It is extremely easy to discover the current death toll for NATO military personnel in Afghanistan since 2001; several official and unofficial sources exist. In contrast, it is virtually impossible to get a clear and uncontested account of Afghan civilian deaths. There is no agreed total and there are no comprehensive or systematic rolls of the dead. What we have instead is a chaotic jumble of incomplete, contradictory and contested data. No organisation has undertaken sustained and consistent data gathering and presentation, and so there is no agreed authoritative record, nor any widely respected body able to authenticate future claims to such authority.
Given NATO's stated aim of protecting civilian lives, serious and objective monitoring of civilian deaths, conducted openly and transparently in all NATO-involved conflicts, is a indispensable component of accounting to the citizens of NATO member countries and the countries in which NATO intervenes.
About this report
This paper is based on a presentation to the NATO Shadow Conference "Strategies, Options and Solutions for NATO Reform: Towards a New Strategic Concept in 2010" organised by BASIC, ISIS Europe, NATO Watch and Bertelsmann Stiftung on 31 March 2009 in Brussels.