A/HRC/43/CRP.6 professionals, lawyers and members of affected communities. Their accounts narrate the impact of the war on children in the Syrian Arab Republic and further describe specific violations to children’s human rights, which in turn seriously undermine their protection under international law. Whenever possible, interviews with children were conducted in person and parental consent was sought due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Only the cases that met the standard of proof of reasonable grounds to believe that incidents and patterns occurred as they were described form the basis of this report. II. Applicable law 8. A growing corpus of both treaty-based and customary international law, including international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law outline obligations on parties to an armed conflict, including non-state actors, which govern the treatment and protection of children. The applicability of international humanitarian law does not replace existing obligations under international human rights law. Rather both regimes remain in force and are mutually reinforcing. 9. As emphasized by the Security Council in resolution 1261 (1999), as well as subsequent resolutions,3 parties to armed conflict should “undertake such feasible measures during armed conflicts to minimize the harm suffered by children”. Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) calls on all parties to armed conflict to apply fully the relevant norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law to women and girls, and to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during such periods. International human rights law 10. During the events analysed in this report, the Syrian Arab Republic remained party to major United Nations human rights treaties and subsequent optional protocols.4 The Syrian Government did not declare a state of emergency nor otherwise seek to derogate from any of the aforementioned obligations, which consequently remained in effect.5 11. All branches of the Syrian Government were therefore bound to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of all persons present on its territory and within its jurisdiction. The obligation included the right to afford an effective remedy to those children whose rights were violated, including the provision of reparations, and to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of particular violations.6 The Syrian Arab Republic was also 3 4 5 6 Including UN SCR 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000, 1379 (2001) of 20 November 2001, 1460 (2003) of 30 January 2003, 1539 (2004) of 22 April 2004, 1612 (2005) of 26 July 2005, 1882 (2009) of 4 August 2009, 1998 (2011) of 12 July 2011, 2068 (2012) of 19 September 2012, 2143 (2014) of 7 March 2014, 2225 (2015) of 18 June 2015, 2427 (2018) of 9 July 2018 and all relevant Statements of its President, which contribute to a comprehensive framework for addressing the protection of children affected by armed conflict. The International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were ratified by the Syrian Arab Republic in 1969, the same year it ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Syrian Arab Republic is also party to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which it ratified in 2003, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment in 2004 and the Convention on the Rights of Child in 1993. The Syrian Arab Republic ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2003. The Syrian Arab Republic has not ratified the Convention on the Non-applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 178, paras. 105-106, “[t]he protection offered by human rights conventions does not cease in case of armed conflict.” See also ICJ Nuclear Weapons, statements concerning international humanitarian law as lex specialis, para. 25. See Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 on The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on State Parties to the Covenant (2004), at paras. 15-19. In this General Comment, the Human Rights Committee considered that the duty to bring perpetrators to justice 5