- 9authorities and institutions. In a decision of February 10, 2003, the Ombudsman's Office stated that the Attorney General's report on the activities of the committee “show[ed] that the results [had] evidently been very poor, owing above all, according to the text, to the absence of records and to the declarations of those interviewed that they had no information about the facts under investigation, particularly facts that related to the Armed Forces.” Recently, on October 5, 2004, the State issued a presidential decree to establish an “inter-institutional commission to trace the children who disappeared as a result of the armed conflict in El Salvador.” However, the Court was not given any information to indicate that the commission had commenced activities. 153. The Court observes that the work of the Asociación Pro Búsqueda and of the next of kin of the disappeared was fundamental in resolving most of the cases where it has been possible to trace and find those who disappeared during the armed conflict. Also, once they had obtained the necessary information about these people, Pro-Búsqueda and the next of kin encouraged the re-establishment of family relations and, when possible, the reunification of the families affected by the conflict, in the absence of relevant effective, diligent and appropriate measures by the State. 154. In its concluding observations on August 22, 2003, the Human Rights Committee stated that it “regretted the [State] was unable to explain the Legislative Assembly's reasons for not approving the establishment of a national commission of inquiry to track down children who disappeared in the conflict,” invited El Salvador to “reconsider” the creation of this commission, and urged it “to submit detailed information on the numbers of children found alive and the numbers that died in the fighting,” and to create a compensation fund for young people who are found.16 The Committee on the Rights of the Child also referred to this matter in its final observations of June 30, 2004, to El Salvador, when it expressed its concern that the State had not “taken a more active role in efforts to investigate the disappearance of more than 700 children during the armed conflict between 1980 and 1992.” The Committee on the Rights of the Child also noted “that the efforts which to date have led to the tracing of some 250 children have been undertaken mainly by the NGO Pro-Búsqueda.” It therefore recommended that the State assume an active role in efforts to trace the children who disappeared during the armed conflict, that it establish a national commission with adequate resources and capacity to trace the disappeared children, and that it ratify the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearances of Persons.17 155. As it has been shown, the State has demonstrated a general lack of concern about the situation of the children who disappeared in the internal armed conflict. This has had a direct impact on determining what happened to Ernestina and Erlinda, because the facts under investigation by the Chalatenango Trial Court refer to their abduction during this conflict. During the public hearing held before the InterAmerican Court on September 7, 2004 (supra para. 14), the State affirmed that “there has been criticism, with some reason, that the State authorities did not help in the effort to trace the children lost in the war.” It also stated that “all Salvadorans 16 U.N. Human Rights Committee. Concluding observations: El Salvador. August 22, 2003. CCPR/CO/78/SLV, para. 19. 17 U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. Examination of the reports presented by the State parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding observations on El Salvador of June 30, 2004. CRC/C/15/Add.232, paras. 31 and 32.