A/HRC/16/70 military, police and other relevant State agencies, with a clear information and reporting system established before armed conflict starts. 30. National authorities should grant unhindered access to national and international bodies working in the area of human rights and humanitarian law, including ICRC, to any place where people are being deprived of their liberty. V. Missing persons and the restoration of family links 31. Families have the right to communicate with their family members and to know the fate of their relatives. Respect for the right to exchange family news is essential to prevent individuals from becoming unaccounted for. 32. The population groups most at risk of losing contact with their relatives are members of the armed forces and armed groups, isolated civilians in conflict areas, displaced people and refugees, persons deprived of their liberty, and vulnerable persons, such as women, children, the elderly and persons with disabilities. In armed conflicts, when the usual means of communication are disrupted, ICRC 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. The Network facilitates the exchange of personal news between family members everywhere in the world, using all available means, subject to agreements with the authorities. Red Cross messages are collected and distributed, satellite or mobile phones are provided to those who have the telephone number of their relatives, and the Internet is used to trace people via the Family Links website. With the consent of those concerned, lists of people either providing news or looking for news from relatives are published on paper (in newspapers or ad hoc print) and on the ICRC website, and broadcast on radio or television. 33. 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. 34. During an armed conflict, ICRC and national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies collect tracing requests and all available information on people unaccounted for and the circumstances under which they disappeared from their families, direct witnesses, the authorities and any other reliable source. Using this information, ICRC tries to locate the person in, inter alia, places of detention, hospitals, camps for internally displaced persons or refugees, morgues and remote villages. Tracing activities also include supplying the authorities with lists of people unaccounted for together with information on the circumstances in which they went missing, requesting information on the location of graves, asking authorities to allow the recovery and identification of human remains. ICRC lists on missing persons are often published, widely distributed among authorities and the public at large, and used by all those engaged in the process of tracing missing persons. This allows for constant dialogue with and making confidential representations to the authorities or armed groups in order to clarify the fate of missing persons. 35. There are other humanitarian organizations involved in activities linked to restoring family links. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration are regular partners of ICRC and interested national societies. Other agencies, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, and nongovernmental organizations, like the Save the Children Fund, cooperate with ICRC and interested national societies in specific cases, for example in assisting unaccompanied children. 8