A/RES/68/147 Rights of the child General Assembly on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals for persons with disabilities, held on 23 September 2013; 30 12. Urges all States to respect and promote the right of girls and boys to express themselves freely, and their right to be heard, to ensure that their views are given due weight, in accordance with their age and maturity, in all matters affecting them and to involve children, including children with special needs, in decisionmaking processes, taking into account the evolving capacities of children and the importance of involving children’s organizations and child-led initiatives; 13. Also urges all States, in particular, to establish and strengthen mechanisms for the effective participation of children in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation relating to matters that affect them, such as health, the environment, education, social and economic welfare, protection against violence, abuse and exploitation, and disaster response; 14. Calls upon States that find themselves in situations of economic crisis to refrain from adopting retrogressive measures that have a negative impact on the rights of the child, and also calls upon States to meet core obligations on the rights of the child under the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a matter of priority, while fully using maximum available resources; Registration, family relations, adoption and alternative care 15. Once again urges all States parties to intensify their efforts to comply with their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to preserve the child’s identity, including nationality, name and family relations, as recognized by law, reminding States of their obligation to register the birth of all children without discrimination of any kind, including late birth registration, and to ensure that registration procedures are universal, accessible, simple, expeditious and effective and provided at minimal or no cost; 16. Recalls the adoption of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, 31 and encourages States to take the Guidelines into account when adopting, enforcing, improving or implementing policies and programmes to protect children growing up without parents or caregivers, recognizing that efforts should be directed primarily to enabling the child to remain in or return to the care of his or her parents or, when appropriate, other close family members and that, where alternative care is necessary, family- and community-based care should be promoted over placement in institutions; 17. Calls upon States to guarantee, to the extent consistent with the obligations of each State, the right of a child whose parents reside in different States to maintain, on a regular basis, save in exceptional circumstances, personal relations and direct contact with both parents by providing enforceable means of access and visitation in both States and by respecting the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of their children; 18. Also calls upon States to address and pay particular attention to cases of international parental or familial child abduction, and encourages States to engage in multilateral and bilateral cooperation to resolve those cases, preferably by _______________ 30 31 6/19 Resolution 68/3. Resolution 64/142, annex.