A/HRC/34/64 civilians and other categories of persons from deliberate targeting and seek to limit the effects of armed conflict on the most vulnerable.9 7. The Syrian Arab Republic is a party to the Geneva Conventions and its Protocol I, as well as to several other IHL instruments concerning weaponry and mercenaries. 10 The Syrian Arab Republic has not, however, ratified Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions which is specifically applicable during non-international armed conflicts. A number of provisions of customary IHL nevertheless apply to non-international armed conflict and must be respected when the threshold of non-international armed conflict is met. The Commission took note that a non-international armed conflict developed in the Syrian Arab Republic during February 2012 which triggered the applicability of Common Article 3 as well as customary law relevant to non-international armed conflict.11 8. As the Security Council underlined in Resolution 1325 (2011), it is essential for all States to apply fully the relevant norms of IHL and IHRL to women and girls, and to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during armed conflict.12 E. Violations The right to life 9. Various treaties, resolutions, conventions, and declarations adopted by United Nations bodies contain provisions relating to specific types of violations of the right to life. Under IHRL, the right to life is most prominently recognised in article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, noting that “[e]veryone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”) also recognises the inherent right of every person to life, noting that the right “shall be protected by law” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of life.” The right to life of persons under the age of 18 and the obligation of States to guarantee the enjoyment of this right to the maximum extent possible are both specifically recognized in article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 9 10 11 12 One repository of the principles of customary IHL can be accessed in Customary International Humanitarian Law (3 vols.), by Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck for the International Committee of the Red Cross, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005) (ICRC Study). The Syrian Arab Republic is a party to the following treaties: The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (1925); the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field (1929); the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) and its Protocol(1954); the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (1989). See supra note 8. See Security Council resolution 1820 (2008). 25