What do we do?

Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) is a London-based charity that records, investigates and disseminates evidence of armed violence against civilians worldwide, to ensure the respect and protection of their rights and to end armed violence against civilians in conflict.

Our work is disseminated at international forums, such as the UN and we have presented evidence of explosive violence harm to the UK parliament and to numerous think-tanks and in public debates. Our research is widely cited in the media and in academic papers. We are a regular commentator on armed violence internationally.

For more information, please contact Dr Iain Overton - ioverton@aoav.org.uk

Overview

Weapons-related research and advocacy are central to AOAV’s mission to reduce the incidence and impact of armed violence. A core focus of our work is addressing the devastating effects of weapons – especially explosive weapons in populated areas – our research is frequently cited in academic literature.

AOAV has a long history of reducing access to and use of weapons that cause harm to the general population. Over the decades, AOAV has played a leading role among civil society organisations acting on weapons – in promoting and securing international agreements related to disarmament, including the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty (1997), Protocol V (2003), the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development (2006), the Convention on Cluster Munitions (2008), the Oslo Commitments on Armed Violence (2010), the Arms Trade Treaty (2014), the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and the Dublin Conference to Adopt the Political Declaration on Explosive Weapons (2022).

AOAV fully supports the goals of Every Casualty, the international NGO which campaigns for the recording of victims by all parties to conflicts. As its simple mission statement notes: ‘Governments must ensure that all lives lost to armed violence, anywhere in the world, are properly recorded.’ We are also pleased to be a part of the associated Casualty Recorders Network, an international alliance which strives for best practice among its 50 members.

AOAV also examines the structures, incentives and relationships that sustain armed violence, including the role of the military-industrial complex. Through research into arms exports, defence procurement, lobbying, military funding and the links between governments, armed forces, industry and academia, AOAV seeks to improve public understanding of how decisions about weapons are made and who influences them. We believe that meaningful efforts to reduce armed violence require not only documenting its consequences, but also scrutinising the political and economic systems that enable the production, promotion and proliferation of weapons worldwide.

Annual reports

Please find our annual reports here:

2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014

Please contact AOAV for any ones prior to the dates shown

Who funds us?

AOAV receives generous year-on-year funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Previous funding has come from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (via INEW).

All other non-annual funding is declared in our annual reports.

Privacy notice, governance and compliance.

For our privacy notice please go here.

For our governance and compliance documents please go here.

Explosive Violence Monitor

On 1 October 2010, AOAV’s Explosive Violence Monitor began recording global data on the immediate humanitarian impact of explosive weapons. The survey monitors English-language media reports of explosive weapons incidents in which at least one casualty was recorded. Data on the context of the incident and details of the resulting harm is logged and analysed on an ongoing basis. The data collected includes civilian and combatant casualties, the type of explosive weapon used, the means of deployment, the user of the weapon, and the location of the incident. Over 15 years, the data collected by AOAV paints a clear and consistent picture. The vast majority of casualties of these weapons are civilians. This pattern is especially pronounced when explosive weapons are used in populated areas.

Background
AOAV’s Explosive Weapons Survey was developed to help address the gap in systematic data collection of casualties caused by the use of explosive weapons, as a contribution towards broader measuring and monitoring of all forms of armed violence.

While there are certain challenges and limitations in collecting data based on media reports, information collected by AOAV provides ongoing statistics on the problem of explosive weapons in populated areas, and enables monitoring of broad trends on a global scale. Information and data on the harm caused by explosive weapons is fundamental as a basis for improved protection of civilians, and for preventing the human suffering caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Our annual Explosive Violence Monitor Reports

Explosive Violence Monitor 2024

AOAV recorded 67,026 deaths and injuries by explosive weapons in 9,553 incidents in 2024. Of these, 59,524 were civilians – 89%, the highest level of civilian harm since monitoring began in 2010.

Civilian deaths and injuries in populated areas represented 97% of all reported civilian deaths and injuries in such locations. This compares to 31% in lesser populated areas. In total, 57,506 civilians were killed and injured in populated areas.

Civilian casualties rose by 69% compared to 2023, and civilian fatalities by 50%. On average, 6.2 civilians were harmed per attack and 2.5 were killed.

Incidents were recorded in 56 countries and territories around the world. Gaza, Ukraine, Lebanon, Sudan, Myanmar and Syria were the worst affected contexts.

Annual Explosive Violence reports

Overview Explosive Violence reports

A Decade of Explosive Violence Harm, 2011-2020 (pdf)
Patterns of Harm: Five years of AOAV explosive violence data (2011 – 2015) (pdf)

Manufactured Explosives

The use of manufactured explosive weapons in populated areas continues to kill and maim tens of thousands of civilians every year. From air-dropped bombs exploding into apartment blocks in Gaza or landmines devastating lives in West Africa the use of manufactured explosive weapons in populated areas causes a predictable pattern of violence: it causes excessive civilian harm.

