The UN’s human rights committee also said it was deeply concerned about Syria’s use of the death penalty, saying it was inconsistent with international norms.

“The state party should take firm measures to stop the use of incommunicado detention and eradicate all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” it said in a report.

It urged the immediate release of political prisoners and human rights activists and said Syria’s state of emergency, in place since 1963, should not be used as a pretext to suppress rights supporters.

Syria must protect freedom of expression and assembly, abolish forced military conscription and protect the country’s Kurdish minority, the report said.

The UN body, made up of 18 independent legal experts, reviews member states’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the cornerstone of international human rights law.

Global pressure has intensified, especially from the United States, for Syria to tighten its border controls to stop anti-US insurgents getting into Iraq and pushed Syria to pull its troops out of neighbouring Lebanon in April.

The UN committee said Syria had not been open enough about reported cases of disappearances in Lebanon, where it was the main power broker for decades, and called on Syria to account for those arrested who remained missing.