On Tuesday, the US and Russia reportedly agreed to convene an international conference to find a political solution to the Syria crisis, adding that they would encourage both Damascus and the opposition to negotiate. The announcement came after talks in Moscow between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The statements made in Moscow constitute a very significant first step forward. It is nevertheless only a first step,” Mr. Brahimi said in a statement, adding that this is the first “hopeful news” concerning Syria in a very long time.

A statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson noted that the Secretary-General and Mr. Brahimi have asserted from the outset their conviction that a negotiated political solution is the only way to end this “prolonged and ever-deepening” crisis.

“The goal should be clear to all – it must be an end to violence, a clean break from the past and a transition to a new Syria in which the rights of all communities are protected and the legitimate aspirations of all the people in Syria for freedom, dignity and justice are met,” the statement said.

Mr. Brahimi, who is currently attending a meeting of The Elders in Ireland, has called on the US and Russia to exercise leadership and work together to initiate a process to implement the Geneva Declaration of 30 June 2012.

That document – issued after a meeting in the Swiss city of the Action Group for Syria – lays out key steps in a process to end the violence. Among other items, it calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, with full executive powers and made up by members of the present Government and the opposition and other groups, as part of agreed principles and guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition.

“There is every reason to expect the three other permanent members of the Security Council as a whole and indeed all the Security Council members to work together amongst themselves and with the Secretary-General to carry the process forward,” said Mr. Brahimi.

“Naturally the Syrians themselves – all the Syrians – will occupy pride of place in the process that should be launched as early as possible. It is equally important that the entire region mobilises in the support of the process,” he added.

In addition to the tens of thousands killed, some 4.25 million people have been displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, with more than 1.4 million of them taking refuge in neighbouring countries.

The UN estimates that some 6.8 million people inside Syria are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance – nearly half of them children.

Mr. Sellstrom, currently a project manager at a Swedish research institute, is “an accomplished scientist with a solid background in disarmament and international security,” UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York.

He has taught at universities in the United States and served as Director at the Swedish Defense and Security Research Institute (FOI). He has also served in several capacities with the UN, including as senior adviser to the chairs of the UN bodies dealing with the disarmament of Iraq.

Mr. Ban announced the investigation last Thursday, after receiving a formal request from the Syrian Government. He has also received a request from France and the United Kingdom to investigate several incidents of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

“The terms of reference for the mission are being finalized in consultation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

While the terms of reference are being finalized, work is already well under way so that the mission can be dispatched quickly,” said Mr. Nesirky.

The conflict in Syria, which has entered its third year, has already claimed over 70,000 lives and displaced more than three million people since the uprising against President al-Assad began in March 2011. Some 1.1 million people have also been forced to flee Syria and take refuge in neighbouring countries.

In a message sent to the League of Arab States summit in Doha, Qatar, Mr. Ban stressed the need to inject urgency towards reaching a political solution “while there is still time to prevent Syria’s destruction.”

“The goal is difficult, but clear: an end to violence, a clean break with the past, and a transition to a new Syria in which the rights of all communities are protected and the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians for freedom, dignity and justice are met,” he stated.

“The question of the arms embargo was raised by some members of the European Council. We agreed to task our foreign ministers to assess the situation as a matter of priority already at their informal meeting next week in Dublin, and to develop common positions.”

The lastest development comes amid calls by France and Britain to lift an embargo on supplying weapons to the Syrian opposition with President Francois Hollande warning that France could do it alone if no EU agreement is reached.

The European Union is divided over the issue, with some fearing that sending more weapons to Syria could further escalate the  two-year conflict.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page,  has called on syrians to take to the streets after Friday prayers under the rallying cry “Two years of sacrifice towards victory” as the syrian government beefed up security measures.

The conflict erupted in March 2011 when protesters inspired by Arab world uprisings took to the streets  across Syria calling for freedom.

At the same time, the commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army vowed to continue fighting until Assad’s “criminal” regime is gone, AP reported.

“Dear friends, the Free Syrian Army (fighters) will not give up.”

The United Nations humanitarian chief today urged the international community to do more to end the crisis in Syria which is now entering its third year.

The call came as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos wrapped up a two-day visit to Turkey, where she spoke with Syrian refugees in the south-eastern Kilis Province.

“I met families who fled their homes more than 18 months ago. They are in despair. They feel abandoned by the international community. They all want the same thing: the conflict to end so that they can go home,”

As part of her visit, Ms. Amos also met in Ankara with the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Besir Atalay, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, as well as other Government officials and senior humanitarian officials, including the President of the Turkish Red Crescent Society (KIZILAY), Ahmet Lutfi Akar.

