A/HRC/22/59 undermines the legality of the arrest. To the extent that these violations amount to inhumane treatment, they violate international humanitarian law. 2. Anti-Government armed groups 73. Anti-Government armed groups increasingly apprehended members of Government forces, “informants” and their family members. Although access to victims was limited, multiple accounts of armed groups taking hostages solely for ransom or exchange were investigated. 74. In August 2012, 48 Iranian citizens were apprehended by the Al-Bara brigades in Damascus. The Islamic Republic of Iran asserted that the men were pilgrims, while the armed group claimed they were members of the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Republic. The men were allegedly threatened with execution unless the Government released detainees. Such a threat constitutes hostage taking, a war crime. 75. A former resident of Damascus living near Sayyidah Zaynab stated that “the FSA do the same [as the army]. They also arrest and detain people. The FSA would only arrest ‘informants’. We don’t know what happened to them. They’d take them away and we’d never see them again.” 76. Anti-Government armed groups apprehended persons solely for ransom or exchange, which is a war crime. To the extent that they inflict cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on the detainees, such groups violate international humanitarian law. D. Enforced disappearance14 77. One of the most insidious aspects of the Syrian conflict is the disappearance of thousands of people from their homes, at checkpoints and from the street, as they go about their daily lives. 78. While the Syrian Arab Republic is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, it is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, provisions of which are infringed by enforced disappearance. Enforced disappearance places its victims outside the law, violating their right to recognition as a person before the law, to liberty and security and freedom from arbitrary detention. It is often a gateway to the commission of further crimes, such as torture. 79. The investigation of enforced disappearance is often particularly difficult because families — living in hope that their relatives will be safely returned to them — do not wish to provide names and other details of disappeared persons. Lack of access to the Syrian Arab Republic hindered further investigations. 1. Government forces and affiliated militia 80. There were multiple reports of enforced disappearance committed by Government forces and affiliated militia. No information was provided to families who enquired about their relatives’ whereabouts. Relatives of some detainees who approached officials were themselves arrested, justifying a fear in others who might undertake similar enquiries. 14 14 See also annex VII. GE.13-10627