A/HRC/18/53 On 23 April 2011, Committee members moved to Banyas, proceed their work in collaboration with investigation judges and the general prosecutor. Victims’ family members, witnesses and injured citizens were heard. The next day, the committee members moved to the village of Baida near Banyas. There they met with residents of the village, explained the mission of this committee and asked residents to give any information they might have about the recent events and cooperate with the Judiciary. Committee members observed at this point some acts of disturbance of the public order generated by citizens who refused to cooperate with the committee. On 5 May 2011, the Deputy Chief Justice issued decision number (1421/L), altering article number (3) of decision number (905/L) of 31 March 2011. The description of committee’s mission becomes “Taking on immediate investigations of the cases of murder against citizens among civilian and military personnel, or the cases of their injury, and all crimes related or resulted from it, this mission applies to all provinces of Syria, and the committee is authorized to receive complaints with this regard. All attorneys general, first investigation judge and the chief prosecutor general, who have the most seniority in every province, are to be considered members of subcommittees initiating investigations in their respective provinces and reporting to the main investigation committee. To facilitate receiving of citizens, or their complaints, a physical location in Damascus with telephone, fax numbers and email address was chosen. Its contact information was published in all media. Today, the investigation committee operates from that location, while subcommittees work in their respective provinces. 11. In the subject of mass graves in Jisr al-Shughur: using different kinds of weapons and fire arms, hundreds of armed terrorists attacked a law enforcement office in Jisr alShughur. The terrorist group took control of the building, murdered all personnel working at that time, maimed and dragged their bodies by bulldozers to form piles of dead bodies in different locations. Piles were then covered with dirt and debris. This incident took place while terrorist groups took over the city of Jisr al-Shughur, terrorized its inhabitants and forced them to leave their houses and take refuge at the Turkish border, where tents were erected waiting for them. This incident was exploited by a massive misleading campaign conducted by media hostile to the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic. It portrayed refugees running away from armed terrorist groups as if they were running from attacks perpetuated by the Syrian army. When army forces eventually took control of the city, they arrested some members of the terrorist groups who indicated locations of mass graves that contained bodies of police and security services personnel. The bodies were dug out in presence of a number of press and media and members of accredited diplomatic missions in the country. Attached please find a visual record related to this incident. As for the judicial file, it is being completed by the competent judiciary department in the province of Idlib, administrative location of the city of Jisr al-Shughur. 12. In the claims related to the way crowds were treated by the Syrian authorities, we need to mention legislative texts related to the subject: (a) Legislative decree number (54) of the year 2011, related to regulating peaceful demonstrations in Syria - mainly considering the right to demonstrate peacefully as one of the basic human rights- is a decree in compliance with most world states’ legislations in this regard, it regulates mechanisms of exercising the right to peaceful demonstrations, designates authority departments responsible for issuing permissions of peaceful demonstrations, it names a judicial authority reference to appeal decisions refusing to grant permit to demonstrate. It also contains texts related to forms of legal punishment when demonstrations do not abide by this decree or in case of riots. 85