In its update to the Human Rights Council at its 48th session (A/HRC/RES/46/22), OHCHR informed the Council that it has complied a list of 350,209 identified individuals killed in the Syrian conflict between March 2011 to March 2021. This note describes the statistical analysis behind that number and provides more information on the yearly disaggregations by sex, age, and governorate of death. OHCHR has also begun processing information on the actors alleged to have caused the deaths, the civilian status of casualties, and the cause of death by weapon type.

The statistical work undertaken builds on previous efforts. In 2013 and 2014, OHCHR commissioned three statistical analyses of documented killings in Syria. However, the situation in Syria in 2014 grew more complex and dangerous, which affected its capacity to maintain the required standards of quality and verification and led to the suspension of this work. In 2019, OHCHR reinforced its capacity to monitor and investigate incidents involving civilian casualties and resumed the statistical analysis to include Syria in its global reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals indicator on conflict-related deaths (SDG indicator 16.1.2).