AOAV has been monitoring the worldwide impact of explosive weapons since 2011. Our Explosive Weapons Survey has shown that civilians make up the vast majority of deaths and injuries from explosive violence in populated areas. In 2019, AOAV published a report examining the reverberating harm from the conflict in Syria: The reverberating effects of explosive weapon use in Syria. This built upon AOAV’s 2018 report which examined the long-term harm to civilians from the use of explosive weapons, focusing on the civil war in Sri Lanka and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, in When the bombs fall silent. In 2017, AOAV also examined the impact of explosive weapons on refugees in the report, The Refugee Explosion.

AOAV has also produced the Wide-area impact report, examining the impact of air-dropped bombs in Yemen, mortar attacks on the Syrian-Jordanian border and multiple-rocket attacks in Ukraine. Other key reports on manufactured weapons include: Under Fire: Israel’s artillery policies scrutinised (pdf), Air Power in Afghanistan (pdf), and A Tale of Two Cities (pdf).

We are a founding member of the International Network on Explosive Weapons (INEW), and carry out research and advocacy to reduce the suffering caused by these weapons.

Key reports on manufactured weapons

An Anatomy of an Airstrike
An Anatomy of a Landmine Blast
An Anatomy of a Grad Attack
An Anatomy of a Mortar Attack
An Anatomy of an Artillery Strike
An Anatomy of a Grenade Attack
The reverberating effects of explosive weapon use in Syria (pdf)
When the bombs fall silent (pdf)
The Refugee Explosion (pdf)
Wide-area impact report (pdf)
Under Fire: Israel’s artillery policies scrutinised (pdf)
Air Power in Afghanistan (pdf)
A Tale of Two Cities (pdf)
The United Kingdom’s Obligation to Investigate, Record and Report Civilians Casualties in Armed Conflict
The targeting of high-rises in Gaza: an analysis of Israel’s air strikes on tall buildings in 2021
Assessing the effectiveness of the Arms Trade Treaty on reducing civilian harm from conventional explosive weapons in populated areas (pdf)

Improvised Explosive Devices

AOAV has conducted a range of work on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Our research has examined IED components, impacts and data recording.

Key reports on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

A Decade of Mass Civilian Casualty Events from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)
Une Décennie de Grandes Pertes Civiles Due à des Engins Explosifs Improvisés (EEI)
How to Address the Harms from IEDs (pdf)
The Challenge IEDs Pose for the Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) Sector
An examination of the precursor chemicals found within IEDs
IEDs: past, present and future
Addressing the threat posed by IEDs (pdf)
Understanding the rising cult of the suicide bomber (pdf)
Understanding the regional and transnational networks that facilitate IED use
Tracking IED Harm (pdf)
Anatomy of a Suicide Bombing (pdf)
Material Harm (pdf)
Blood on the Streets of Boston (pdf)

Guns

Of all weapons of violence, guns cause the greatest harm. Yet, unlike other weapons types such as land mines or cluster munitions, they do not receive the same attention by the international community. Global figures are hard to come by, but it is estimated that over half a million of people die from armed violence every year and the highest proportion of these will be at the end of a gun. This is just those killed by guns, countless more are wounded, or take their lives with one. AOAV seeks to stimulate the debate about guns and their role in violence through detailed research and focused advocacy.

Key reports on guns

The Devil’s Trade: Guns and Violence in El Salvador (pdf)
US Department of Defense spend on guns in ‘War on Terror’
15 Mass shootings that changed the law
UK government approves exports of sniper rifles despite human rights concerns

Challenging militarism

AOAV examines how militarism seeps into policy, commerce and culture, with Britain as its chief case study. It tracks the arms trade, interrogates government secrecy and tests official claims against evidence from war zones and courtrooms. Through investigations, data analysis and freedom-of-information work, AOAV exposes the gap between rhetoric and reality: a country that talks up human rights while licensing weapons to abusive regimes; a military that pledges accountability while shielding its own from scrutiny; a defence policy that lauds innovation while courting tools that put civilians at risk.

The point is not protest for its own sake. AOAV uses findings to press for concrete reform: tighter export controls, rigorous casualty recording, civilian jurisdiction over serious offences, protection for journalists and whistle-blowers, and meaningful oversight of AI and autonomy in warfare. By combining public interest reporting with policy advocacy, it seeks to cut through cant, deter impunity and reduce the human toll of modern conflict.

Key reports on militarism

Blood Money: UK Compensation Payments for Afghan Civilian Harm Examined
For All Was Lost: comparing UK & US military deaths in the War on Terror
Killing in the Shadows: investigating allegations of British Special Forces extra-judicial killings in Afghanistan
Civilian casualties from British military engagements since World War II: summary
The Armed Forces on trial: how Britain’s military has evaded scrutiny and accountability
UK military justice: a system in crisis?
A culture of impunity: accountability failures in Britain’s armed forces
The fog of secrecy: how the Ministry of Defence’s transparency failings undermine accountability

Advocacy work

AOAV works closely with UN bodies and individuals working there to disseminate our findings and research.

