Following the public launch of the Charter for the Recognition of Every Casualty of Armed Violence, the Every Casualty team has redeveloped www.everycasualty.org into a more dynamic, purposeful and accessible public platform.
The new site highlights the Charter and its signatories, and how others can join them. it also gives prominence to the International Practitioner Network (IPN) of casualty recorders. Other new features include a map marking the global representation of the IPN, as well as a revamped News & Comment page that showcases published items of direct relevance to the principle and practice of casualty recording.
Why 'everyasualty.org'?
We believe no individual should die without their death being recorded. There is nothing special in this belief: it is one that all human societies have put into practice throughout history, and is reflected in the many ways in which we remember and honour the dead.
But there is still one cause of death, armed violence, whose victims not only fail to be properly recorded, but predictably occur – and fail to be recorded – en masse.
Why should these victims have their lives violently cut short with little or no effort expended to discover the circumstances, or even the very fact, of their death? And how can attempts to reduce the incidence and impact of armed violence in wars and other extreme security breakdowns succeed unless we make genuine efforts to monitor and understand the human consequences?
We know that it is possible, although often difficult, to record human losses even in the midst of armed conflict thanks to the efforts of casualty recording practitioners across the world – like those in the International Practitioner Network – who strive to ensure that the victims of armed violence are neither forgotten nor remain nameless. We also know that without truth there can be no lasting reconciliation, nor a future where the mistakes of the past are not repeated.
We are therefore committed to doing all we can to ensure that every casualty of armed violence, anywhere in the world, is properly recorded as laid out in the Charter for the Recognition of Every Casualty of Armed Violence. Any casualty that is not recorded is of our concern, and we will do all within our capacity to support local and national efforts to achieve complete recording of casualties from armed violence.
Our efforts are directed at both the practice and policy dimensions of casualty recording. To find out more about these efforts, please see our programme streams. For more information on the origins and background to this project, which began at the Oxford Research Research Group in 2007, see our history. You can also see our funders to find out who is backing our work, and our team to find out who we are.
You may also wish to see the press release that accompanied the launch of the Charter at the British Academy in London in September 2011, for a brief text on the shared values, concerns and aspirations of everycasualty and our practitioner partners.