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A/HRC/21/50 47 10. Non-state actors and IHRL: Non-state actors cannot formally become parties to international human rights treaties. They must nevertheless respect the fundamental human rights of persons forming customary international law (CIL), in areas where such actors exercise de facto control.8 The commission therefore examined allegations of human rights violations committed by the Syrian Government as well as abuses of customary international human rights norms perpetrated by the anti-Government armed groups. IV. International humanitarian law 11. International humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the law of armed conflict, is binding on all parties to a conflict.9 Its applicability is triggered whenever hostilities meet the threshold criteria of ―armed conflict,‖ and applies irrespective of whether any party involved has in fact declared war. IHL comprises the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 as well as its Protocols I and II and an array of other instruments and customary principles that protect those most vulnerable to the effects of armed conflict.10 12. The Syrian Arab Republic is a party to the Geneva Conventions and its Protocol I, as well as to several other IHL instruments concerning weaponry and mercenaries.11 The Syrian Arab Republic has not, however, ratified Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions which is specifically applicable during non-international armed conflict. A number of provisions of customary IHL nevertheless apply to non-international armed conflict and must be respected when the armed conflict threshold is met. The commission took note that a non-international armed conflict developed in the Syrian Arab Republic during February 2012 which triggered the applicability of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions as well as customary law relevant to non-international armed conflict. 13. As the Security Council underlined in its resolution 1325 (2011), it is important for all States to apply fully the relevant norms of IHL and IHRL to women and girls, and to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during armed conflict.12 8 For a more expansive view of the application of IHRL, see Andrew Clapham, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006). To similar effect, see UN Secretary-General, Report of the Secretary-General‟s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011, para. 188, available from: http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/ Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf. 9 As the Special Court for Sierra Leone held, ―it is well settled that all parties to an armed conflict, whether States or non-State actors, are bound by international humanitarian law, even though only States may become parties to international treaties.‖ See Prosecutor v. Sam Hinga Norman, case SCSL-2004-14-AR72(E), (31 May 2004), para. 22. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions itself states that ―each party ... shall be bound.‖ (emphasis added). 10 One repository of the principles of customary IHL can be accessed in Customary International Humanitarian Law (3 vols.), by Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck for the International Committee of the Red Cross, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005) (ICRC Study). 11 The Syrian Arab Republic is a party to the following treaties: The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (1925); the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field (1929); the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict(1954) and its Protocol(1954); the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (1989). 12 See also S/RES/1820