A/HRC/35/15 collect and analyse evidence and prepare detailed files on individual suspects with a view to building a foundation from which to initiate criminal proceedings against individual perpetrators. The High Commissioner stressed that ensuring accountability, establishing the truth and providing reparations must happen if the Syrian people were ever to find reconciliation and peace. 6. Detention remained a central issue for many in the Syrian Arab Republic, one that could determine the fate of any political agreement. The international community had to support the struggle of Syrian families to know the truth. The High Commissioner ended his statement by urging all parties to end torture, stop executions and cease unfair trials by special and ad hoc courts. He called upon humanitarian actors and international monitors to be given access to all detention centres. He urged all parties holding detainees or captives to release them or at least disclose the names and localities of those in detention and the place of burial of those who had died. 7. In his opening statement, the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry reminded those present that the Human Rights Council had gathered to hear directly from witnesses and victims of the conflict and to draw attention to the need for accountability for violations and abuses committed during the conflict, including enforced disappearances and cases of arbitrary detention. He stressed that it was a privilege to hear from some victims directly, as many thousands of others could not be heard; too many voices had been silenced by enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention or death. Enforced disappearance in particular left families in painful suspense, uncertain of the fate of loved ones and unable to find closure. The Chair noted that the Commission of Inquiry had investigated and produced over 20 reports and special thematic papers documenting the suffering of the Syrian people since 2011. He referred to the report of February 2016, in which the Commission of Inquiry concluded that the massive number of detainees who had died suggested that the Government was responsible for acts that amounted to extermination, a crime against humanity. Meanwhile, armed groups ill-treated and executed captives, some of whom died after being tortured. ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusrah, both of which had been designated terrorist groups, had used makeshift courts to execute prisoners. ISIL had tortured and executed detainees, including journalists and activists. 8. The Chair added that, in each of its reports, the Commission of Inquiry had called for a political solution that would ensure credible and comprehensive accountability, and had repeatedly urged the Security Council to either refer the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic to the International Criminal Court or create an ad hoc tribunal. The Commission of Inquiry therefore welcomed continued efforts to ensure accountability, reiterated its readiness to cooperate with the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism and welcomed the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of that resolution. The Commission of Inquiry would continue to make recommendations to Member States and to all parties to the conflict to protect and fulfil the human rights of the Syrian people, including by ensuring a path to justice for victims. 9. In his opening statement, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syrian Crisis reminded participants that 13.5 million Syrians required protection and assistance, noting that such needs had reached unprecedented levels of complexity, scale and severity. Since 2011, more than half of all Syrians had been forced to flee their homes and 6.3 million of them had been internally displaced. 10. The protection of civilians was a significant concern across all governorates. As at the end of January 2017, nearly 650,000 people had been living in 13 areas under siege, deprived of regular assistance and unable to move freely. Indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities, by all parties to the conflict had been extensively documented. The Regional Humanitarian Coordinator highlighted that in 2016 the United Nations had verified 38 attacks on education facilities and personnel, while from January to December 2016 there had been 338 attacks on hospitals and health centres during which dozens of health-care workers had been killed. 11. While the protection of civilians had been a central concern in all humanitarian operations in the Syrian Arab Republic, preventing and responding to violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in such a context had 3