CMW/C/GC/3-CRC/C/GC/22 article 3 reinforces the functionality of article 12, facilitating the essential role of children in all decisions affecting their lives.13 38. States parties should take all appropriate measures aimed at ensuring children’s right to be heard in the immigration procedures concerning their parents, in particular where the decision could affect the children’s rights, such as the right to not be separated from their parents, except when such separation is in their best interests (see art. 9 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). 39. States parties should adopt measures directed at facilitating the participation of all children in the context of international migration in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies that could directly or indirectly affect them, as individuals or a group, including in the fields of social policies and social services. Initiatives should be taken to prepare girls and transgender children to participate actively, effectively and equally with boys at all levels of social, economic, political and cultural leadership. In countries of origin, the participation of children is paramount in developing policies on and in processes aimed at addressing drivers of the migration of children and/or their parents and developing policies in that regard. In addition, States should adopt measures aimed at empowering children affected by international migration to participate on different levels, through consultations, collaborations and child-led initiatives, and at ensuring that civil society organizations, including children associations and child-led organizations, can participate effectively in policy dialogues and processes on children in the context of international migration, at the local, national, regional and international levels. Any limitations on children’s freedom of association, including through legally establishing associations, should be removed. D. Right to life, survival and development (article 9 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child) 40. Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child highlights the States parties’ obligations to ensure the right of life, survival and development of the child, including the physical, mental, moral, spiritual and social dimensions of his or her development. 14 At any point during the migratory process, a child’s right to life and survival may be at stake owing to, inter alia, violence as a result of organized crime, violence in camps, push-back or interception operations, excessive use of force of border authorities, refusal of vessels to rescue them, or extreme conditions of travel and limited access to basic services. Unaccompanied and separated children may face further vulnerabilities and can be more exposed to risks, such as gender-based, sexual and other forms of violence and trafficking for sexual or labour exploitation. Children travelling with their families often also witness and experience violence. While migration can provide opportunities to improve living conditions and escape from abuses, migration processes can pose risks, including physical harm, psychological trauma, marginalization, discrimination, xenophobia and sexual and economic exploitation, family separation, immigration raids and detention. 15 At the same time, the obstacles children may face in gaining access to education, adequate housing, sufficient safe food and water or health services can negatively affect the physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of migrant children and children of migrants. 41. The Committees acknowledge that the lack of regular and safe channels for children and families to migrate contribute to children taking life-threatening and extremely dangerous migration journeys. The same is true for border control and surveillance measures that focus on repression rather than facilitating, regulating and governing mobility, 13 14 15 10 Ibid., para. 74. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 5 (2003) on general measures of implementation of the Convention, para. 12. See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 20 (2016) on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, para. 76.