A/HRC/45/13/Add.1 and hopes that the other recommendations concerning exhumations and burial sites can also be implemented. 38. With regard to the exhumation of burial sites and identification of remains, the Working Group notes that Tajikistan has limited forensic capabilities, and only one small facility for DNA analysis in Sughd province. The Working Group welcomes the news that there are plans to open a DNA laboratory in Dushanbe and hopes that those plans can be promptly operationalized and that the country’s forensic capabilities can be further strengthened. Following that, a DNA bank of affected families should be established, with appropriate guarantees on reprisals and confidentiality for families coming forward and with external assistance if required. Training for forensic officials on international standards, such as the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death, should also be strengthened. The Working Group welcomes the indications from the Government that efforts are ongoing to strengthen the country’s DNA analysis capacity and that it supports the recommendations concerning the strengthening of forensic capacity, training and the establishment of a DNA bank for families. 39. The Working Group is also aware of a policy, enforced until 2004 when a moratorium on the death penalty was declared, of not returning to the families the bodies of those who were executed in accordance with court sentences. Families were also not informed about the burial places of the executed persons. The Working Group wishes to highlight the families’ right to have the remains of the executed persons returned to them and to dispose of those remains according to their own tradition, religion or culture. In cases where that proves impossible, families should be informed about places of burial. 40. The Working Group was informed that certificates of absence are granted only pursuant to a court decision. One government official recalled that a member of his own family had accepted a death certificate for a missing family member in order to be able to proceed with administrative procedures. The Working Group recalls that States should provide families of victims of disappeared persons with the means to regularize their legal status in relation to the disappeared persons after an appropriate period of time, but that relatives should not be required to declare them dead in order to do so. 6 The Working Group encourages Tajikistan to ensure that certificates of absence, which allow individuals to complete all necessary administrative procedures, are available in cases where an enforced disappearance is recorded. 41. The Working Group also observes that following the prison riot in Vahdat, while the authorities provided assurances that family members of those killed were able to see the bodies, confirm the identity of the individual and perform funeral rites, information from other sources indicates that that was not the case. The Working Group was informed that some families were unable to identify the bodies of their relatives or inspect the coffins before they were interred. Furthermore, allegedly in one case, an individual whose family believed he had been killed and buried, reappeared alive after being held in solitary confinement, which would in itself constitute a period of enforced disappearance. The Working Group is also concerned by contradictory information provided to families of individuals suspected of having participated in the riot. The Working Group was informed by the authorities that the 20 surviving prisoners were, at the time of the visit, being held in the punishment block of the prison. However, it was not clear whether the families of those arrested had been promptly notified of their location. 42. The Working Group refers to article 13 of the Declaration, as the Government is obligated to ensure that complaints of alleged enforced disappearances are dealt with by a competent and independent State authority that has the power and resources necessary to conduct the investigation effectively, and that such investigations are carried out promptly, thoroughly and impartially. While the Working Group was informed of some examples of officials being prosecuted for torture, it appears there is total impunity for acts of enforced disappearance that occurred during the conflict or at any other time. 6 10 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life.