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The purpose of this indicator is to measure the prevalence of armed conflicts and their impact in terms of loss of life.

This indicator is defined as the total count of conflict-related deaths divided by the total population, expressed per 100,000 population. ‘Conflict’ is defined as ‘armed conflict’ in reference to a terminology enshrined in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and applied to situations based on the assessment of the United Nations (UN) and other internationally mandated entities. ‘Conflict-related deaths’ refers to direct and indirect deaths associated to armed conflict. ‘Population’ refers to total resident population in a given situation of armed conflict included in the indicator, in a given year. Population data are derived from annual estimates produced by the UN Population Division.

Ministry of National Security

Ministry of Defense

Ministry of National Security

Ministry of Defense

Annual

Expressed per 100,000 population

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development seeks to strengthen universal peace and commits to redouble efforts to resolve or prevent conflict. It recognizes that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. Counting deaths occurring in situations of armed conflict is therefore essential to the measurement of the Agenda, including and beyond its Goal 16. Monitoring conflict-related deaths is also necessary to help protect civilians and other potential victims, ensure respect of humanitarian and human rights standards, and understand the patterns and consequences of armed conflicts in order to prevent future armed conflicts.

‘Conflict’ According to IHL, the branch of international law, which specifically focuses on armed conflicts, two types of armed conflicts exist: international armed conflicts (IAC) and non-international armed conflicts (NIAC).

‘Conflict-related deaths’

Direct deaths are deaths where there are reasonable grounds to believe that they resulted directly from war operations and that the acts, decisions and/or purposes that caused these deaths were in furtherance of or under the guise of armed conflict.

These deaths may have been caused by (i) the use of weapons or (ii) other means and methods.  Deaths caused by the use of weapons, include but are not limited to those inflicted by firearms, missiles, mines, and bladed weapons. It may also include deaths resulting from aerial attacks and bombardments (e.g. of military bases, cities and villages), crossfire, explosive remnants of war, targeted killings or assassinations, force protection incidents. Deaths caused by other means and methods may include deaths from torture or sexual and gender-based violence, intentional killing using starvation, depriving prisoners of access to health care or denying access to essential goods and services  (e.g. an ambulance stopped at a check point).

Indirect deaths are deaths resulting from a loss of access to essential goods and services (e.g. economic slowdown, shortages of medicines or reduced farming capacity that result in lack of access to adequate food, water, sanitation, health care and safe conditions of work) that are caused or aggravated by the situation of armed conflict. By definition, these deaths should be separated from other violent deaths which are, in principle, not connected to the situation of armed conflict (e.g. intentional and non-intentional homicides, self-defence, self-inflicted), but are still relevant to the implementation and measurement of SDG target 16.1. The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) provides definitional elements and classification of violent deaths both related and not related to armed conflict.  The ICCS provides indications on how to distinguish between intentional homicides, killings directly related to war/armed conflict and killings that amount to war crimes.

‘Cause’ refers to the weapons, means and methods that caused the conflict-related deaths.  The categories for the disaggregation of the ‘Cause of death’ for direct deaths build on the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), ICCS, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) overview of weapons regulated by IHL, UN practice and OHCHR casualty recording. 

The recommended disaggregation for this indicator are:

• Sex of person killed (Man, Woman, Unknown);

• Age group of persons killed (Adult (18 and above), Child (below 18), Unknown);

• Cause of death (Heavy weapons and explosive munitions; Planted explosives and unexploded ordnance (UXO); Small arms and light weapons; Incendiary; Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN); Electromagnetic weapons; Less lethal weapons; Denial of access to/destruction of objects indispensable to survival; Accidents related to conflict; Use of objects and other means; Unknown);

• Status of the person killed (Civilian, Other protected person, Member of armed forces, Person directly participating in hostilities, Unknown)

The indicator is calculated as the total count of conflict-related deaths divided by the total resident population in a given situation of armed conflict for the year, expressed per 100,000 population, occurring within the preceding 12 months.

The indicator is used to measure violent deaths that occur in the country and in situations of armed conflict.

In situations of armed conflict, a large share of deaths may not be reported. Often, normal registration systems are heavily affected by the presence of armed conflict. Additionally, actors on both sides of an armed conflict may have incentives for misreporting, deflating or inflating casualties.

Depending on the magnitude of conflict-related deaths, capacity of data providers, and other contextual and practical considerations, the methodology will seek to produce statistical estimates of undocumented deaths directly linked to the armed conflict.  Further work will be needed to cover deaths indirectly linked to the armed conflict, e.g. loss of access to essential goods and services. Existing data must be updated regularly and retrospectively reflecting the emergence of new data over time.

 All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.