التقرير يغطى الفترة من 15 يناير إلى 15 مايو 2013.
يقول تقرير عن انتهاكات حقوق الإنسان في سوريا إن هناك أسبابا معقولة للاعتقاد باستخدام طرفي الصراع أسلحة كيمياوية.
ويعتقد المحققون أن تلك المواد الكيمياوية استخدمتها القوات الحكومية في أربع حالات، واستخدمتها المعارضة في حالة واحدة.
ولكن المحققين لم يحددوا نوع المواد التي استخدمت في تلك الحالات، أو الطرف الذي استخدمها.
ويشير التقرير إلى الحوادث التالية:
ما وقع في خان العسل قرب حلب في 19 مارس/آذار،
ما وقع في العتيبة قرب دمشق في 19 مارس/آذار،
ما وقع في حي الشيخ مقصود في حلب في 13 أبريل/نيسان
وما وقع في مدينة سراقب في 29 أبريل/نيسان.
ويقول الخبراء في تقريرهم الذي يغطي الفترة الممتدة من 15 يناير/كانون الثاني، إلى 15 مايو/أيار، "هناك حوادث أخرى أيضا قيد التحقيق".
ويعتمد تقرير الأمم المتحدة على شهادات ضحايا، وأعضاء في أجهزة طبية، وشهود عيان آخرين.
ويقول مراسل لبي بي سي إن التقرير يصف حالة سوريا باعتبارها بلدا ينزلق نحو البربرية، حيث أصبحت أكثر فظائع أعمال العنف شيئا معتادا، يجبر معها الأطفال على المشاركة في ارتكاب فظائع، منها قطع الرؤوس.
"هجمات ممنهجة"
ولم تتلق لجنة التحقيق المستقلة والتي تعمل بتفويض من مجلس حقوق الإنسان، موافقة بعد من دمشق للتوجه إلى سوريا.
وهي تحقق منذ بدء مهامها في 30 ادعاء بوقوع مجازر، من بينها 17 قد تكون ارتكبت منذ 15 يناير/كانون الثاني.
وروت القاضية السويسرية المعروفة كارلا ديل بونتي، عضوة لجنة التحقيق قائلة "لقد فوجئت كثيرا بالعنف وقساوة الأعمال الإجرامية، لا سيما أعمال التعذيب. وهناك عامل آخر أثار قلقي أيضا هو استخدام أطفال في المعارك وهم يتعرضون للقتل والتعذيب".
وقد قتل منذ بدء الصراع 86 من الأطفال المجندين في المعارك، ولقي نصف هذا العدد حتفه منذ يناير/كانون الثاني.
ويتهم المحققون في التقرير الجيش السوري بارتكاب جرائم، وأعمال تعذيب، واغتصاب، وأعمال أخرى غير إنسانية.
وقال باولو بنييرو رئيس لجنة التحقيق "إن عددا من هذه الأعمال ارتكب في إطار هجمات عامة وممنهجة ضد المدنيين".
وتتهم اللجنة أيضا مجموعات المعارضة المسلحة بارتكاب جرائم حرب، من بينها إعدامات خارج إطار القضاء، وأعمال تعذيب، أو تعريض حياة سكان للخطر، عبر إقامة أهداف عسكرية قرب مناطق مدنية.
لكنها لفتت مرة أخرى إلى أن هذه الفظائع لم تبلغ مستوى تلك التي ارتكبتها القوات الحكومية والميليشيات التابعة لها، أو حجمها.
ويحاول المجتمع الدولي حاليا الترتيب لإجراء محادثات سلام يشارك فيها طرفا الصراع في سوريا، لكن لم يحدد تاريخ معين لهذه المحادثات.
UN investigators on Tuesday said they had "reasonable grounds" to believe chemical weapons have been used by both sides in Syria, and warned that crimes against humanity are now occurring daily in the war-torn country.
