62 carried out in a systematic and rigorous manner, with adequate and appropriate human, technical and scientific resources and, if necessary, with cooperation from other States and international organizations. These measures must be reported to the next of kin and, where possible, conducted in their presence. 198. This effort to determine the victims’ whereabouts must be carried out through the National Search Commission for Children who Disappeared during the Internal Armed Conflict or through the institution or body considered most appropriate and efficient. In any case, the institution or body conducting the search must offer guarantees of independence and impartiality; possess the necessary human, financial, logistic, scientific and other resources to conduct efficient investigations and to determine the whereabouts of the young people who disappeared when they were children during the armed conflict; have the capacity and initiative to adopt the necessary measures to investigate and collect evidence about the possible whereabouts of the children who disappeared during the armed conflict; and ensure that all State institutions and authorities are obliged to cooperate by providing information and access to all their files and records.298 199. In the event that, following the steps taken by the State, any of the victims are found alive, the State must assume the costs of identifying them using reliable methods, reuniting them with their families and providing them with the necessary psychosocial care; it must also provide the means for re-establishing their identity and make the necessary efforts to facilitate family reunification, if they so wish. If the victims are found to be deceased, their previously identified remains must be returned to their next of kin as soon as possible and without cost. Also, the State must cover the funeral expenses, as appropriate, in accordance with the wishes of the next of kin.299 200. As to the National Search Commission, in the Case of Contreras et al. the Court did not consider it pertinent to order, again, the requested measures of reparation related to the seventh operative paragraph of the judgment in the Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters,300 because they have already been established in that judgment and compliance with the Court’s ruling is still being evaluated during the stage of monitoring compliance with judgment. Similarly, for the same reasons, the Court does not find it pertinent to refer in this judgment to the possible obstacles faced by that Commission and, therefore, to the request by the Inter-American Commission and the representatives. Nevertheless, the Court welcomes the fact that the Search Commission’s work has been extended indefinitely, although this should not be understood as an assessment of the mechanism through which this modification took place. 3. Request to strengthen the scientific and forensic capabilities to support the search for disappeared children 201. The representatives requested that, in view of the State’s non-compliance with measures ordered in the Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters, the Court reiterate to the State its obligation to create a genetic information system and to include the component of physical and facial composites (identikit pictures) showing how the disappeared children might look nowadays if they were to be found alive, given that this element would strengthen its technical and scientific capabilities for the investigation of these cases and would also facilitate the identification of disappeared persons who are currently alive. 298 Cf. Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador. Merits, reparations and costs, supra, paras. 184 to 188. 299 Cf. Case of Anzualdo Castro v. Peru, supra, para. 185, and Case of Osorio Rivera and Family v. Peru, supra, para. 252. The Court ordered the State to “adopt the following measures to determine the whereabouts of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz: establishment of a national commission to trace the young people who disappeared during the armed conflict when they were children, with the participation of civil society; creation of a search web page; and creation of a genetic information system.” Case of the Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador. Merits, reparations and costs, supra, seventh operative paragraph. 300