On 23 December 2015 the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed the third annual resolution on the situation in Syria deploring and condemning the continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and all violations of International Humanitarian Law by the Syrian authorities, armed groups and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, urging all parties to take all appropriate steps to protect civilians, including members of ethnic, religious and confessional communities, and stressing that the primary responsibility to protect the Syrian population lies with the Syrian authorities.