A/HRC/25/65 36. Residents of opposition-controlled areas were arrested and detained when passing through checkpoints. In July, a woman was arrested at a Damascus checkpoint because her identity card indicated her former residence as Dara’a. Such practices have curtailed the freedom of movement of civilians, in particular men and boys over 12 years. 37. Doctors and rescue workers were detained on the grounds that they assisted “terrorists” in Hama and Damascus. Human rights defenders and political activists were targeted for arrest and detained in Damascus, limiting their freedom of expression and opinion. 38. Persons were detained without a legal basis, their detention was not justified on permissible grounds and they were not accorded their right to a review of the grounds and legality of their detention. Government forces conducted arbitrary arrests and unlawful detention, in violation of international human rights law. 2. Non-State armed groups 39. Non-State armed groups arbitrarily deprived persons of their liberty, violating their obligations under international humanitarian law. Armed groups did not afford detainees an initial and periodic review of the detention by an independent entity. 40. In late July 2013, ISIS fighters arrested Kurdish civilians in Tal Abyad (Ar Raqqah) on the basis of their ethnicity. In August, a doctor was apprehended by a FSA brigade in Aleppo city because he had provided medical aid to government soldiers. In Aleppo governorate, people were arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully detained by Jabhat Al-Nusra, Ahrar Al-Sham and ISIS. Summary judgements passed by mechanisms not fulfilling the minimum standards for due process guarantees sometimes formed the basis for imprisonment. C. Hostage-taking 41. Warring parties engaged in hostage-taking, in violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. There has been a rise in incidents perpetrated by non-State armed groups, in particular by ISIS. 42. Belligerents, motivated by financial gain or to exchange prisoners held by opposing forces, abducted individuals. In some instances, criminal gangs used the conflict as an opportunity for self-enrichment. As abductions accelerated, civilians fled their homes, seeking safety. Some families restricted women and girls to their homes, limiting their freedom of movement and their access to education. 1. Government forces and pro-government militia 43. Government forces, National Defence Forces, popular committees and shabbiha groups took hostages for ransom in Latakia and Tartus governorates. Al Mashtal checkpoint in Tartus is notorious. 44. In Beit Jin and Saesae (Damascus countryside), Syrian intelligence services abducted women and children at checkpoints to exchange for soldiers held by armed groups. 2. Non-State armed groups 45. On 25 June 2013, two teenage boys were kidnapped outside of Nubul and Zahra, Shia enclaves in northern Aleppo governorate. When a prisoner exchange failed, the boys were executed. On 23 and 24 September, two convoys of 60 women and children were abducted by Jamaat Al-Husba after leaving Nubul and Zahra. In Latakia, following an 9