A/HRC/22/59 stated that volunteers under 18 are enlisted. In order to join an armed group, a recruit merely needs to present himself to a local commander, who can be contacted through any armed man in a neighbourhood where anti-Government armed groups operate. Most recruits join in their own neighbourhood, where family members can vouch for them. Many interviewees associated with anti-Government armed groups said that it was very straightforward to leave them – recruits need only hand in their weapon to the commander. This suggests that participation in these groups remains voluntary. 41. The 17 year old boy who joined the Al-Nusra Front said that at first, he participated by delivering food and water to fighters. Eventually, he was given a weapon and took part in attacks. He described one attack on a checkpoint when Government soldiers who were injured were left to die. Other Government soldiers were captured and he believed that they would be tried by a court organized by the armed group, and executed if found guilty of killing civilians. The interviewee eventually left active participation in hostilities because of an injury sustained in combat. But there are no safe jobs in anti-Government armed groups – Government agents arrest and torture people carrying too much bread or medicine. Under 18s have not undergone military training and consequently some are put to work as guards in detention centres, potentially drawing them into the ill-treatment of detainees. A member of the Government security forces who said that he had been detained and tortured by an anti-Government armed group near Aleppo in October said that he was guarded by very young men, aged 17 to 20. An uncorroborated video posted on the internet at the beginning of January 2013 apparently shows a child associated with an anti-Government armed group beheading a prisoner. E. Unlawful detention of children 42. There is some evidence suggesting that detention facilities controlled by antiGovernment armed groups detain children. The commander of a detention facility run by an anti-Government armed group in rural Damascus said that he had detained a 16 year old informer. A soldier in an anti-Government armed group said that he had arrested members of an allied group who were abducting a 14 year old boy in Aleppo in October. The boy shouted to them from inside a vehicle that he had been abducted, and his abductors claimed he was a member of the Shabbiha, and from a Shabbiha family. The other anti-Government soldiers at the scene established that this was not the case, and the boy was released. Investigations are on-going. Findings 43. The rights of children have been violated by Government forces, in particular violating the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) by detaining them with adults, violating the Convention against Torture (CAT) and Common Article three of the Geneva Conventions by subjecting them to torture and other ill-treatment, and using them in hostilities in violation of international criminal law and possibly also the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (CRC-OPAC). Other crimes are visited upon children, such as unlawful killing, sexual violence, and indiscriminate attack, as detailed in other sections of this report. Evidence indicates their rights to education have also been infringed. 44. Anti-Government armed groups are also responsible for using children under the age of 18 in hostilities in violation of the CRC-OPAC, which by its terms applies to non-State actors. Where those children are under the age of 15, those recruiting them may be liable under international criminal law. Other crimes perpetrated against children by anti- 86 GE.13-10627