Syria has been wracked by violence since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. Up to 70,000 people have died, more than 1 million have fled to neighbouring countries, 2 million have been internally displaced and up to 4 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Research carried out inside Syria in the last fortnight confirms that government forces continue to bomb civilians indiscriminately often with internationally banned weapons, flattening entire neighbourhoods. Detainees held by these forces are routinely subjected to torture, enforced disappearances or extra-judicial executions.

“While the vast majority of war crimes and other gross violations continue to be committed by government forces, our research also points to an escalation in abuses by armed opposition groups,” said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“If left unaddressed such practices risk becoming more and more entrenched – it is imperative that all those concerned know they will be held accountable for their actions.”

Our research has once again demonstrated that the Syrian government is using internationally banned weapons against civilians.

On 1 March, an Amnesty International researcher in Aleppo found nine cluster bombs that had been dropped from a fixed-wing aircraft on to a densely populated housing estate.

More than a dozen residents were killed and scores more injured, many of them children.

A resident from the al-Dik family told Amnesty International how his relatives were killed in the attack: “Inas, 2, Heba, 8, Rama, 5, Nizar, 6, Taha, 11 months, Mohammad, 18 months. They were all killed; why? Why bomb children?.”

As always with such attacks, the site was left littered with unexploded bomblets, which will continue to kill and maim those who pick them up – often children.

Nearby, the arm of a child was recovered from beneath the rubble of a neighbourhood flattened by a long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile fired from government forces hundreds of kilometres away.

Hundreds of residents, many of them children, were killed and injured in three such recent attacks which wiped out entire families.

Sabah, a 31-year-old woman who survived the carnage told Amnesty International about her loss: “My daughters, Isra’, Amani and Aya, aged 4, 6 and 11, my husband, my mother, my 14-year-old sister Nour, and my other sister’s three sons, Ahmad, Abdallah and Mohammad, aged 18 months, and 3 and 4 years. They were all killed, what is left for me in this life?.”

Thousands have perished across the country in recent months in similar attacks by government forces with weapons which should never be used in civilian areas.

Elsewhere in Aleppo, the bodies of men and boys – shot in the head, hands tied behind their backs – are recovered almost daily from the river.

The bodies float downstream from a part of the city under the control of government forces.

Among the victims found in the first week of March were a 12-year-old boy and his father; they, like others identified so far, had disappeared in a government-controlled area of the city.

A video from another part of the country shows a boy apparently aged between 12 and 14 holding a machete standing over a man – later identified as Colonel ‘Izz al-Din Badr.

He lies prostrate on the ground with his hands behind his back. A voice in the background shouts: “He doesn’t have the strength.” The boy brings the machete down on the man’s neck, cheered on by members of an armed opposition group.

“Children in Syria are being killed and maimed in increasingly large numbers in bombardments carried out by government forces. Many have seen their parents, siblings and neighbours blown to pieces in front of them. They are growing up exposed to unimaginable horrors,” said Harrison.

In an area in southern Damascus, witnesses described a “hole of death” – where armed opposition forces are believed to have dumped the executed bodies of pro-government fighters or those suspected of being informers.

In another case, an Amnesty International researcher was told how a man accused of being a collaborator was found after being killed by an opposition group.

A neighbour told Amnesty International: “We immediately went there and found him on a heap of waste, with a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, a firearm injury to the shoulder…His knee was broken…A brown card hung on him with the words ‘collaborator (awayni), Colonel Helal Eid’.”

According to the UN, more than two million civilians have been internally displaced. Having fled their homes, many now face renewed shelling and bombing in the areas in which they sought shelter and have been displaced a second time.

Turkey has partially closed its border leaving thousands of internally displaced people stranded on the Syrian side in appalling conditions.

“With every passing hour of indecision by the international community, the death toll rises. How many more civilians must die before the UN Security Council refers the situation to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court so that there can be accountability for these horrendous crimes?” said Harrison.

According to the Syrian observatory for Human Rigths (SOHR) a spokesperson of the rebel battalion holding the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) members in the town of al-Jamla said that an agreement had been reached to free the 21 International observers tomorrow (Saturday) morning between 10 a.m and noon.

“A precondition to the release of the hostages is that the area should witness a ceasefire, with regime forces stopping their bombardment. A delegation from the Red Cross and the United Nations will be in the area tomorrow morning,” SOHR said in a statement.

“As of now there is, perhaps, a hope – but I have to be extremely cautious because it is not done yet – but there is the possibility that a ceasefire of a few hours can intervene which will allow for people to be released,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous, told reporters in New York after a closed-door briefing to the Security Council.

He stressed that if the ceasefire was to happen, there would be a strong expectation that there would be no retaliatory action by the Syrian armed forces over the village and its civilian population.

“Our 21 peacekeepers are detained in the village of Al Jamla. Apparently they are safe and they have been spread into 4 or 5 locations within that village in the basement of various houses,” Ladsous, told reporters in New York.

