Every Casualty Counts submitted a written statement to the Human Rights Council outlining the need for support for casualty recording and its role in securing accountability in Ukraine. The statement calls for the international community to provide urgent and long-term commitment to assist civil society recording organisations in Ukraine to ensure casualty recording can be conducted effectively to provide accountability for war crimes and closure to families.
Our statement can be read in full or downloaded below.
Written statement submitted by Every Casualty Worldwide, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status
The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
[02 February 2025]
Support for casualty recording and its role in securing accountability in Ukraine
Civil society casualty recording organisations began documenting casualties of the Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine in 2014, at the same time as the HRMMU was established. They recorded in detail the death of more than 10,000 people, including at least 1,561 civilians, to ensure their families would be able to know the truth, and to try to secure justice for the victims.
Since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, civil society organistations such as UHHRU and Ukraine Memorial Platform have continued meticulously recording conflict deaths, with more lives added to this list daily. Their careful investigations help HRMMU to verify cases for its monthly reporting on civilian harm. The Ukrainian national prosecutor also relies on civil society activities to supplement its investigatory capacity, which is massively overstretched by the scale of crimes in this conflict and the diversion of national resources to the war effort.
Despite these collaborative efforts, the backlog of investigations is constantly increasing. As of 31 December 2024 there had been just 103 court judgements under Article 438 “War crimes” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. Many of the crimes documented from the 2014 invasion have now passed the statute of limitations without reaching judgement.
Meanwhile, international attention and support for the people of Ukraine is steadily decreasing. Civil society organisations have suffered devastating funding cuts from international donors, which jeopardise their ability to continue investigating and documenting civilian deaths.
Without this preparatory work, there will be no prospect of accountability for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations inflicted on the people of Ukraine. Perpetrators of such crimes, in Ukraine and around the world, will receive the clear message that the international community will not support the most basic of measures to support accountability for the grossest of crimes.
Let us be clear: There can be no justice without evidence, and there can be no evidence without resources.
Civil society casualty recording organisations need international support, urgently and with long term commitment, to ensure justice can be done. We urge all members of this Council that value the work of HRMMU to extend their support to the civil society organisations which facilitate it. Those that value international law must put their words into action to defend it.
