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The Cambridge Pro Bono Project speaker series kicks-off this year with a panel discussion on the UK’s obligation to investigate, record and report civilian casualties in armed conflict. The event will take place on Thursday, 7 October, at 7pm (GMT+1).
Guest speakers include Ian Overton, Executive Director at Action on Armed Violence; Georgia Edwards, UK Advocacy Officer and Conflict Researcher at Airwars; and Gavin Crowden, Executive Director at Every Casualty Counts.
Over the course of its military involvement in the Syrian conflict, the UK Government has claimed that since 2014, some 1,700 British air strikes have only caused 1 known civilian death. Just last week, it was revealed that British forces are linked to the deaths of 86 children and more than 200 adult civilians during the Afghanistan conflict.
The use of airborne explosive weapons by the United Kingdom in recent armed conflicts has created a risk that civilians might be the victims or unintended targets of the UK’s air strikes. By virtue of their operational characteristics and largely indiscriminate area-effects once detonated, airborne explosive weapons have been documented to have a greater potential to cause civilian death and injury than other conventional weapons.
In a report written by Cambridge Pro Bono Project researchers for the London-based NGO Action on Armed Violence, the UK’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law as well as domestic public law to investigate, record and report civilian casualties have been examined.
For its first CPP Speaker Series event of this academic year, the CPP in cooperation with Iain Overton, Executive Director of Action on Armed Violence, will discuss the findings of this report together with experts Georgia Edwards, UK Advocacy Officer and Conflict Researcher at Airwars, and Gavin Crowden, Executive Director at Every Casualty Counts.
A copy of the report is available here: