A/HRC/16/48 563. The Working Group considers the role of victims’ associations as crucial in the process of clarification of the fate and whereabouts of those who have disappeared. Therefore, the Working Group urges States to strengthen cooperation with NGOs and also provide support for their functioning. 564. The Working Group calls upon States to take specific legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures, including the establishment of specific investigating bodies, to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances. 565. The Working Group reminds States that enforced disappearance is a continuing offence for as long as the fate or whereabouts of the victim remains unclarified. In the general comment that it adopted during the reporting period, the Working Group recognized that “one consequence of the continuing character of enforced disappearance is that it is possible to convict someone for enforced disappearance on the basis of a legal instrument that was enacted after the enforced disappearance began, notwithstanding the fundamental principle of non retroactivity. The crime cannot be separated and the conviction should cover the enforced disappearance as a whole.” 566. States should also take specific measures under their criminal law to define enforced disappearances as an autonomous criminal offence and to bring their existing legislation in line with the Declaration. The Working Group remains committed to assisting States in ensuring that their legislation and other measures are in conformity with the Declaration, by providing their expertise in this regard. 567. States are encouraged to take all possible measures to prevent enforced disappearances. These include: accessible and updated registries of detainees at all places of detention and confinement; guaranteed access to appropriate information and to all such places for relatives as well as lawyers; bringing arrested persons promptly before a judicial authority; and strengthening civil society organizations that deal with the issue of enforced disappearance. 568. The Working Group reminds States of their obligations under the Declaration to ensure that cases of enforced disappearance are promptly investigated and persons accused of having committed these violations are arrested and prosecuted. Trials should only be carried out in competent civilian courts and punishments should be commensurate with the gravity of the crime. 569. The Working Group also reminds States that they have an obligation to ensure that every person having knowledge of, or a legitimate interest in, an enforced disappearance has the right to complain to a competent and independent authority to have their complaint promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated. 570. The Working Group reminds States that, since its first report in 1981, the Working Group has acknowledged the right to the truth as an autonomous right. During the reporting period, the Working Group issued a general comment on the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearance, in line with the Declaration (art. 13). 571. The right to the truth is both an individual and a collective right: each victim has the right to know the truth about violations that have affected him or her, but the truth also has to be told at the level of society to ensure against the recurrence of such violations. 572. The Working Group would like to emphasize that the right to the truth about the fate and the whereabouts includes, when the disappeared person is found to be dead, the right of the family to have the remains of their loved one returned to them. The remains of the person should be clearly and indisputably identified, including 123