17 and disappearance of their youngest sons. Marco Antonio’s case was part of this practice, and cannot be deemed an isolated case. There is no legal framework to enable searching for and documenting cases of missing children in the country, and therefore, as the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico has done, he recommends that the State enact laws to allow access to the files of all institutions where children were placed and that fostered adoptions, as well as to the files of the various military centers, to enable establishment of the whereabouts of hundreds of children. He also believes it necessary for the State to enact laws that acknowledge the juridical status of absence due to forced disappearance, and to implement laws to enable review of all adoptions of children who were “war” victims, without the knowledge and consent of the parents. The State must support the actions of the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida not only financially, but also technically. This involves the establishment of a genetic data bank that will make it possible to solve pending cases with greater certainty and in a more agile manner. The Fundación Antropológica Forense de Guatemala (FAFG) would be the appropriate institution to implement the genetic data bank project, given its experience with exhumations, and in general terms because its work has contributed to solve many cases of individuals, including children, who were executed and buried in clandestine cemeteries. The State must provide the technology and all the equipment required to establish the genetic data bank. The Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos [Office of the Attorney for Human Rights] was the only State institution that participated in establishment of the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida. This Committee attained legal status through the Procuraduría, based on a decision issued by its Secretary in March 2003. However, no State authority has allocated resources for actions to document, search for and reunite missing children. The State should strengthen the budget of the Office of the Attorney for Human Rights so that the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida can further its work through that Office. He insists that this entails not only financial support, but also support through the Defense Ministry and the Executive branch of government, to allow access to information in the files of orphanages and military centers. The damage caused to the families by forced disappearance cannot be undone, but there are certain actions that might, at some time, attenuate their suffering, such as an acknowledgment of the facts of forced disappearance by the President of Guatemala to society, to the communities and to the survivors of the domestic armed conflict, for the President to ask the forgiveness of all Guatemala, and at the same time to accept the responsibility for the violations against them. Another action that could honor the memory of the victims is the building of monuments or the establishment of a museum hall to commemorate the missing children, and to decree a national children’s day. The State must foster an awareness campaign through the media and in all the languages of Guatemala to make the facts regarding forced disappearance publicly known.