A/HRC/16/70 VI. Mechanisms established to clarify the fate of missing persons 36. The efficient treatment of missing persons requires the establishment of competent mechanisms at various levels. When such mechanisms are set up, particular attention should be given to their mandate, which should focus on their humanitarian objectives, namely, to trace persons unaccounted for as a result of an armed conflict, and to inform their families accordingly. They should be granted sufficient capacity and powers in order to be able to carry out their mandate effectively. For instance, the constitutive documents should ensure that they are granted the cooperation and assistance of all authorities, within their respective competences, and other organizations in order to receive all relevant information in their possession that can help tracing, recovering and identifying missing persons. They also need to have access to gravesites and human remains in order to be able to proceed to exhumation and identification. Sufficient attention should be paid to creating an environment that is conducive to information-sharing, including the possibility of working in a confidential manner. Confidentiality is essential for the said institutions to function. While searches are ongoing, resorting to judiciary and penal alternatives could prevent witnesses to cases of missing persons from disclosing what they know. 37. It might be necessary to put into place mechanisms ensuring coordination and an information-sharing process between the parties concerned. They are usually set up in the period following the end of the conflict and might be included in documents aiming at settling the situation, such as ceasefire and peace agreements. For example, in Cyprus, the Committee on Missing Persons was established in April 1981 by agreement between the communities concerned under the auspices of the United Nations. The Committee, one of the only institutionalized, bicommunal committees in Cyprus, comprises a member appointed by each of the two communities; the third member is selected by ICRC and appointed by the Secretary-General. The Committee’s mandate is to establish the fate of missing persons. It does not attempt to establish the cause of death or attribute responsibility for the death of missing persons. An agreement signed in July 1997 by the leaders of both communities provides for the exchange of information regarding known burial sites and the return of remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons. The primary objective of this project is to allow relatives of missing persons to recover the remains of their loved ones, to arrange for a proper burial and to close a long period of anguish and uncertainty. To date, the remains of 850 individuals have been exhumed from different burial sites located across the island. More than 290 burial sites have been visited and opened by the Committee. The remains of 196 individuals have been identified and returned to their families. In the Middle East, the Tripartite Commission was put in place in 1991 to resolve the fate of missing persons in connection with the Gulf War of 1990/91. The Commission, which is composed of Iraq, Kuwait and four members of the 1991 coalition (France, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America), meets regularly (the whole Committee or its subtechnical committee) and works on gravesites and the identification of human remains. Since 2003, it has resolved 304 cases of missing persons. Furthermore, ICRC chairs the Working Group on Missing Persons in Kosovo in accordance with its mandate and in its capacity as a neutral and independent intermediary accepted by all the parties. The primary objective of the Working Group, established in March 2004 as part of the Vienna Dialogue under the auspices of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, is to clarify the fate of the persons who are unaccounted for as a result of the events in Kosovo, and to inform their families accordingly. Through their delegations to the Working Group, the authorities in Belgrade and Pristina have pledged to search for and provide information on alleged gravesite locations and determine the identity of human remains exhumed. They have also made a commitment to address the legal and administrative needs of the families of the missing. At the time of the establishment of the Working Group, there were more 9