A/HRC/29/51 summarily executed, abducted, made to disappear and tortured.48 There are also scores of allegations of torture and ill-treatment of individuals in detention centres, as well as summary punishments for theft, watching football matches, smoking, improper attire, not attending Friday prayers and having tattoos,49 in breach of ISIL edicts. 27. ISIL has been particularly brutal and discriminatory against women. Information collected indicates that, in addition to confining women largely to their homes and dictating what they must wear, with whom they may socialize and where they may work,50 ISIS elements have committed sexual and gender-based violence, which may constitute war crimes and amount to crimes against humanity. It is reported that Yezidi women in particular have been the target of killings, widespread and systematic enslavement, including sexual slavery, and rape; women have also been sold and forcibly transferred51 from northern Iraq to areas under ISIL control in the Syrian Arab Republic, where many remain in captivity.52 There are also credible reports about the rape of girls as young as 6 years old.53 The targeting of homosexual men on the basis of their sexuality has also been highlighted. 28. The abuse and violence perpetrated by ISIL against children has been widely documented.54 This includes summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, cruel and inhuman treatment and kidnapping. In a particularly disturbing development, education is being used as a tool for indoctrination.55 Children are reportedly made to watch videos of beheadings56 and mass executions to desensitize them to forms of violence employed by ISIL. The existence of “cub camps” in which children are taught to use weapons and trained to be deployed as suicide bombers has been reported,57 and children have been used as executioners. It is also reported that children as young as 8, and possibly 5, have been trained and used in active combat roles. If true, this would constitute a war crime and a violation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. 29. In summary, ISIL has engaged in widespread and systematic human rights and humanitarian law violations of the most serious kinds.58 Such violations have been most thoroughly documented in connection with ISIL actions in the Syrian Arab Republic by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, but have also been widely reported by reliable sources in Iraq. The methods used include public beheadings, shootings, stoning,59 amputations and lashings, with individuals urged to attend executions, following which the corpses are placed on public display, often on crosses, for up to three days.60 In addition, victims’ heads have been placed on spikes alongside park railings, in squares and on the 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 See “Rule of terror”, paras. 39–42, and A/HRC/28/69, paras. 82–83. See A/HRC/28/18, para. 49, and A/HRC/28/69, annex 2, paras. 67–91 and 159. See “Rule of terror”, paras. 47 and 48, and A/HRC/28/69, para. 187. See A/HRC/28/18, paras. 35–43. See A/HRC/28/69, paras. 185–188. See A/HRC/28/18, para. 40. See “Rule of terror”, paras. 58–62; A/HRC/28/69, paras. 205–213; and A/HRC/28/18, paras. 44–46. See “Rule of terror”, para. 60. See A/HRC/28/69, para. 207. Ibid., para. 70. See “Rule of terror”, para. 77. Ibid., para. 32. Ibid., para. 36. See also the reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (A/HRC/27/60) paras. 30–38 and 65–74, and A/HRC/25/65, paras. 25–33 and 57–61. In each case, it would be necessary to determine that the victims were civilians and not members of other armed groups. 9