A/HRC/28/69 46. There have been abductions and disappearances for which no ransom demands were issued and no claims of responsibility made. In December 2013, four human rights activists were kidnapped from their office in Dumah (Rif Damascus). Their fate and whereabouts remain unknown. B. Consequences of the failure of the State to protect civilians 47. The human cost of the ongoing conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic is immeasurable. The Syrian State has manifestly failed to protect its citizens from mass atrocities. War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed on a massive scale. Many Syrians have suffered multiple violations and abuses from different actors. The scale of human suffering has grown as the conflict has escalated. 1. Civilians 48. Civilians and persons hors de combat, in particular fighting-age men, have been the primary victims of violence since the unrest began in the Syrian Arab Republic in March 2011. Women and children have also been targeted. Men and women who sought to aid the wounded or those in need of humanitarian assistance have been arrested, detained, tortured and killed for “collaborating” with the armed opposition. 49. Government forces have directed attacks against the civilian population. The attacks have included widespread shelling and bombardment of civilian-inhabited localities and the targeting of civilians for arrest, detention and disappearance on the basis of their association or perceived opposition to the Government. The coordination and active participation of government institutions indicates that the attacks are conducted as a matter of State policy. As part of this widespread attack on the civilian population, government forces have perpetrated murder, torture, rape and acts of enforced disappearance. 50. Where frontlines have stalled, the Government has employed a strategy of controlling the population, combining long-lasting sieges with continuous air and ground bombardment. Civilians are targeted on the basis of their perceived opposition to the Government. Merely living in or originating from certain neighbourhoods leads to targeting. In a particularly brutal military campaign, the Government intensified its widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Aleppo in October 2013 to punish and terrorize civilians for supporting or hosting armed groups in an apparent strategy to erode popular support for those groups. Government forces are now employing a similar strategy in Ar Raqqah, with total disregard for the distinction between civilian and military targets. 51. Anti-government armed groups have intentionally targeted civilian localities either in retaliation for government operations or owing to perceived support of those localities for the Government. Minority groups considered to be harbouring government loyalties or perceived as benefiting from government support have also been attacked by non-State armed groups. 52. Since its emergence in April 2013, ISIS has committed acts of violence against the civilian population under its control in Ar Raqqah, Dayr az Zawr, Al Hasakah and northeastern Aleppo governorates. ISIS, a structured group, directs and organizes these acts of violence against civilians, evincing an organizational policy. As part of this attack, ISIS has carried out public executions to instil terror among the civilian population, ensuring submission to its authority. 53. Arbitrary restrictions and obstacles to the delivery of aid continue to be imposed by all sides to the conflict, with devastating consequences for civilians in areas that are hard to reach. Humanitarian aid has been instrumentalized for military gain. The bureaucratic 8