A/HRC/19/58 punished as such‖. The same article also provides that States ―shall devote their efforts to the search for and identification of such children and to the restitution of the children to their families of origin‖. 4. Even if the right to recognition as a person before the law is extinguished on the death of the disappeared person, its effects may last beyond his/her death, in particular with all matters related to inheritance. In addition, as the Working Group stated in its General Comment on Enforced Disappearance as a Continuous Crime, ―[e]ven though the conduct violates several rights, including the right to recognition as a person before the law, (…) the Working Group considers that an enforced disappearance is a unique and consolidated act, and not a combination of acts‖ with the consequence that ―even if some aspects of the violation may have been completed before the entry into force of the relevant national or international instrument, if other parts of the violation are still continuing, until such time as the victim’s fate or whereabouts are established, the matter should be heard, and the act should not be fragmented.‖ The violation of the right to recognition as a person before the law therefore lasts until the disappearance ends, that is to say when the fate or the whereabouts of the person have been determined. 5. Enforced disappearances also entail violations of the rights of other persons, including the next-of-kin and others connected to the disappeared persons. Family members are prevented to exercise their rights and obligations due to the legal uncertainty created by the absence of the disappeared person. This uncertainty has many legal consequences, among others on the status of marriage, guardianship of under age children, right to social allowances of members of the families and management of property of the disappeared person. 6. The Working Group considers that the right to be recognized as a legal person entails the obligation of the State to fully recognize the legal personality of disappeared persons and thus respect the rights of their next-of-kin and as well as others. 7. For that reason, most domestic legal systems have institutions designed to deal with the impossibility of ascertaining a person’s death. Some States allow the issuance of a ―presumption of death‖, others of a ―declaration of absence‖. Some other States, which have been confronted in the past with a systematic or massive practice of enforced disappearance, have specifically created the notion of ―certificate of absence by reason of forced disappearance‖ (see in particular the Working Group’s study on Compensation, presumption of death and exhumation, in E/CN.4/1998/43, p. 9 sq). 8. The basis for such an acknowledgement should take the form of a ―declaration of absence by reason of enforced disappearance‖, to be issued, with the consent of the family, by a State authority after a certain time has elapsed since the disappearance, in any case no less than one year. 9. Such a declaration should allow the appointment of a representative of the disappeared person, with the mandate to exercise his/her rights and obligations for the duration of his/her absence, in his/her interests and those of his/her next-of-kin. The latter should be allowed to manage temporarily the disappeared person’s properties, for as long as the enforced disappearance continues, and to receive due assistance from the State through social allowances. In most cases, the disappeared persons are men and were the family breadwinners and special social support should be provided to dependent women and children. The acceptance of financial support for members of the families should not be considered as a waiver of the right to integral reparation for the damage caused by the crime of enforced disappearance, in accordance with article 19 of the Declaration. 10. In parallel to the issuance of a system of declaration of absence as a result of enforced disappearance, States should continue to investigate all cases to determinate the fate and the whereabouts of the disappeared and to ensure accountability of those 15