A/HRC/39/65 95. The Commission also continues to investigate aerial attacks launched against ISIL positions in Raqqah city between June and October 2017, which destroyed much of the city and displaced nearly the entire population. The Commission is concerned that the widespread destruction wrought upon Raqqah city included indiscriminate attacks and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Significant challenges continue to arise, including with regard to how ISIL prevented civilians from documenting attacks as a matter of policy, how chaos often left victims and witnesses unable to identify whether a given attack was carried out by aerial or ground operations, and how ISIL terrorists embedded themselves and their military installations in numerous civilian infrastructures, including hospitals, thus significantly complicating investigations. 96. The Commission further notes that the coalition led by the United States acknowledged on 28 June that it had killed 40 civilians during its aerial attack against AlBadiya school in Mansurah, Raqqah on the night of 20 to 21 March 2017, claiming that “the decision to strike complied with the law of armed conflict”. The Commission reaffirms its finding, however, that 150 of more than 200 displaced residents sheltering in the building were killed.29 97. Throughout the north-eastern part of the Syrian Arab Republic, families of ISIL fighters continue to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and denied freedom of movement outside of SDF-run camps. As their home countries refuse to repatriate them for investigation and/or trial, more 2,000 foreign women and children are reportedly being denied due process and held in legal limbo. 98. The Commission is additionally concerned by reports that the United States of America is considering releasing back into the Syrian Arab Republic a detained citizen of the United States who fought for ISIL, after having transferred him to United States bases in Iraq for interrogation. Under international law, necessary measures must be taken to ensure the safety of persons whose liberty has been restricted prior to releasing them. The absolute prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment under human rights law further precludes the transfer of a detainee at risk of such treatment. 30 The principle of nonrefoulement is moreover recognized in a number of applicable legal instruments. 99. The Commission has received unsettling reports according to which the Syrian civil registry departments in a number of governorates, including Damascus, Rif Damascus, Hama, Homs, Hasakah and Latakia, have been releasing lists of names of deceased Syrians. Those reported dead had been arrested — often arbitrarily — and detained by progovernment military and security forces, with many enforcedly disappeared since. Investigations into all of the foregoing allegations and developments are ongoing. VII. Recommendations 100. The basic frameworks for addressing the myriad issues affecting civilians who have been internally displaced and issues relating to housing, land and property rights are set out in two key documents: the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, annex) and the principles on housing and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/17, annex). Both restate and build upon internationally accepted human rights and humanitarian law norms and standards. These principles should be adhered to by all parties to the conflict exercising control over territory,31 and the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic should fully adopt them into its national legislation. 29 30 31 18 See the Monthly Civilian Casualty Report of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, 28 June 2018, available at www.inherentresolve.mil/News/News-Releases/News-ArticleView/Article/1562215/cjtf-oir-monthly-civilian-casualty-report. See also A/HRC/37/72, annex IV, paras. 7–11. See “Out of sight, out of mind: deaths in detention in the Syrian Arab Republic” (A/HRC/31/CRP.1). With regard to armed groups, see the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, art. 7.