A/HRC/22/59 14. A Sunni Muslim man who lived in Damascus returned home from work in July to discover his wife missing. He had recently moved into the neighbourhood, not knowing Shabbiha lived there. They were watched and followed by the Shabbiha. He believes the Shabbiha took her and raped her. She was returned the next day and they immediately fled the area. 15. Reports of sexual violence occurring in unofficial detention centres were also received. A 14 year old girl described her kidnapping and rape in [location withheld] in December. Her mother had worked with the FSA. The girl had been abducted from the street by four men, two in military uniforms and two in civilian clothing. She was taken to an unknown building where she was kept and questioned by people she described as “Shi’as from her neighbourhood”. While there she was interrogated by a woman about the work her mother did with the FSA. During the interrogation, she was beaten with electrical wire, given injections, beaten and had cigarettes extinguished on her chest. She was denied food and water for extended periods of time. On the fifth day of her detention, four young men were brought into the room where they raped her. Two days later, she was released. Her father took her to a gynaecologist outside Syria. In a separate interview, the doctor confirmed bruises, cigarette burns, injection marks on arms, and sexual injuries to the victim. This 14 year old girl has tried to commit suicide three times, saying, “My life has no value. I lost everything, what has gone will never come back.” 16. In September, a neighbourhood in Homs was searched by Government security forces and “Shabbiha”. A local resident stated that the security forces went from house to house detaining men. If men were not found in the house, the soldiers claimed they must be fighting with the FSA. The resident said that his aunt had been one of the women captured by Shabbiha along with between 40 and 50 other women from different streets and taken to a wedding hall in the town. He said women were raped, and daughters raped in front of their mothers. Some were kept for hours and others were kept for a few days with one woman kept up to 12 days. The interviewee knew some of the women but would not divulge their names so as not to “shame” them. 17. In a third case, an interviewee stated he had paid a ransom on behalf of his neighbour who had been detained at a checkpoint in Latakia by Shabbiha from a nearby “Alawite village”. He stated that he saw marks of beatings on his neighbour’s back. When he asked the neighbour about how he had been treated, he started to cry. The interviewee was informed by the man’s brother that he had been raped during his abduction. Findings 18. Sexual violence, including rape and forms of sexual torture, has been perpetrated by Government forces and affiliated militia against men, women, girls and boys during the Syrian conflict. 19. In the context of detention centres, rape and other inhumane acts have been perpetrated as part of a widespread attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. This conduct was also perpetrated as part of a systematic attack on a civilian population. Rape and other inhumane acts, as crimes against humanity, have been committed by Government forces and affiliated militia. Rape, torture and inhuman treatment are also prosecutable as war crimes. 20. Acts of sexual violence — including rape — were committed against women and girls during house searches and checkpoints during the reporting period. The searches, which often follow shelling and aerial bombardments, are military operations constituting an attack on the civilian population. Rapes and other acts of sexual violence which formed GE.13-10627 77