FAQs

Memorial 2025 was developed in collaboration with members of the Casualty Recorders Network and only includes deaths which occured as a result of armed conflict and violence during 2024. This means that the project only includes conflicts currently being documented by at least one Network member.

Regrettably, this means that there are many situations of armed violence which are not included here. We attempted to identify organisations working in those contexts which might be able to provide suitable information. In some cases this was successful, and as a result several new organisations joined the Network during the course of this year. In other contexts, we have not yet been able to establish suitable contacts. We hope that, as the Network continues to grow each year, we will be able to provide a greater breadth of coverage in future.

The number of cases included from each context, or from each side of a conflict, is by no means representative of the scale of deaths.

There are several reasons why the number of cases included from each context or Network member varies:

The more intense the conflict, the higher the death toll, and the greater the destruction of infrastructure, the harder it is to document individual deaths promptly, accurately and in detail. This is also the case where the state or other parties to the conflict restrict access to journalists and aid workers, and/or restrict telecommunications. For investigators to be able to verify information effectively, a minimum level of security and fucntioning infrastructure is required. This means that information about individual victims in Gaza, Myanmar and Sudan, for example, is currently very limited in comparison to the number of deaths known to be taking place.

In situations where violence is ongoing, as is the case for all of the contexts included in this project, witnesses and surviving family members may be at continued risk of reprisal for speaking out. For this reason, some Network members were unable to share any of their records for publication here. Others were able to share a very limited number of stories which, for specific reasons, had been individually cleared as safe for publication. Ensuring the safety of victims’ families, witnesses, and the Network members themselves was the primary consideration at all times, and this meant we had to exclude many potential stories from the project.

In several of the contexts represented here, it is difficult to draw a clear social or moral distinction between combatants and civilians. In some countries, civilians are routinely armed in order to protect their communities and livelihoods. Some alternate between civilian and part-time militia roles. Some ‘professional’ soldiers were conscripted and had no choice about participating in the conflict.

Memorial 2025 aims to reflect the fundamental human identity of those caught up in war. We concluded that this message was more important than drawing a possibly arbitrary distinction between those considered civilians and non-civilians. We also believe that the complexity of these overlapping identities is in itself an important truth about the way modern warfare has blurred the boundaries between battlefield and safety, protected status and legitimate target.

In this project, and our wider work, we include situations of systemic or widespread armed violence which do not necessarily meet the definition of ‘armed conflict’ in international law. This includes one-sided violence such as genocide, and other situations of mass violations of the right to life. Our scope includes fatalities resulting from contexts of endemic lawlessness and violent organised crime, but does not include homicides unrelated to a broader situation of systemic violence. Guided by the criteria established by the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme, we generally consider a minimum of 25 deaths in a 12-month period as a baseline indication of systemic violence.

More detail on the scope and definition of ‘armed conflict’ in international law is available here. Information on the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme criteria and definitions is available here.

These stories were shared with us by members of the Casualty Recorders Network and a few other trusted organisations. Every member of the Network has a different approach to investigating and verifying casualties, but they are all guided by the Standards for Casualty Recording published by ECC in 2016. These Standards provide specific criteria for ensuring casualties are recorded accurately and ethically. Casualty information recorded by Network members has been recognised and trusted by many actors, including policy makers, news media, war crimes tribunals, and historians.

Any organisation which documents casualties of armed violence and conflict can apply to join the Network through our website. They must complete a comprehensive membership assessment to ensure their suitability, and commit to upholding certain professional and ethical standards. We check independent references for each organisation and conduct background checks on senior staff, trustees and other associated persons.

More information about the Network, its activities, and how to apply to join, is available here.

This project focuses exclusively on recognising individuals killed in armed violence during 2024. Many members of the Casualty Recorders Network are based in post-conflict societies and focused on documenting and recognising victims of earlier conflicts which were not active in 2024, so they are not included here.

Wherever possible, Network members communicated directly with the families of the victims featured in this project, and gained their informed consent. If the victim’s family did not want their story to be featured, or if there were any concerns about the safety of family members or other witnesses, we did not publish the story.

In some cases it was not possible to make contact with the victim’s family, either because the entire family had been killed, witnesses had been displaced, or for other reasons. In these instances, the information we have published here was obtained from other sources, primarily news media. If we were unable to contact the family, the only information we have published is material which is already in the public domain. In each case, we carefully considered the risk to survivors and any potential reputational risk to the deceased or their family before making the decision to include a victim’s story.

We encourage people to use these stories to highlight the true cost of armed conflict on ordinary people’s lives, as long as this is always done in an appropriate and respectful manner. If you would like to receive printable copies of one or more stories, please contact us through this form and we will respond within 24 hours.

Remembrance is a collective act, in which everyone plays a part. If you would like to help preserve the memory of those who continue to lose their lives to armed conflict, you may wish to join the Remembrance Collective. Support from Remembrance Collective members helped Every Casualty and our Network to produce this Memorial project, and to carry out other vital activities.

We are happy to receive any further details and clarifications, or to amend information. Please contact us at info@everycasualty.org and we will respond as soon as possible.