Image made available by the Syrian News Agency (SANA) on March 19, 2013 shows medics attending to a man at a hospital in Khan al-Assal in the northern Aleppo province. UN investigators on Tuesday said they had "reasonable grounds" to believe chemical weapons have been used by both sides in Syria, and warned that crimes against humanity are now occurring daily in the war-torn country.
"Allegations have been received concerning the use of chemical weapons by both parties," said the Commission of Inquiry on Syria in a report to the UN Human Rights Council, adding that "the majority concern their use by government forces". There are "reasonable grounds to believe that chemical agents have been used as weapons," added the investigators. It was the first time the commission, which has been tasked with probing human rights violations in Syria since 2011, added the suspected use of chemical agents to its long list of war crimes committed in the conflict-torn country. Without providing details, the report lists four chemical attacks: on the Khan al-Asal neighbourhood of Aleppo and Uteibah, near Damascus, both on March 19, on the Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo on April 13, and on the northwestern town of Saraqab on April 29.
"It has not been possible, on the evidence available, to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator," said the report, which covers the period January 15 to May 15 this year.
Carla del Ponte, a legendary former war crimes prosecutor and a member of the commission, warned however that focusing too heavily on the issue of chemical weapons could overshadow the overall suffering in a country where more than 94,000 people have been killed in more than two years of violence.
"We have so many deaths in Syria now, ... so please don't make the use of chemical weapons in Syria now the most important issue," she told reporters ahead of Tuesday's presentation.
The report pointed out that "war crimes and crimes against humanity have become a daily reality in Syria".
During the four-month period covered by the report, 17 suspected massacres took place in Syria, out of a total of 30 since the conflict began in March 2011, the investigators said.
Damascus has so far barred the commission, headed by Brazilian Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, from the country, and the investigators have instead based their conclusions on more than 1,600 interviews with refugees and exiles, as well as by Skype and telephone with victims and witnesses inside the country.
"I am very surprised by the violence and the cruelty, the criminal acts and especially the acts of torture" in Syria, said del Ponte, also decrying the use of child soldiers by some opposition groups.
According to the report, 86 child combatants have so far been killed in the conflict -- nearly half of them in 2013.
Another development, according to Pinheiro, was the systematic imposition of sieges and forced displacement as weapons of war.
The commission, which has drawn up a confidential list of suspected perpetrators, has repeatedly called on a deadlocked UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
The investigators also called on the international community to refrain from shipping arms to Syria.
"It is an illusion that more weapons will tip the balance between the two parties," Pinheiro told reporters, insisting that "more weapons will only lead to more civilian deaths and wounded".
Del Ponte cautioned that international arms suppliers "could carry joint criminal responsibility" for violations committed with the weapons.
Tuesday's report accuses the Syrian army and its allies, including foreign fighters like Lebanese Hezbollah, of suspected "atrocities against women and children," murders, torture, and forced displacements, among other crimes.
The report also accuses armed opposition groups of a long line of war crimes, including summary executions and torture, but reiterates that their violations had not reached the intensity and scale of those committed by the regime.
The Syrian government insists its forces have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks, as do opposition fighters
There are "reasonable grounds" to believe that chemical weapons were used in attacks by government forces in Syria in recent months, the UN says.
But there is no definitive proof of precisely which agent was used and exactly who the perpetrators were, the UN Commission of Inquiry reports.
It was also unable to rule out their use by opposition forces.
The new report calls on Damascus to allow a team of UN chemical weapons experts into the country.
The report says the Syrian conflict has "reached new levels of brutality", with violations amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides.
It comes as international powers struggle to set a date for a peace conference on Syria, where the conflict is believed to have cost at least 80,000 lives.
In the four months covered by this report - between 15 January and 15 May 2013 - investigators documented 17 possible massacres.
It "documents for the first time the systematic imposition of sieges, the use of chemical agents and forcible displacement".
The report said there were "reasonable grounds to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals were used" during attacks by government forces: on Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, 19 March; al-Otaybeh, Damascus, 19 March; Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, Aleppo, 13 April; and Saraqeb, Idlib province, 29 April.
But it adds that it "has not been possible, on the evidence available, to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator".
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