In early 2006 IBC was invited to introduce its work at a Working Group Meeting on methods used by researchers to estimate armed conflict deaths (organised by the Small Arms Survey, Geneva, 17 Feb 2006).
Well-received by experts at the meeting, On Iraq Body Count summarised the project’s key features and innovations.
Political/social impact: making the work useful to others
- preserving published information that would otherwise be lost
- good basis for follow up studies, legal investigations etc.
- allowing on-line public public interrogation of the database with specific search queries
- figures have been regularly referenced by UN bodies, human rights monitors and the European Commission
5.3 Political/social impact: making the work useful to others
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We are preserving information that it is out there anyway. It is wasteful to let it come out and then, effectively, just disappear.
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Recording by place and time makes a good basis for follow up studies, legal investigations etc.
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The data is stored in a form which will eventually allow on-line public interrogation of the database with specific search queries.
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Our figures have been regularly used by UN bodies, human rights monitors, and the European Commission.