Every Casualty Worldwide and Insight, a member of the international Casualty Recorders Network, co-presented a statement at Human Rights Council 57th Regular Session at the United Nations Office at Geneva in September.
The statement included casualty records documented by Insight since 2022, which is 4,289 Syrian civilians, including 694 children and 681 women.
It was explained that obstacles create a huge challenge to creating an accurate record of all those killed in the Syrian conflict to date, and a source of immense distress to the bereaved.
Also, there is no official record of these victims, as the Syrian government – which is responsible for the majority of these deaths – does not record these fatalities as victims of war or torture. Instead, they are often registered as ordinary deaths.
The statement recalled that surviving family members are afraid to seek documentation of their loved one’s death at the hands of the Syrian regime, or its Russian and Iranian allies, because they risk becoming suspected regime enemies themselves, leading to further persecution.
And that relatives of victims who died in government custody or under torture often receive notification of the death without any further details, and are denied access to the body.
125,000 persons remain missing across the country, their fate unaccounted for.
The Executive Director of Every Casualty Counts, Rachel Taylor, who read the statement, urged the Commission and OHCHR to continue their efforts to identify and document casualties to the fullest extent of their mandate and resources.
She also urged all member states to support international efforts to accurately document the dead and missing, including the newly established Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria.