A/HRC/22/59 G. Violations of children’s rights17 112. During the last six months of the period under review, children faced widespread violation of their rights. 1. Government forces and affiliated militia 113. Children have been denied special protections afforded in international law requiring them to be detained separately from adults, and which orients their detention towards rehabilitation. Children as young as 8 years old were imprisoned with adults. The conditions amounted to inhuman treatment. Children were also tortured and some may have died as a result. 114. Government attacks on more than 17 schools were documented. Anti-Government forces were present in some instances. Hospital admission wards denied treatment to children wounded in hostilities, and doctors were coerced to inform on the children. 115. Official Syrian conscription systems are disintegrating. Children under 18 years of age are seized at checkpoints, and Government-affiliated militia use sectarian affiliation, kinship systems and cash to fill their ranks. These methods may have led to the recruitment of underage soldiers. Children are used as informers; both sides punish “informants” with judicial or extrajudicial execution. 2. Anti-Government armed groups 116. Anti-Government armed groups frequently use schools as barracks or offices. These occupations are not always justified by military necessity, and have spread the belief that schools are not safe. More than 2,400 of the 20,000 schools in the Syrian Arab Republic have been damaged by military operations. Thousands more have been converted into shelters for displaced persons, undermining access to education. 117. Anti-Government armed groups enlist volunteers under 18 years of age. Children have been used in combat and have undertaken other active roles. Some armed groups use children as guards, potentially drawing them into ill-treatment of detainees. An uncorroborated video apparently showed a child associated with an anti-Government armed group beheading a prisoner. 118. Detention facilities controlled by anti-Government armed groups hold children together with adults. IV. Violations in the conduct of hostilities A. Unlawful attacks18 119. The conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has evolved into a war of attrition that has increasingly put civilians at risk. Urban areas have come under indiscriminate attack. During the reporting period, Damascus suffered aerial bombardment for the first time since the beginning of the conflict. Anti-Government armed groups conduct their operations from within densely populated civilian areas, putting civilians in the line of fire and forcing them to flee their homes. Government forces conduct their military operations in disregard of the 17 18 18 See also annex X. See also annex XI. GE.13-10627