A/HRC/34/64 14. The legal obligations of Governments concerning the right to education consist of: (i) the duties found in article 2.1 of the ICESCR; and (ii) the more specific obligations to recognise, respect, protect and fulfil this and other rights. The obligation to fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide. 15. Moreover, under IHL, schools may only be the object of attack by warring parties when used for military purposes, and such attacks require prior warning when the school is located in a densely populated civilian area.18 Unlawful killing (a) Arbitrary deprivation of life 16. IHRL strictly prohibits the arbitrary taking of life, a restriction that bars state actors from killing a person outside a legitimate and legal basis for doing so. Outside of situations of armed conflict, those legitimate bases are twofold. First, when a fully-fledged judicial process in line with international standards has been followed, or second, in the most narrow of circumstances, where a person’s life is under imminent threat. 17. Moreover, a state-sponsored deprivation of life will be arbitrary in the legal sense unless it is both necessary and proportionate. Therefore, when a state actor employs lethal force it must be in order to protect life (i.e., it must be proportionate) and there must also be no other means available, such as capture or incapacitation, to curtail that threat to life (i.e., it must be necessary). Only under these limited circumstances could the resort to lethal force by the State be deemed legal. 18. In situations of armed conflict, whether the taking of life is considered arbitrary is determined by the application of the lex specialis, namely IHL. 19 Any deprivation of life therefore deemed unlawful under IHL and does not meet the criteria set out above also constitutes a violation of the right to life. (b) Murder as a war crime 19. In specific circumstances, killing another person during an armed conflict constitutes the war crime of murder. The war crime of murder is a recognised offense under customary international law and during a non-international armed conflict has been codified in the Rome Statute.20 Murder is committed upon the intentional killing of a protected person in the context of an armed conflict when the perpetrator is aware of the circumstances of the victim and the conflict itself. Attacks on protected persons and objects; indiscriminate attacks 20. IHL prohibits the intentional targeting of civilians in both international and noninternational armed conflicts. Parties to the conflict in Aleppo city had an obligation to distinguish at all times between those taking part in hostilities and the civilian population, and to only direct attacks against military objectives. Referred to as the “principle of distinction”, this principle has been recognised as “intransgressible” under customary international law.21 18 19 20 21 Ibid. at Rule 20. See ICJ Nuclear Weapons, supra note 2, at para. 79. General Assembly, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998, at art. 8 (2) (c) (i)-1. ICJ Nuclear Weapons, supra note 2, at para. 25. 27