Syria unrest: UN rights body to investigate crackdown.
The UN Human Rights Council has ordered an investigation into violations reportedly committed by Syrian security forces during the crackdown on dissent.
It passed a resolution to "urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry" and demanded an end to the violence against protesters.
The commission will "investigate violations of international human rights law in Syria since July 2011".
The UN says more than 2,200 people have died since protests began in mid-March.
There were 33 votes in favour of the resolution on Syria, four against - reportedly including China, Russia and Cuba - and nine abstentions.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, opened the emergency session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
She told delegates that "the gravity of ongoing violations and brutal attacks against the peaceful protesters in [Syria] demand your continued attention", adding that security forces were employing excessive force, including heavy artillery.
The emergency session had the backing even of Syria＇s neighbours such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, says the BBC＇s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
Evidence from UN human rights experts that Syrian troops have been using tanks and snipers against unarmed demonstrators, even knives to finish off the injured, has caused shock and outrage worldwide.
But calls by the US and UK for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down irritated some member states; in the end, Russia and China voted against the resolution, calling it one-sided and over politicised, our correspondent says.
Those two countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and could veto any further UN action - such as sanctions - against Syria.
The big question now is whether Syria will co-operate with the UN investigators, our correspondent adds.
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