A/HRC/14/42 94. International and regional organizations should encourage inter-State cooperation and may have an important role to play on their own. 95. International and regional organizations involved in solving the problem of missing persons should further develop cooperation within their respective mandates while ensuring synergies and avoiding duplication. 96. There is a pressing need to develop cooperation agreements and partnerships not only at intergovernmental level, but also with national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, civil society structures and, in particular, the associations of families of missing persons. 97. Civil society organizations could play an important role concerning different issues such as the provision of psychological rehabilitation for affected family members. They should be provided with adequate financial and technical assistance. Working groups or committees could be set up comprising of government representatives, relatives of missing persons and civil society representatives. XII. Conclusions 98. International obligations to prevent and resolve situations of missing persons in connection with armed conflict are based both on international humanitarian law and international human rights law. 99. Enacting national legislation is highly important when dealing with the issues of missing persons, preventing disappearances, ascertaining the fate of missing persons, protecting their rights, ensuring the proper management of information and supporting the families of missing persons. In this respect, a draft model law on missing persons prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is of great importance. 100. States and parties to an armed conflict are obliged to take all appropriate measures to prevent persons from going missing. In particular, members of armed forces or armed groups and populations at risk (such as isolated populations, civilians in conflict zone, displaced persons, the elderly and children) must be properly identified. An information bureau and graves registration service, as provided for under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, should be set up. 101. Respect for the right to exchange family news is essential to preventing individuals from becoming unaccounted for. In armed conflicts, when the usual means of communication are disrupted, ICRC together with the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies help to maintain and restore contact between family members through the worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent Family Links Network. In order to facilitate searches, the parties to an international armed conflict must transmit all relevant information concerning people reported missing by an adverse party and their requests concerning their own missing persons. This information must be transmitted directly to the Central Tracing Agency established by ICRC under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. 102. States and parties to an armed conflict should ensure the establishment and day-to-day functioning of an independent and impartial national institution that could play a crucial role in clarifying the fate of missing persons. Such institutions (commissions on missing persons) should deal with the issue of missing on both sides to the conflict and not condition their work on the results achieved by any other side. They should work closely with governmental and non-governmental entities, family associations, and families of the missing. States and parties to an armed conflict GE.10-12433 17