A/HRC/43/CRP.6 bound by relevant rules of international human rights law, which form a part of customary international law, such as the absolute prohibition against torture. 12. Non-state actors cannot formally become parties to international human rights treaties. Armed groups were nevertheless obligated to respect fundamental human rights norms, which form part of customary international law in territory where such actors exercised de facto control.7 The Commission therefore examined allegations of human rights violations committed by the Syrian Government as well as human rights abuses by armed groups. International humanitarian law 13. The applicability of international humanitarian law was triggered when hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic reached the threshold criteria of an armed conflict. 8 14. The Syrian Arab Republic is a party to the Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocol I, as well as to several other international humanitarian law instruments. The Syrian Arab Republic has not, however, ratified Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, which is specifically applicable during non-international armed conflicts. Customary international humanitarian law nevertheless applies to non-international armed conflict and must be respected when the threshold of non-international armed conflict is met. The Convention on the Rights to the Child 15. This report applies the definition of “child” in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereafter, “the Convention”) to which the Syrian Arab Republic is a party. The Convention defines a child as any person under the age of 18. 9 The Commission further notes that as per Article 46 of the Syrian Civil Code, a child becomes an adult when he or she attains the age of 18 years. 16. In the context of an armed conflict, however, the Convention draws its language from the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, and thus sets the lower age of 15 as the minimum for recruitment or participation in armed forces. When between 15 and 18 years, State parties shall endeavour to give priority to the oldest children.10 17. When the Syrian Arab Republic acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in 2013, it made a declaration to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsory recruited into their armed forces.11 The Syrian Arab Republic, furthermore, 7 8 9 10 11 6 attaches in particular to violations that are criminal under domestic or international law., For example, torture and similar cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, summary and arbitrary killing and enforced disappearance. See also the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, adopted by the General Assembly in December 2005, and the Updated Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity (which were recognised in a consensus resolution of the Commission on Human Rights in 2005). See A/HRC/34/64, Annex I, at para 5. For a more expansive view of the application of international human rights law, see Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). To similar effect, see Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011, para. 188, available at http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf. The Commission first determined the existence of a non-international armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic beginning in February 2012 (see, e.g., A/HRC/21/50). Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49, at art. 1. Ibid. at. art. 38(3). Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly Resolution A/RES/54/263 of 25 May 2000, entry into force 12 February 2002, at art. 2. The Optional