This document presents a set of principles to guide interaction between families and a broad range of stakeholders, including states and their various organs, international and non-governmental organizations, and civil society actors, such as associations of families of the missing. They assume that families ought to be central actors in efforts to address their needs. While the primary responsibility for responding to those needs lies with states, others can support their efforts. This includes all elements of how stakeholders engage with families and how families can most effectively participate in the process of gathering, analysing and sharing information to determine the fate and whereabouts of missing migrants, and in addressing their other needs. At the core of the principles is the understanding that families have a need to know the fate and whereabouts of the missing and have relevant rights under applicable branches of international law.