AOAV has been part of an expert working group on explosive weapons for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, on the advisory committee to the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Explosive Weapons, as members of the Forum on the Arms Trade, on the Advisory Board for the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Post Conflict Trauma; PrOTeCT at Imperial College London and a member of the Global Alliance on War, Conflict & Health.

Recent citations of AOAV’s work via UN organisations and publications include:

Dublin Conference to Adopt the Political Declaration on Explosive Weapons(2022)

United Nations Security Council, ‘Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General‘, 2021 (and previous years)

United Nations Environment Programme, ‘Environmental Legacy of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas‘, 2021.

UNIDIR, ‘Menu of Indicators to measure the reverberating effects on civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas‘, 2020.

United Nations Security Council, ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict‘, 2016.

UN Human Rights Council, ‘Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories‘, 2015.

UNIDIR, ‘Addressing Improvised Explosive Devices: Options and Opportunities to Better Utilize UN Processes and Actors‘, 2015.

UNOCHA and AOAV, ‘State of Crisis: Explosive Weapons in Yemen‘, 2015.

UNOCHA and PAX, ‘Shattered Lives: Civilians suffer from the use of explosive weapons in Libya‘, 2015.

Disclaimer

Fair Usage of Images on AOAV’s Website

At Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), we are committed to complying with copyright laws and respecting the intellectual property rights of others. As a non-profit organisation dedicated to education and public awareness on issues of armed violence, we strive to ensure that any images used on our website are properly sourced, licensed, or fall under exceptions provided by copyright law, such as fair usage.

Educational Purpose
Our primary purpose is educational and informational, aimed at raising awareness about the impact of armed violence and promoting research on the subject. Under UK copyright law and international copyright agreements, the use of copyrighted material for the purposes of criticism, review, or reporting current events may constitute ‘fair dealing,’ a legal concept that allows limited use without infringing copyright.

In particular, where images are used to illustrate articles, reports, or educational resources that critique or report on armed violence, we believe that these uses fall within the boundaries of fair usage. Our intent is never to commercially exploit such images but rather to provide visual context in a manner consistent with our educational mission.

Action on Copyright Infringement Claims
Despite our efforts to ensure that all images used are either properly licensed or subject to fair usage exceptions, we acknowledge that errors may occur. Should any image on our website be identified as violating copyright, AOAV is fully committed to taking prompt remedial action. We encourage copyright holders to contact us directly if they believe their rights have been infringed, and we will review and, where appropriate, remove or replace the image in question.

Compliance and Responsibility
AOAV remains diligent in our efforts to source images through appropriate means, such as creative commons licenses, public domain repositories, or directly from photographers and creators. We take copyright laws seriously and are dedicated to using images in a manner consistent with both legal standards and our organizational ethos.

Our commitment to transparency, compliance, and responsible image usage remains at the core of our operations, and we will continue to uphold these values in all aspects of our work.

General Disclaimer
The information provided on the AOAV website is for general informational purposes only. While we strive to keep the content up to date and accurate, AOAV makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability of the information contained on the website. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk.

AOAV will not be liable for any loss or damage, including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.

Privacy and Data Protection Disclaimer
AOAV respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. Any personal information you provide to us, whether through our website or via email, will be treated in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). AOAV will not sell, share, or distribute your personal data to third parties unless required by law or as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which the data was collected.

Third-Party Content and External Links Disclaimer
The AOAV website may contain links to third-party websites that are not owned or controlled by AOAV. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. AOAV has no control over the nature, content, and availability of those sites and does not endorse or take responsibility for any content, products, or services provided by them.

By using this website, you acknowledge that AOAV is not responsible for the content or practices of any third-party websites, and your use of those sites is governed by their own terms and conditions.

Medical or Legal Advice Disclaimer
The content on AOAV’s website is not intended to provide professional medical, legal, or psychological advice. If you require medical or legal assistance, we recommend you consult a qualified professional. AOAV disclaims any responsibility for any outcomes related to the reliance on the information provided on this website in such contexts.

Copyright and Intellectual Property
Unless otherwise stated, AOAV owns the intellectual property rights for all content on this website. However, in the interest of promoting education, research, and public awareness on the issues of armed violence, AOAV welcomes the republishing or reuse of our content, provided that proper attribution is given.

You are free to share, republish, or adapt our materials for non-commercial purposes, as long as you clearly credit Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) as the original source, include a link to our website, and indicate if any changes were made to the original content. For any commercial use or for permissions beyond the scope of this policy, please contact us directly for authorisation.

Unauthorised use of AOAV’s content for commercial purposes without prior permission may violate copyright laws.

Governing Documents
Alongside our image usage policy, AOAV has published a comprehensive suite of governance and compliance documents, which set out the structures, responsibilities, and procedures that guide our work as a charity. These include policies on safeguarding, financial management, equality and diversity, risk management, and trustee responsibilities. All of these can be found here: AOAV governance and compliance documents.