A/HRC/22/59 103. Torture and other inhumane acts were not committed as part of either a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population. Although they do not constitute crimes against humanity as such, they are prosecutable as war crimes. F. Sexual Violence16 104. Direct accounts of sexual violence were sought from victims and eyewitnesses. Further interviews were conducted with organizations and individuals who assisted or were likely to have assisted victims of sexual violence. Limited weight was given to hearsay accounts of sexual violence, though many such accounts were received. 105. The particular difficulties of collecting evidence of sexual violence against women and girls are detailed in annex IX. 1. Government forces and affiliated militia 106. Sexual violence was perpetrated in two distinct contexts: against women by Government forces and affiliated militia (usually described as members of the Shabbiha) during house searches and at checkpoints; and against men and women in detention centres, where it was used as a means to extract information during interrogations, as well as to humiliate and punish. 107. Sexual violence was also used as a means to coerce male relatives fighting with antiGovernment armed groups to surrender themselves in return for the release of the detainee. Methods of sexual violence and torture consisted of rape, electrocution of genitals by live wires and the burning of the genitals by cigarettes, lighters or melted plastic. 108. Children were also victims of sexual violence. A 14-year-old girl was raped and otherwise brutalized in an unofficial detention centre in Idlib. 109. In the context of detention centres, rape and other inhumane acts were perpetrated as part of a widespread attack directed against a civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of an organizational policy. This conduct was also perpetrated as part of a systematic attack on a civilian population. Rape and other inhumane acts, as crimes against humanity, were committed by Government forces and affiliated militia. Rape, torture and inhuman treatment are also prosecutable as war crimes. 110. Sexual violence, including rape, was committed against women and girls during house searches and checkpoints by Government forces and affiliated militia. The searches, which often followed aerial bombardments, were military operations constituting an attack on the civilian population. Rapes and other acts of sexual violence, which formed part of the attack or which were intended to be part of the attack, are crimes against humanity. 2. Anti-Government armed groups 111. On the basis of the limited information received, it was not possible to reach a finding concerning crimes of sexual violence committed by anti-Government armed groups. 16 GE.13-10627 See also annex IX. 17