A/HRC/16/70 XI. Information management and legal protection of personal data 98. The main purpose of collecting data on missing persons is to establish the identity, location and fate of persons unaccounted for (both living and deceased) and to give information to the families on the whereabouts and fate of their missing relatives. 99. Coordination of the activities of all those involved and the sharing of information would increase the effectiveness of any action taken to ascertain the fate of persons unaccounted for. States should ensure that information collected on persons unaccounted for is as comprehensive as possible. Information should be collected and processed fairly and lawfully. States should ensure respect for the relevant standards and principles with regard to the protection of personal data whenever information, including medical and genetic information, is managed and processed. Exchange of the information among those involved should take place without endangering victims, the persons collecting the information or the sources of information.26 100. Locating missing persons and/or finding information about them requires searches of all possible records. The records of local government units, such as the police, are important, as is information that can be derived from cemetery and morgue records. 101. The issue of data management is also relevant to exhumation projects in the search for missing persons. While oral reports may provide information about possible burial sites or mass graves, records of military or other government personnel who, for example, may have been assigned to digging graves or who were involved in transportation to or from the site, may also provide or corroborate information. 102. State authorities should allow access to pre-war health and dental records to facilitate the identification process of mortal remains. 103. States should provide for adequate sanctions for destroying or unlawfully withholding information on missing persons. XII. Cooperation 104. States should cooperate at the international level in order to effectively solve cases of missing persons by providing mutual assistance in terms of information-sharing, victim assistance, locating and identifying missing persons, and in exhuming, identifying and returning human remains. 105. International humanitarian law can only work in practice if belligerents, or former belligerents, cooperate with each other. Accordingly, the issue of missing persons cannot be settled unilaterally by one side to the conflict, and close cooperation and coordination are necessary between the different sides. Parties to an armed conflict should refrain from acting on the basis of reciprocity in dealing with the issue of missing persons. The sharing of information or the taking of steps, for example, should not be conditional on the other side also providing information or taking steps; in other words, cooperation should be unconditional. Humanitarian law is not subject to any principle of reciprocity. 26 Information on information management regarding missing persons was included in the replies to the questionnaire submitted by Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mauritania, Mexico, Paraguay and Serbia. 19