

The Network for Peace Building in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)  and their campaign Choosing Peace Together has signed on 100 Additional NGOs to the Charter for the Recognition of Every Casualty in Armed Violence.  more...

Action On Armed Violence Syria report

First published 10th Feb 2012

IPN member AOAV provides a collation and analysis of the ongoing armed conflict in Syria. The focus of their work is on the effects of explosive weapons, providing a breakdown of the type of weapons and the casualties they have caused.  more...

The Truth Teller: Natasa Kandic, urging Serbs to face the past

First published 3rd Feb 2012

Radio Free Europe discusses Natasa Kandic, Director of the Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade, battle for searching for the truth and seeking justice for past atrocities. more...

In strikes on Libya by NATO, an unspoken civilian toll

First published 4th Jan 2012

This New York Times article extends this newspaper's concern for the unaccounted casualties of the Libya intervention more...

Tamil Information Centre press release

First published 29th Nov 2011

The Tamil Information Centre calls on the Sri Lanka government to create a single authoritative record of casualties of Armed Violence. more...

Afghan civilians killed or wounded by British forces: the investigations listed

First published 25th Oct 2011

This article by the Guardian illustrates the existence of systematic and comprehensive recording by the UK government of a specific category of casualty over an extended period of time, and the (partial) publication of detailed data from that recording activity at the level of individual incident.  more...

Libya counts its martyrs, but the bodies don't add up

First published 25th Oct 2011

This New York Times article, comparing claims by the NTC about the number of casualties of the war in Libya with the current verifiable death toll, draws attention to the tendency of political leaders in conflict to issue round-number casualty totals, which are uncorroborated by any verifiable data. more...

The escalating casualties in Pakistan, 2005 - 2010

First published 25th Oct 2011

The Costs of War project is part of Brown University. The project takes an interdisciplinary look at the effects of war. In the article and publication linked here, Costs of War integrates and assesses the human costs of conflict in Pakistan. more...

Libya: the toll NATO didn't count

First published 25th Oct 2011

Hamit Dardagan of Iraq Body Count and the everycasualty programme highlights Nato's failure even to attempt a comprehensive accounting of civilian casualties in Libya despite their protection being the stated purpose of the Alliance's intervention. more...

The people on the street document casualties – why can't governments?

First published 25th Oct 2011

John Sloboda of Oxford Research Group's everycasualty programme looks at the citizen led efforts to record and memorialise the dead of the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world, and argues that all war victims deserve that same treatment. more...

Presentation: methods research, early impressions

First published 25th Oct 2011

This 15 minute slideshow discusses some preliminary impressions from Oxford Research Group's research to analyse how different organisations worldwide are recording violent deaths from conflict. more...

Video: Launch of the Charter for the recognition of Every Casualty

First published 25th Oct 2011

On the 15 September 2011 the Charter for the recognition of every casualty of armed violence was launched at the British Academy in London. The public launch included speeches from Wissam Tarif of Insan, who work in Syria, and Sandra Orlović of the Humanitarian Law Centre-Serbia and Bekim Blakaj of the Humanitarian Law Centre-Kosovo, who discussed how the Charter's core demands are both important to their work and necessary as standards for the world community. more...

Presentation: why we should document every casualty of conflict, both civilian and combatant

First published 25th Oct 2011

On 9 May 2011, Elizabeth Minor of Oxford Research Group's everycasualty programme made this presentation to Café Diplo, the meeting series of the friends of Le Monde Diplomatique Newspaper in London. Setting the arguments in the context of current and former conflicts, from Libya to Afghanistan, Iraq to Bosnia, Elizabeth demonstrates the social, political and human importance of recording every casualty of conflict as an individual. more...

The challenge of recording civilian casualties in Libya: interview with Hamit Dardagan

First published 25th Oct 2011

In this March 2011 interview on the BBC World Service, Hamit Dardagan of Iraq Body Count and Oxford Research Group's everycasualty programme discusses how the recording of civilian casualties in the context of Libya might be approached. more...

Drones and the legal obligation to record casualties: presentation by Professor Susan Breau

First published 25th Oct 2011

On Thursday 23 June at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Oxford Research Group's everycasualty programme launched our major finding that there is a legal obligation to record every casualty of conflict, and that this obligation applies to the drone strikes being conducted in Pakistan and Yemen by the CIA. This is the presentation of Professor Susan Breau, Legal Consultant to everycasualty and Professor of International Law at Flinders University. more...

Truth seeking, truth telling and truth keeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina: interview with Mirsad Tokača

First published 25th Oct 2011

In this interview Mirsad Tokača, Director of the Research and Documentation Center of Sarajevo (RDC), discusses the work of his organisation to document human losses in Bosnia, and the Center's aim of contributing to processes of Transitional Justice in a society with a deeply contested recent past by providing solid records, and hence truth. more...

Understanding violence in Colombia: interview with Jorge Restrepo

First published 25th Oct 2011

In this interview Jorge Restrepo, Director of the Conflict Analysis Resource Center (CERAC) in Bogotá, Colombia, discusses the work of his organisation to document the violence of the Colombian civil conflict. more...

After Libya, let us learn to count every casualty of war

First published 20th Oct 2011

The Guardian's Jonathan Steele, who was present at the launch of the Charter for the recognition of every casualty of armed violence at the British Academy on 14 September in London, welcomes the charter and discusses its pertinence to Libya and beyond in the first major op-ed focusing on the charter and the NGOs who back it. more...

Drone warfare: cost and challenge

First published 20th Oct 2011

The repositioning of the United States' military strategy includes a great expansion in the use of armed drones to attack targets in Pakistan and Yemen. This development raises profound legal and ethical questions including the need to record the casualties of such attacks, argues Paul Rogers in this piece originally published on OpenDemocracy. more...

The casualties of war: Libya and beyond

First published 20th Oct 2011

The architects of a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya devote great efforts to assessing the military aspects of their operations – yet are silent on the human damage. Paul Rogers discusses this damage and the Costs of War project of everycasualty programme advisor, Neta Crawford. more...

New initiative on recording casualties of armed violence

First published 20th Oct 2011

The Every Casualty programme's press release for the launch of the Charter for the recognition of every casualty of armed violence. more...