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A/HRC/27/60 31 Annex IV [English only] Specific mandate on massacres 1. Acting upon the request of the Human Rights Council to investigate all massacres,10 the commission adopted the following working definition of massacre: An intentional mass killing of civilians not directly participating in hostilities, or hors de combat fighters, by organized armed forces or groups in a single incident, in violation of international human rights or humanitarian law. 2. Massacres include multiple instances of the war crime of murder, the war crime of sentencing or execution without due process and the war crime of attacking civilians, perpetrated in the context of and associated with the ongoing non-international armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic. When murder is committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, perpetrated pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy, the commission of massacres may amount to the crime against humanity of murder. 3. While the majority of civilian casualties resulted from indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, primarily aerial bombardments, these killings do not fall within the definition of a massacre. Where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the shelling, bombardments or bombings intentionally targeted civilians, such attacks fall within the definition and are detailed below. 4. Given the lack of access, special mandate to investigate massacres and delay in reporting, massacres perpetrated outside of the reporting period are also documented. 1. Government forces Damascus governorate Beit Saham, Rif Damascus, 14 and 18 December 2013 5. In December 2013, a negotiation aimed at opening roads for food and medicine and to allow civilians to leave took place between Government forces and the local committee of Beit Saham. On the understanding that the negotiation had been successful, civilians attempted to leave on 14 December. Government forces opened fire on the civilians, killing approximately 15 and forcing survivors back into the besieged area. On 18 December, several hundred civilians from Beit Saham and other towns in eastern Ghouta, in desperate need of food and understanding that an agreement had been reached, again attempted to leave. While there are reasonable grounds to believe that some armed fighters were accompanying them, the convoy was overwhelmingly civilian. Government forces again opened fire, killing at least 30 civilians and wounding many others. Hay Al-Qaa, Rif Damascus, early March 2014 6. During the Government offensive in Yabroud, a house was hit by a barrel bomb killing an entire family of four, including two children. A man who helped retrieve their 10 HRC resolution 21/26, para. 19