Civil society casualty recorders from Colombia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, and India discuss the motivation behind their work, and the impact it has. They also describe how casualty recording helps us better understand the nature of a conflict, provides insight into the socio-economic effects on families of the dead, and acknowledges victims.
The interviews were recorded at the first international casualty recorders conference, held in London in September 2011. The conference was organised by the Every Casualty programme of the Oxford Research Group.
As Samrat Sinha from the Centre for Study of Political Violence, Jindal School of International Affairs in India explains:
You can only make people realise the severity of a conflict when you create an evidence base. Otherwise, there is no recognition and no record of the severity of the suffering of these victims.
Zeeshan Usmani from Pakistan Body Count added:
Casualty recording and this conference generate an emotional thrust that we need to do something to take care of the problem of civilian deaths and the effects on the families of the dead.
Mohammad Noori from Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission says:
These people, the real voice of Afghanistan, are not heard internationally. We try to make them heard.
The video was filmed by filmmaker Daniel Ridicki, with Oxford Research Group’s Managing Director, Chris Langdon.