“That particular village is subject to intense shelling by the Syrian armed forces. Of course we are working 24/7 in the area of operation, with people in the region, and here in the Secretariat, to secure their release under good conditions as quickly as possible.”

On Wednesday, armed elements of the Syrian opposition detained a group of peacekeepers who are part of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which monitors the 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel after their 1973 war.

Mr. Ladsous added that in light of the situation, UNDOF had vacated two positions which were particularly exposed to gunfire, and the way the mission is operating is being examined due to the degraded safety and security conditions.

“This displacement is not only about loss of homes and economic security. It is also, for many, accompanied by gender-based crimes, deliberate victimization of women and children and a frightening array of assaults on human dignity,” Assistant High Commissioner (Protection) Erika Feller told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

“Reports are revealing that the conflict in Syria is increasingly marked by rape and sexual violence employed as a weapon of war to intimidate parties to the conflict destroying identity, dignity and the social fabrics of families and communities,” she added at a meeting of the 47-member inter-governmental body.

Feller said these crimes were often perpetrated in public places such as checkpoints, adding to the humiliation and the stress that displaced people were enduring.

According to UNHCR, more than 920,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries and 2 million have been internally displaced since the conflict began almost two years ago. In addition, more than 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The Assistant High Commissioner said child victims were “becoming a defining feature of the Syrian conflict.” Noting that children are subjected to a high risk of violence, she said “reports of torture and death of detained children, or of the sexual abuse of both boys and girls, are particularly harrowing.” Feller told the Council that the abuse to which children are exposed “is now following them in flight, for example in the form of compelled early marriage in refugee camps.”

Feller also stressed that support for victims is often inadequate and access to justice is very limited, increasing impunity for perpetrators.

She called on the Council to actively examine these violations and advocate for the protection of women and children among all parties. The Council should also ensure that peace discussions find space for women to be involved and give proper attention to victims and survivors.

Feller also warned that the refugee population was growing at an unprecedented amount, putting enormous pressure on neighbouring countries to cope with the influx of people.

“The host states, including Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and the North African countries, have been exemplary in their different ways, but we fear the pressure will start to overwhelm their capacities,” she said. “The resources available are just not enough, and the rate they are coming in is too slow. The tools of burden-sharing, including further afield, need urgent reflection.”

Feller also drew attention to the situation of millions of stateless people around the world, “the ultimate forgotten people, without a national identity or legal personality.”

She said that despite a UNHCR campaign at the legal and policy levels, statelessness deserved more prominence on the international agenda. But she said there had been some encouraging signs and she praised the Human Rights Council for its role in highlighting the issue.

“UNHCR considers that the Council could play an instrumental role by focusing on resolving the numerous protracted situations of statelessness around the world,” she added. “Unresolved situations are swelling the numbers of refugees as the affected persons, such as Myanmar Muslims from Rakhine state, are seeking protection outside their countries of residence through whatever means, including the unseaworthy vessels on which so many are losing their lives.”

Based on media and other accounts, almost 500 people, mainly ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar, perished at sea during 2012 after their boats broke down or capsized – making the Indian Ocean one of the deadliest regions in the world for people fleeing their country by boat or being trafficked by smugglers.

The UN Human Rights Council was set up in 2006 to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and to address situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year.

More than 50 students have been arrested,according to AP, citing the Local Coordination Committees.

Youtube videos uploaded today by activists show massive protests taking place at the university in response to last night’s raid.

Student activist Thaer al-Ahmed told AP said security forces and pro-regime gunmen fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the students at Aleppo University after entering the students’ residences late Wednesday night.

According to the Syrian Revolution official page on facebook, more than 2000 security forces and pro-regime armed men have stormed the university.

Meanwhile, Lieberman US senator voiced his support for the Syrian opposition Wednesday, following meetings with top Lebanese officials and a visit to Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon.

Lieberman visited the northern Lebanese region of Wadi Khaled escoted by the Lebanese army, which is located near the Syrian border and houses the majority of an estimated 24,000 Syrians who have sought refuge in Lebanon, according to AFP.

Most independent media are barred from Syria or have their movements restricted, making it hard to verify such reports.Lebanon needs to help the Syrian opposition and offer further assistance to refugees fleeing unrest in their home country, U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, who is on an official visit to Lebanon along with U.S. official Jeffrey Feltman, said Wednesday.

Lieberman also expressed concern that countries in the region and around the world were not doing enough to back the Syrian opposition.

Massive protests were reported in several neighborhoods in the capital Damascus, the biggest of which was reported in al-Salheiya region, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists.

 Random shootings were reported in al-Hamama village in Idlib, activists said, and mortar shells hit Rastan in Homs.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned and accused Syrian government forces killed at least 95 civilians and burned or destroyed hundreds of houses during a two-week offensive in northern Idlib governorate shortly before the ceasefire, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday. The attacks happened in late March and early April, as United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan was negotiating with the Syrian government to end the fighting.