In May 2026, Every Casualty Counts joined nineteen other organisations in a joint civil society statement issued ahead of the United Nations Security Council’s annual open debate on the protection of civilians. The debate took place on 20 May.
The statement made one argument that bears directly on our work. As humanitarian funding falls and UN structures and peace operations are reformed, states should ensure that any reform preserves and strengthens the capacity to track, investigate and report civilian harm, along with the avenues through which affected families can seek redress. The value of a reform, it argued, should be measured by whether it strengthens the protection of civilians in practice.
That capacity is, in large part, casualty recording. The records built by documenting who has been killed, and how, are what later make recognition, accountability and reparation possible. When the ability to produce them is reduced, the loss does not show on a budget line. It appears later, in the evidence an investigation lacks or the confirmation a family never receives. This is among the parts of the protection system most easily cut and least easily rebuilt.
We added our name because that case is worth making, including after the moment of the debate has passed. We are grateful to the members of our Casualty Recorders Network who carry out this work in difficult conditions, among them Airwars, who represented the Network in New York during Protection of Civilians week this year.
The debate has concluded. The questions it raised about funding and reform have not. We will continue to make the case for casualty recording within them.
Every Casualty Counts is the only global organisation focused exclusively on casualty recording. The full Joint Civil Society Statement, endorsed by twenty organisations, HERE
