C. Methods of work of the Working Group The methods of work of the Working Group are based on its mandate as stipulated in Commission on Human Rights resolution 20 (XXXVI) and developed first by the Commission and then by the Human Rights Council in further resolutions.8 They are specifically geared towards its main objective: to assist families in determining the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared relatives. To this end, the Working Group endeavours to establish a channel of communication between the families and the Governments concerned, seeking to ensure that sufficiently documented and clearly identified individual cases which the families, directly or indirectly, have brought to the Working Group’s attention are investigated. The Working Group’s role ends when the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person have been clearly established as a result of investigations by the Government or the family, inquiries by nongovernmental organizations, or fact-finding missions by the Working Group or by human rights personnel from the United Nations or from any other international organization operating in the field, irrespective of whether that person is alive or dead. At that point the Working Group no longer concerns itself with the question of determining responsibility for specific cases of disappearance or for other human rights violations which may have occurred in the course of a disappearance; its work in this respect is of a strictly humanitarian nature. The Working Group’s action is based on the principle that the State is responsible for human rights violations committed within its territory and is obligated to prevent such violations and to investigate them when they have occurred. As with all other situations of State responsibility, such responsibility continues to exist irrespective of changes of Government. The Commission on Human Rights and its successor, the Human Rights Council, have noted the Working Group’s methods of work and the humanitarian spirit underlying its mandate. They have also stressed the importance of publicizing the objectives, procedures and methods of the Working Group within the framework of the information activities of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 8 The Working Group’s methods work are available at http://www.ohchr.org. 15