A/79/213 treatment or punishment, enforced disappearance, or other irreparable harm, either in the country to which removal is to be effected or in any country to which the child may subsequently be removed. These include risks of child marriage, other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, 30 child recruitment, human trafficking, and exploitation and abuse, including the worst forms of child labour. The particularly serious consequences for children of insufficient provision of food or health services should also be considered in the assessment of risk. 31 15. The Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Migrant Workers have highlighted risks to children’s lives and survival in migratory processes due to, inter alia, violence from organized crime, violence in camps, pushback or interception operations, excessive use of force by border authorities, refusal of vessels to rescue people, extreme travel conditions, immigration raids, detention and deportation practices, limited access to basic services, and family separation. 32 States are obligated to protect children from migration-related risks that may jeopardize their right to life, survival and development, and to ensure that children in the context of migration, regardless of their or their parent’s status, have a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual and moral development. 33 This includes promoting leisure and play, which encourage the fullest possible development of a child’s personality. Too often, migrant children’s survival and development rights in transit and destination countries are limited by constraints on their or their parents’ rights. 4. Right to be heard 16. In accordance with article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children’s views must be heard in all matters affecting them and given due weight based on age and maturity and in line with the child’s evolving capacity. Participation is both a fundamental right of every child and a means of realizing other rights, 34 with an inherent interconnectedness between children’s right to be heard and to have their best interests be a primary consideration in decision-making affecting them. Article 12 recognizes children’s agency, which is essential in migration contexts, as children’s views on their migratory situations may differ significantly from that of family members or other sections of their communities: they may have different reasons to stay or leave and may be differently affected by migration decisions. 35 My predecessor has expressed concern that in some countries accompanied children may be denied their right to be heard and are treated as a “footnote” to their parents’ files, meaning that child-specific or individual reasons for granting asylum or other regular status may be overlooked. 36 Research has shown that children, particularly adolescents, see themselves as primary agents in their migration journey and are able to articulate their perspectives, experiences, needs and aspirations. 37 17. For children’s right to be heard to be meaningful in their or their families’ migration-related cases, due process must include provision of relevant information in the child’s own language in a timely, child-sensitive and age-appropriate manner; __________________ 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 24-13410 See Committee on the Rights of the Child, F.M.A and H.K.A. v. Denmark (CRC/C/93/D/140/2021), paras. 7.7–7.8. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 6 (2005), para. 27; and Committee on the Rights of the Child, D.D. v. Spain (CRC/C/80/D/4/2016), para. 14.4. Joint general comment No. 3/No. 22 (2017), paras. 40–41. Ibid, paras. 42–43. UNICEF, “Children’s participation in the work of NHRIs” (2018), p. 7. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Z.S and A.S v. Switzerland, (CRC/C/89/D/74/2019), para. 7.8. A/HRC/53/26, para. 69. See, for example, UNICEF, Reimagining Migration Responses. 7/24