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![[AP]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/syria-un-300x165.jpg)
The analysis was not able to differentiate consistently between combatants and non-combatants [AP]
The study shows a dramatic increase in the average monthly number of documented killings since the beginning of the conflict, from around 1,000 per month in the summer of 2011 to an average of more than 5,000 since last July.
The latest study was conducted using a combined list of 263,055 reported killings, identified by the name of the victim, and the date and location of the death.
Data was collected from eight different sources, including the Syrian Government, the Syrian Network for Human Rights and the Syrian Centre for Statistics and Research, according to Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Statistical analysts who produced the report noted that this total is likely to underestimate the actual number of killings.
This is based on the fact that 37,988 reported killings containing insufficient information were excluded from the report, and that there is a strong likelihood that a significant number of killings may not have been reported at all by any of the eight sources, said the UN.
The total figure included 59,648 killings up to November 30, 2012, as published in a previous report in January, plus 6,347 additional killings in the same period, and 26,906 new killings recorded from December 1, 2012 through April 30, 2013.
Some 82.6 per cent of the victims documented were men, while 7.6 per cent were female.
The gender of the victim was not indicated in 9.8 per cent of cases.
The analysis was not able to differentiate consistently between combatants and non-combatants, and around three-quarters of the reported killings do not record the victim’s age.
However, “the killings of at least 6,561 minors, including at least 1,729 children under ten years old, have been documented,” said the High Commissioner.
“I urge the parties to declare an immediate ceasefire before tens of thousands more people are killed or injured,” Pillay said.
Source: Xinhua
