A/HRC/28/69 hurdles imposed by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic are a calculated obstruction of aid to civilians living in areas under non-State armed group control. The conditions imposed by armed groups on the delivery of humanitarian assistance use civilian suffering as a retaliatory measure. 2. Fighting-age males 54. Since March 2011, males perceived to be of fighting age, including minors, have been targeted in military assaults, shelling and by sniper fire, for arrest and detention, and recruited for participation in hostilities. As the conflict has escalated, males of fighting age have emerged as the main targets of violence. According to the Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic commissioned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, some 85.1 per cent of the victims documented were are male. 55. Government forces have engaged in mass arrest campaigns leading to the enforced disappearance of fighting-age men in areas that have fallen under their control, and men residing in or travelling to government-held areas. Their families are often too afraid to approach the authorities to enquire about the whereabouts of their relatives.8 Those who enquired have faced a refusal to disclose information about the fate of the disappeared or were compelled to pay large bribes to learn of the whereabouts of relatives. Men who were detained were often subjected to sexual violence as a tactic to punish, humiliate and degrade. 56. Victims of ISIS public executions are usually men or boys accused of being affiliated with other armed groups or of violating ISIS edicts. Captured hors de combat government soldiers have been executed en masse. Young boys are also used as executioners, trained to carry out suicide bombing missions and deployed in active hostilities. 57. Boys and men are at constant risk of being targeted or instrumentalized by the parties to the conflict. Government forces, ISIS, and the YPG have all pursued a concerted effort to conscript young men into their ranks. Minors have been recruited and used by all parties to the conflict, at times systematically. 58. Men of fighting age are not granted any of the protections afforded to civilians by any of the parties. Whether subjected to violations by government forces or ISIS, the evidence collected indicates that Sunni Muslim men are disproportionately overrepresented among the victims in the Syrian conflict. 3. Women and girls 59. The lives of Syrian women have been radically altered by four years of conflict. With Syrian men killed, disappeared or unable to move for fear of arrest at checkpoints, there has been a drastic increase in female-headed households. Unaccompanied by men and vulnerable to physical assaults, women and girls have been put at risk of arrest or abduction by government forces and by anti-government armed groups. In Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Dara’a governorates, women cited a fear of sexual violence in their decisions to flee their homes. 60. An increasing number of cases of sexual violence has been documented through targeted investigations and cooperation with broad social and medical networks. Women and girls were found to have been raped and sexually assaulted in government detention 8 A/HRC/25/65, para. 48. 9