Casualty recording news & views
The items posted here illustrate why transparent, humanising casualty recording is crucial. Although news reports of casualties are a staple of journalism, less frequently explored are the complexities of the recording process, the immediate and long-term benefits of doing it properly and the many harms involved in failing to do so. This collection examines those issues.
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...
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...
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...
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...
Press Release: Major new report shows 11,420 children killed in Syrian conflict
First published 24th Nov 2013
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...
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...
‘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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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