A/HRC/28/69 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 5 February 2015 Original: English Human Rights Council Twenty-seventh session Agenda item 4 Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic* Summary The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to Council resolution S-17/1. The violence in the Syrian Arab Republic mutated from unrest in March 2011 into internal disturbances and the emergence of a non-international armed conflict in February 2012. The conduct of an ever-increasing number of actors is characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law. Since the outset, civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties. Since its establishment, the Commission of Inquiry has persistently drawn attention to the atrocities committed across the country. In the present report, the Commission charts the major trends and patterns of human rights and humanitarian law violations perpetrated from March 2011 to January 2015, and draws from more than 3,556 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses in and outside of the country, collected since September 2011. Taking stock of international actions and inaction, the report is intended to reemphasize the dire situation of the Syrian people in the absence of a political solution to the conflict. The Commission stresses the urgent need for concerted and sustained international action to find a political solution to the conflict, to stop grave violations of human rights and to break the intractable cycle of impunity. * The annexes to the present report are circulated as received, in the language of submission only. GE.15-01937 (E) 