This week the Security Council will be examining the UN Secretary-General’s 2025 report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. As in previous years, the report paints a sobering picture of widespread civilian suffering worldwide. With over 36,000 civilian deaths recorded by UN offices across 14 armed conflicts in 2024 alone, the report makes clear that civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflict. But behind these statistics are individual lives and stories – mothers, fathers, children, teachers, doctors, and countless others caught in the crossfire of war.
Every Casualty Counts works with dozens of organisations around the world to ensure these victims are promptly, accurately and comprehensively identified. This work is driven by a profound ethical and social imperative to restore dignity and humanity in situations where they have been violated. But this work also has the potential to help realise many of the recommendations of the Secretary-General’s report and protect civilians from future suffering.
Creating an Accurate Historical Record
When conflicts end, societies must reckon with the past. How many were killed? Who were they? How did they die? Without careful documentation, these questions remain unanswered, and the scale of suffering becomes obscured. Documentation provides the factual basis for historical reconciliation, understanding, preventing revisionism and denial.
The Secretary-General’s 2025 report notes that in Gaza alone, an estimated 10,000 people were missing under rubble and presumed dead as of late 2024. Without efforts to document these individuals, the number and identity of those killed will never be known. The greater the uncertainty about the victims, the more potential there is for misinformation to circulate, fuelling ongoing mistrust and denial. Throughout history, we’ve seen how easily the truth can be manipulated by unscrupulous actors when facts remain obscured.
Enabling Justice and Accountability
The Secretary-General’s report calls for investigating violations, prosecuting perpetrators, and ensuring reparations for victims. But without knowing who was killed and under what circumstances, these goals are unlikely ever to be fully realised. Accurate casualty records provides the evidence which underpins succesfful proection of specific cases. Justice cannot be achieved by political will alone – it has to be built on paintaking, methodical research.
Casualty records provide the evidence base for war crimes investigations, trials, and truth commissions. It transforms abstract violations into concrete cases that can be prosecuted. The Secretary General’s report highlights positive developments in accountability in countries like the Central African Republic, Colombia, and Uganda – all of which require detailed documentation of casualties to succeed. Indeed, public acknowledgement of the truth about human rights violations is in and of itself a powerful form of reparation.
Casualty records also help those responsible for reparation programmes to identify groups that have suffered disproportionate losses, and enable targeted reconstruction efforts. They can be used to design effective community rebuilding initiatives that address the specific harms experienced by different groups, both separately and together.
Supporting Grieving Families
The Secretary-General notes that “cases of missing persons remained a critical concern” with over 56,000 new missing persons cases registered in 2024 alone. For families, not knowing the fate of loved ones causes profound psychological trauma that can persist for generations. Prompt and accurate identification of the dead helps reduce the number of families condemned to this suffering, enabling them to know the truth and bury their loved ones with dignity. Identifying the dead gives families closure. It allows for proper mourning rituals, burial in accordance with religious beliefs, and psychological healing.
Informing Humanitarian and Military Actors
Accurate documentation of casualties, disaggregated by gender, age, and other demographic factors, helps reveal patterns of harm which allow humanitarian actors to tailor their responses accordingly. Understanding who is being killed and how helps humanitarian organizations to better protect vulnerable populations, address specific needs, and allocate resources effectively.
The report’s recommendations emphasize developing “understanding of the patterns and types of civilian harm in contemporary conflicts.” Casualty records provide the data needed to recognize these patterns and develop preventive measures. Data from casualty records was fundamental in demonstrating the disproportionate impact on civilians of explosive weapons used in populated areas, leading to the adoption of a political declaration restricting their use. By analyzing who was targeted and how they were killed in one conflict, we develop the knowledge to prevent similar violence elsewhere. Casualty records enable armed actors to understand and avoid unintentional harm to civilians.
Upholding Human Dignity
Perhaps most fundamentally, recording casualties affirms that every life matters. It rejects the idea that war deaths are inevitable or that some victims can be forgotten with impunity. This recognition of human dignity lies at the heart of international humanitarian law, and in the work of casualty recording organisations.
The protection of civilians requires more than declarations and commitments. It demands the painstaking work of documenting human loss with accuracy, care, and respect. Only through this process can we truly understand the human cost of conflict, hold perpetrators accountable, and support the healing of affected communities. By understanding the devastation of today, we can better protect the populations of tomorrow.
Image: Zinko Hein on Unsplash
