A/HRC/22/59 executed.” In this instance, the FSA perpetrated the war crime of execution without due process. 55. Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions prohibits the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without a previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees that are recognized as indispensable under international law. 56. Investigations are ongoing into allegations that anti-Government armed groups summarily executed captured Government soldiers and affiliated militia members. 57. The above incidents indicate that anti-Government armed groups have committed war crimes. B. Other unlawful killing12 58. Unlawful killings, not falling within the above definition of massacres, continue to be recorded. Cases of arbitrary deprivation of life, contrary to international human rights law, such as extrajudicial or summary executions, were reported throughout the period under review, frequently overlapping with the war crime of murder. 1. Government forces and affiliated militia 59. Many of those interviewed witnessed executions perpetrated by Government forces and affiliated militia first-hand. Others witnessed the aftermath, learned of the death from an eyewitness or were family members of those killed. Killings were recorded in Homs city (8 August), in an unnamed village close to Homs city (1–2 October) and Dahadeel (19 October) in Homs; in Namer (3 October) and Musayfrah (28 October) in Dara’a; in Iblin (July) and Mare’a (23 August) in Idlib; and in Damascus (July). In all these cases, the killings took place in the context of house searches. 60. Government forces and affiliated militia committed extrajudicial executions, breaching international human rights law. This conduct also constitutes the war crime of murder. Where murder was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, pursuant to an organizational policy, it is a crime against humanity. 2. Anti-Government armed groups 61. There were comparatively more reports of killings by anti-Government armed groups during the period under review. Most accounts emanated from Damascus and Aleppo governorates. Several of those interviewed also spoke about killings in Dara’a, Homs and Dayr az Zawr. 62. One of those interviewed was an eyewitness to a killing at a factory with a predominantly Christian workforce. In early September, members of an armed group entered the factory, shouting “We know who you are and which region you come from. We ask you to leave this factory and your region. Otherwise you will be in danger.” The director of the factory was then shot dead. Another eyewitness detailed the execution of pro-Government Sunnis by the Al-Omari brigade in villages outside Dara’a city. 63. As the State law enforcement and justice system have disintegrated in certain areas of the country, anti-Government armed groups have turned to traditional social structures, often based around religious institutions, to fill the vacuum. According to descriptions 12 12 See also annex V. GE.13-10627