Read the full article on Lawfare, here.
By Madison Hunke, CIVIC US Program Manager, Megan Karlshoej-Pedersen, Policy Specialist at Airwars, and Anna Zahn, Archive Lead at Ariwars
In late August, the Department of Defense released its annual report on civilian harm from U.S. military operations in 2025, acknowledging that the U.S. was responsible for killing 153 civilians and injuring another 243, in addition to nine deaths and 14 injuries newly acknowledged from previous years. The report demonstrates concerning gaps in the U.S. military’s ability to prevent civilian harm—and a lack of accountability when it does occur.
Often referred to as the “1057” report after the section of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that requires the Pentagon to submit this analysis to Congress, the annual report plays a vital role in providing public transparency and enabling congressional oversight related to the human costs of U.S. military operations. Such oversight plays a vital role in building better policies and practices to protect those caught in warfare.
It was congressional pressure and decades of lessons learned from operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria which enabled the instigation of the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) in 2022, which laid out steps for the military to overhaul its practices for preventing and responding to civilian harm over four years. In 2023, the plan was followed by a policy governing such practices, the Department of Defense Instruction on civilian harm mitigation and response (DODI). Together, this patchwork of Department of Defense policies and congressional mandates formed a critical framework for learning from harm and improving civilian protection efforts.
Read the full article on Lawfare, here.
