It was released on 21 January 2014, a day before talks were due to begin at the Geneva II Conference on Syria,[2][3] and was commissioned by the government of Qatar.
][neutrality is disputed] Human Rights Watch (HRW) concluded after a six month investigation that the photographic evidence in the report was genuine.
[2] He began making duplicates of his photo evidence in September 2011 and sending them on thumb drives to a relative who fled Syria and was working with human rights groups.
The authors of the report who interviewed him found him credible and truthful and his account "most compelling"[3] after subjecting it to "rigorous scrutiny".
[2] The authors of the report are: Also involved in the report were three experienced forensic science experts, including evidence from a forensic pathologist, an anthropologist who investigated mass graves in Kosovo and an expert in digital images[2] who examined and authenticated samples of 55,000 digital images, comprising about 11,000 victims.
"The procedure for documentation was that when a detainee was killed each body was given a reference number which related to that branch of the security service responsible for his detention and death.
As a result of the report it has been suggested that Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in light of the evidence presented within.
If it is as it appears thus far, we’re talking about more than 10,000 individuals being killed in custody over the period from 2011 to 2013, including largely men but also some very, very young men and boys and women… It’s shocking to me, as a prosecutor — I’m used to evidence not being so strong The inquiry team said it was satisfied there was "clear evidence, capable of being believed by a tribunal of fact in a court of law, of systematic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the Syrian government.
"[16] De Silva told the Guardian that the evidence "documented industrial-scale killing," and added: "This is a smoking gun of a kind we didn't have before.
This is the first provable, direct evidence of what has happened to at least 11,000 human beings who have been tortured and executed and apparently disposed of.
But representatives of the U.S. State Department, British Foreign Secretary, Amnesty International and other bodies said the photographs are irrefutable testimony of widespread human rights abuses that could well rise to the level of war crimes.
[13] Due to the report and other findings, the head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, stated, "The mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the Government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination as a crime against humanity".
[8] The pro-Assad group, Syria Solidarity Movement (SSM), claimed that reports made by many journalists about conditions of Assad's prisons were biased or false.