A/HRC/RES/28/20 1. Welcomes the reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, and notes the importance of the work of the Commission of Inquiry and the information it has collected in support of the future accountability efforts, in particular the information on alleged perpetrators violating international law; 2. Demands that the Syrian authorities cooperate fully with the Commission of Inquiry, including by granting it immediate, full and unfettered access throughout the Syrian Arab Republic; 3. Decides to extend for one year the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry, established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution S-17/1 of 23 August 2011, to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic, to establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view to ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable; 4. Requests the Commission of Inquiry to provide an oral update during an interactive dialogue at the twenty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council and to present written updated reports during the interactive dialogues at the thirtieth and thirty-first sessions; 5. Strongly deplores the suffering and torture in prisons and detention facilities throughout the Syrian Arab Republic as depicted in the reports of the Commission of Inquiry and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, demands that the Syrian authorities immediately release all persons arbitrarily detained and ensure that detention conditions are consistent with international law, and calls upon the Syrian authorities to publish a list of all prisons and detention facilities; 6. Strongly condemns practices including abductions, hostage-taking, incommunicado detention, torture, sexual violence, the brutal killing of civilians and summary executions carried out by regime forces and affiliated militias, non-State armed groups, as well as terrorist groups, most notably the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) and al-Nusra Front, and underlines that such acts may amount to crimes against humanity; 7. Calls upon the international community to support the leadership and full participation of women in all efforts aimed at finding a political solution in the Syrian Arab Republic, as envisaged by the Security Council in its resolutions 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 and 2122 (2013) of 18 October 2013, and encourages the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Syrian Arab Republic to conduct consultations with a broad range of actors, including women-led organizations; 8. Strongly condemns the continuing escalation of violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, which has caused more than 200,000 fatalities, and in particular the continued widespread and systematic gross violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, including those involving the continued use of heavy weapons and aerial bombardments, such as the indiscriminate use of ballistic missiles, cluster munitions, barrel and vacuum bombs and chlorine gas, and the starvation of civilians as a method of combat by the Syrian authorities against the Syrian population; 9. Also strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, which is prohibited under international law, and demands that the Syrian Arab Republic respect fully its obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, the decision of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of 27 September 2013 and Security Council resolution 2118 (2013), 2