Executive Summary
1. This Report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2008 is compiled in pursuance of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) mandate under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1806 (2008). UNAMA conducts independent and impartial monitoring of incidents involving loss of life or injury to civilians as well as damage or destruction of civilian infrastructure and conducts activities geared to mitigating the impact of the armed conflict on civilians. UNAMA's Human Rights Officers (national and international), deployed in all of UNAMA's regional offices and some provincial offices, utilize a broad range of techniques to gather information on specific cases irrespective of location or who may be responsible. Such information is cross-checked and analysed, with a range of diverse sources, for credibility and reliability to the satisfaction of the Human Rights Officer conducting the investigation, before details are recorded in a dedicated data base. However, due to limitations arising from the operating environment, such as the joint nature of some operations and the inability of primary sources in most instances to precisely identify or distinguish between diverse military actors/insurgents, UNAMA does not break down responsibility for particular incidents other than attributing them to "pro-government forces" or "anti-government elements". UNAMA does not claim that the statistics presented in this report are complete; it may be the case that, given the limitations in the operating environment, UNAMA is under-reporting civilian casualties. In January 2009, UNAMA introduced a new electronic database which is designed to facilitate the collection and analysis of information, including disaggregation by age and gender.
