A/HRC/21/32 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 19/22, the Human Rights Council condemned in the strongest terms the sharply escalating widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms perpetrated by the Syrian authorities, and requested action from the authorities to put an immediate end to all violence and all human rights violations. 2. In resolution 19/22, the Human Rights Council requested that I present a report on the implementation of that resolution at its twentieth and twenty-first sessions. On 27 June 2012, my first report on the implementation of resolution 19/22, covering the period up until 11 May 2012, was presented to the Council (A/HRC/20/37). Pursuant to the request of the Council, the present report focuses on the status of implementation of resolution 19/22 and outlines relevant developments on the ground up until 20 July 2012. It contains a summary of the information submitted by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic in notes verbales addressed to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) during the reporting period. Furthermore, the report includes information on measures taken by relevant international actors, including the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on the Syrian Crisis and other United Nations entities. II. Recent developments A. Current context 3. It should be recalled that, on 8 May 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated publicly that it had reached the conclusion that there was a noninternational armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic between Government forces and armed opposition groups present and operating, in particular in Homs and Idlib provinces. On 16 July 2012, ICRC further stated that the confrontations between Government forces and armed opposition groups in several areas of the country, including but not limited to Homs, Idlib and Hama, had met the threshold of a non-international armed conflict. 4. On 2 July 2012, the High Commissioner briefed the Security Council on the human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic. During her briefing, the High Commissioner recalled the obligation of both parties to abide by international human rights and humanitarian law. She reported on serious human rights violations committed by both parties that might amount to crimes against humanity and, possibly, war crimes, and urged that perpetrators be held accountable. B. Efforts of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on the Syrian crisis 5. During the reporting period, the six-point plan proposed by the jont special envoy remained central to the efforts aimed at peacefully resolving the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic. A detailed account of the implementation of the six-point plan was presented in my report to the Security Council on the implementation of Council resolution 2043 (2012) (S/2012/523), as well as my letters dated 25 and 27 May 2012 to the Council (S/2012/363 and S/2012/368). 6. On 7 June, the Joint Special Envoy reported to the Security Council that the sixpoint plan had not been implemented and that there had not been a cessation of violence, 4