65 whereabouts of the victims, or to guarantee the rights of access to justice and to know the truth through the investigation and eventual punishment of those responsible, together with the full reparation of the consequences of the violations. Thus, more than 30 years after the facts began and 16 years after the first investigations were opened, impunity prevails as well as the lack of effectiveness of the investigations and criminal proceedings. This is reflected in the fact that none of those responsible has been identified or even involved in the investigations. 184. The Court reiterates that both the investigation and the search for disappeared persons are imperative State obligations, as is the importance that those actions are carried out in keeping with international standards, with an approach that takes into account that the victims were children at the time of the facts. Hence, the Court considers it necessary that the State adopt clear and concrete strategies designed to overcome the impunity in prosecuting the forced disappearances of children during the Salvadoran armed conflict, in order to evidence the systematic nature of this crime that particularly affected Salvadoran children, thereby preventing these facts from being repeated. 185. Based on the foregoing, together with its case law,281 this Court orders that the State must continue, effectively and with the greatest diligence, the investigations that have been opened, and open those that may be necessary to identify, prosecute and, as appropriate, punish those responsible for the forced disappearance of Gregoria Herminia Contreras, Serapio Cristian Contreras, Julia Inés Contreras, Ana Julia Mejía Ramírez, Carmelina Mejía Ramírez and José Rubén Rivera Rivera. This obligation must be complied with in a reasonable time, in order to establish the truth of the facts, and to determine the possible criminal responsibilities, based on the criteria indicated for investigations in cases of forced disappearance,282 and removing all the de facto and de jure obstacles that maintain impunity283 in this case. In particular, the State must: a) Take into account the systematic pattern of forced disappearances of children in the context of the Salvadoran armed conflict, as well as the large-scale military operations during which the facts of this case took place, so that the pertinent investigations and proceedings may be conducted taking into account the complexity of these facts and the context in which they occurred, avoiding omissions in the collection of evidence and in following logical lines of investigation, based on a proper assessment of the systematic patterns that gave rise to the facts under investigation; b) Identify and individualize all the perpetrators and masterminds of the forced disappearances of the victims. Due diligence in the investigations means that all the State authorities are obliged to collaborate in the collection of evidence; consequently, they must provide the judge, prosecutor or other judicial authority with all the information required and abstain from actions that obstruct the progress of the investigative process; c) Ensure that the competent authorities carry out the corresponding investigations ex officio and that, to do so, they have and use all the necessary logistic and scientific resources to collect and process evidence and, in particular, that 281 Cf. Velásquez Rodríguez, supra note 23, para. 174; Case of Anzualdo Castro, supra note 109, para. 181, and Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña, supra note 100, para. 237. 282 Cf. Case of Anzualdo Castro, supra note 109, para. 181; Case of Gomes Lund et al. (Guerrilha do Araguaia), supra note 97, para. 256, and Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña, supra note 100, para. 237. 283 Cf. Case of Myrna Mack Chang, supra note 269, para. 277; Case of Ibsen Cárdenas and Ibsen Peña, supra note 100, para. 237, and Case of Manuel Cepeda Vargas, supra note 14, para. 216.