A/HRC/40/70 55. Also in September, a man received two written warnings from the self-styled “Salvation government” of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, requesting him to report to a particular police station. The warnings did not state the reason for his summons, though he later learned that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham implemented proceedings against him through the “ministry of justice” and the “office of the prosecutor” of the “Salvation government”, in relation to posts he had made online in which he criticized the situation in Idlib with regard to the provision of services, security, the spate of recent abductions and other issues for which he believed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham bore responsibility. 56. Pursuant to its ideology, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham officially denounces democracy and secularism, and arrests and detains those civilians who speak out against its fragile rule. In continuation of a pattern documented by the Commission since October 2014,23 journalists, activists and other civilians deemed to be violating the group’s stringent interpretation of Islamic law (sharia) are routinely detained arbitrarily, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment while in detention facilities known to be operated by the group, including in Ouqab and Harim prisons. The Commission also received information that a Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham emir heading the Jabal al-Zawiya branch of Ouqab prison was responsible for detaining activists in Kafr Nubl, indicating an organizational policy. 57. The Commission notes that the mass arbitrary detention of political dissenters perpetrated by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham terrorists constitutes a systematic attack directed against a civilian population. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Hay’at Tahrir alSham is perpetrating the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds. The Commission also notes that, in instituting makeshift courts whose procedures fall far short of fair trial standards, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham routinely violates the principles of due process24 and seriously contravenes international human rights norms. Education and children 58. Up to 3 million Syrian women, men and children in Idlib Governorate continue to live under the control of armed groups and the terrorist umbrella of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the vast majority of whom endure the absence of a centralized system of governance able to meet their most pressing daily needs. Economic hardship, moreover, often forces families, and in particular female-headed households, to remove their daughters from school and marry them off. Children in Idlib remain disproportionately affected, also by the lack of services. 59. In areas under the control of armed groups local councils and structures of the opposition’s “interim government”, including schools, remained functional, despite numerous challenges. There are currently some 24,000 teachers working in schools throughout Idlib, which are managed by the “education directorate” of the interim government, approximately half of whom receive their salaries from the national Government. In order to obtain their salaries, teachers are forced to go to the Directorate of Education in Hama Governorate. Dozens have been arbitrarily arrested and detained during the process, however, including at government-controlled checkpoints in Qal’at al-Madiq (Hama) and Abu al-Zuhur (Idlib). 60. Lamentable decreases in international donor funding during the period under review also had a disproportionate impact on schools throughout Idlib, specifically limiting the possibility of repairing infrastructure damaged by hostilities and purchasing vital equipment, books and stationery. Some 375 schools in Idlib have closed since 2011 due to the hostilities, increasing the pressure on the remaining schools, which are overcrowded by the influx of tens of thousands of children forcibly displaced to Idlib in the first half of 2018 (A/HRC/39/65, para. 86). During the period under review, the average number of students per class in areas held by armed groups was estimated to be between 50 and 70, as against 25 prior to the influx of displaced pupils in 2017. 23 24 12 In its previous incarnation as the Al-Nusra Front (or Jabhat al-Nusra), Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham perpetrated the same pattern of arbitrary detentions dating back to 2014. Customary International Humanitarian Law, rule 100.