The aim of this publication is to provide practical guidance and tools for documenting civilian harm from attacks on energy infrastructure. The focus is on measuring the impacts of attacks on energy infrastructure through indicators related to civilians’ physical health, mental health, education, and livelihoods, among other aspects of civilian life. This guide provides an overview of data sources and methodologies for documenting attacks on energy infrastructure. However, the focus is on what to measure, rather than how to carry out the research.
The intended audience for this guide is researchers, information management officers, academics, and data analysts working in humanitarian relief, human rights, civilian protection, and similar fields. It assumes a basic familiarity with research design and data collection, analysis, and management. This document may be best suited for researchers at organizations planning to actively collect data about attacks on energy infrastructure, though organizations with systems designed to passively receive reports of attacks may also find relevant information. Users can apply the guide to structure their documentation efforts by identifying relevant domains of harm, selecting appropriate indicators, and linking them to available sources of data for analysis, advocacy, and response. Investigators at justice and accountability bodies might also find this guide useful for identifying relevant categories of civilian harm and data that may inform legal analysis, including proportionality assessments. However, this guide does not provide a methodology for attributing specific attacks to perpetrators or for conducting a pattern analysis required to establish individual criminal responsibility.
Although methodology for documenting incidents of attacks on energy infrastructure is included, this guide is most relevant for investigating the impacts of attacks on civilians. This includes immediate effects, including death, injury, and damage to facilities, as well as reverberating or knock-on effects, including on civilians’ health, education, and livelihoods. This methodological guide draws on the experience of the Explosive Weapons Monitor (EWM), Kobo, and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The EWM uses incident-level data on attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure to report on harm from the use of explosive weapons, including disruptions to critical civilian services such as health care, education, humanitarian aid, food, and water. Kobo conducts large-scale surveys to document attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including the impacts of attacks on energy infrastructure on civilians’ physical and mental health, education, and livelihoods. Finally, PHR documents attacks on health, their patterns, and impacts, including attacks on energy infrastructure impacting health and health care.
This guide focuses on electricity infrastructure; however, given the interdependent nature of energy systems, other critical utilities like fuel and gas are also referenced. Although this document draws heavily on examples from Ukraine and attacks involving explosive weapons, it also holds relevance for other contexts and other forms of attack, such as arson or small arms fire. The authors relied on resources from across several adjacent fields to develop this guide and have included them as references.