A/HRC/16/70 together with 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 Geneva Conventions. 117. States and parties to an armed conflict should ensure the establishment and day-to-day functioning of an independent and impartial national institution, which could play a crucial role in clarifying the fate of missing persons. Such institutions (commissions or committees 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 the families of the missing. 118. The right of family members to know the fate of missing relatives as a result of armed conflict, including their whereabouts or, if dead, the circumstances and cause of their deaths, is provided for under both international humanitarian law and human rights law. States and parties to an armed conflict are under an obligation to take the measures necessary to clarify the fate of missing persons and to inform families thereof. Family members must be regularly informed about the progress and results of investigation concerning the fate or whereabouts of missing relatives. 119. While focusing on the humanitarian dimension of missing persons in armed conflict, it is also necessary to bear in mind that cases of missing persons can sometimes constitute criminal offences, including war crimes or crimes against humanity. States should ensure effective investigation and prosecution of all serious human rights violations linked to missing persons. 120. The legal situation of persons reported missing as a result of armed conflict and of their relatives should be clearly established in domestic legislation. The rights and interests of missing persons, including their civil status, property and assets, must be protected at all times until their fate has been ascertained or their death recognized. 121. States are obliged to take measures to respond to the material, financial, psychological and legal needs faced by the families of persons unaccounted for. States should adopt a gender-sensitive approach to ensuring the rights of relatives. They should support initiatives from key actors and organizations in civil society involved in providing support for families of missing persons. The right of relatives of missing persons to be granted reparation should be ensured. 122. The dead should be searched for, collected and identified without distinction. They must be identified and buried in properly marked graves in sites that are identified and registered. All acts of mutilation and despoliation of the dead must be criminalized. 123. The competent State authorities are obliged to take all necessary measures to recover human remains, which must be returned to the family as soon as possible. If it is not possible for the remains to be returned, a proper burial should be ensured. 124. The forensic recovery and identification of human remains help to ensure the right to know the truth and contribute to the knowledge of the whereabouts of missing persons. Forensic investigations should be conducted only with proper authorization, following standards of best practice, and in accordance with the conditions specified by law. 21