UN media has falsely reported on what the UN itself has made available to the public on Syria.
Back in August of 2011, in response to the atrocities in Syria, the UN Human Rights Council created a Commission of Inquiry. The Commission presented its latest report to the Council on March 18, 2014 in Geneva. The job description of the Commission is to investigate "all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic."
The Commission was also asked to "establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable."
On March 18, 2014 UN media reported that: "A list of individuals and entities allegedly responsible for crimes in the Syria Arab Republic war has just been released by a UN panel investigating human rights abuses in the country. The news was announced during an interactive dialogue on Tuesday in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council."
And the UN tweeted: "list of perpetrators in Syria conflict named by UN rights panel"
But in fact, the list(s) were never released and the outcome of the mandate "to identify those responsible" is a well-kept secret.
Speaking to the Council on March 18, 2014, the Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said this: "As is well known, we have established a list of individuals and entities - military units and security agencies as well as armed groups and their battalions responsible for violations and crimes we have documents throughput our reports. This 'perpetrators list', as we call it, contains names of persons criminally responsible for hostage-taking, torture and executions. It also contains the names of the heads of intelligence branches and detention facilities where torture occurs; names of military commanders who targeted civilians; airports from where barrel bomb attacks are planned and executed; and armed groups involved in attacking and displacing civilians. We have an enormous volume of testimony-over 2,700 interviews as well as a wealth of documentary material. we do not lack of information about crimes or perpetrators. What we lack is a means by which to achieve justice and accountability".
After two and a half years of information-gathering, why won't the UN "identify those responsible"? As the Nuremberg Tribunal taught us: "crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities."