As the years pass, hope fades, and the ICRC has to begin working on the assumption that the missing person might be dead. For families fortunate enough to learn the fate of their loved ones, obtaining some sort of justice often becomes a primary concern. Indeed, justice is an essential element of the healing process for the families of the victims. Although the ICRC holds fast to its exclusively humanitarian mandate, it encourages and supports national authorities in the creation of missing persons commissions, an essential step on the road towards establishment of responsibility and reparation, and ultimately, the healing of a society’s wounds.