U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told a special U.N. General Assembly session on Syria that at least 5,400 people were killed from March to the end of December and that it has become almost impossible to update the figures since the beginning of the year. Pillay said that there were credible reports that hospitals were used as places of detention and torture and that children as young as 10 have been detained and tortured. “Children have not been spared,” Pillay told the 193-nation body, noting that at least 400 children have been killed. “Children have been kept in solitary confinement. They have also been kept in overcrowded cells with adults, often deprived of food and water.” “Extensive reports of sexual violence, in particular rape, in places of detention, primarily against men and boys, are particularly disturbing,” Pillay said, calling on the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court.
