The Political Studies Association’s Specialist Group on Autocracy and Regime Change, the Centre for International Security and the Centre for Global Politics and Development of the Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) together with Every Casualty Counts are pleased to present the fourth and final webinar of their joint series on casualty recording and its challenges in a variety of conflicts across Africa.
Background information
Even though international humanitarian and human rights law requires states to compile casualty records during wars and periods of gross human rights violations, they often neglect this duty, prompting intergovernmental organizations, civil society groups and academic centres to step forward and attempt to prevent human beings from dying without a trace of their identities and fates.
Many such groups belong to ECC’s Casualty Recorders Network (CRN). CRN members record casualties in wars and otherwise violent environments across the globe. The goal of this webinar series has been to increase their visibility among policy-makers, diplomats and academics, who require the information they can provide but are often not aware of their important work. At the same time, the webinar series has aimed at creating conversations and potential future collaborations between policy-makers, academics working with casualty data, and casualty recorders. The series has shone a spotlight specifically on casualty recording in several African contexts – Somalia, Central Africa, South Sudan, Nigeria and Sudan – where many severe ongoing conflicts receive little attention.
These webinars were open to all.
Casualty Recording and Healthcare in Sudan
Monday 20th May 2024
09h New York – 14h London – 15h Geneva & Khartoum
This final webinar of the RHUL – ECC series brought together academics and practitioners to discuss the topic of casualty recording as an essential tool to strengthen the delivery of healthcare and civilian protection in conflict situations.
With a specific focus on the Sudanese context, we heard from the Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA) who presented the current situation in the country and their work to promote healthcare and record casualties within general health assessments.
Insecurity Insight, another CRN member, presented their work monitoring attacks on healthcare and advocating to prevent violence against healthcare, mitigate its impact, and strengthen accountability. Our last speaker, Professor Patrick Vinck, helped us navigate through the role of technology in conducting health assessments in a situation of extreme fragility like Sudan, including the many ethical challenges faced.
We hope that this webinar, together with the other webinars of the series, will encourage all participants to engage with the important work of casualty recording organisations in order to better understand the true human costs of armed conflicts and to support and use their much-needed information to protect civilians and minimise civilian harm in all circumstances.
Speakers
Israa Hassan, Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA) Advocacy Director
Christina Wille, Insecurity Insight Executive Director
Patrick Vinck, Research Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Medical School
Moderator: Sophia Dawkins, Fellow at the Centre on Armed Groups
Watch the recording below:
If you wish to get in touch with us, please contact Every Casualty Counts Global Network Development Lead at .
Image: Haboob Chase II – Medical Campaign, by UNAMID, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
