A/70/213 89. In the context of children under 5 years of age participation means two separate things. First, it means ensuring that parents, or other repres entatives, are able to access the information required for them to develop an informed opinion about the child’s health status and potential interventions and to participate thoroughly in decision-making processes that affect their children’s health, survival and development. 90. Second, in accordance with their evolving capacities, young children, including infants, have a right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them and to have these views taken into account. 58 Infants and very young children have particular forms of expression, which, because of their age, are sometimes non-verbal. Young children should be active participants in the promotion, protection and monitoring of their rights within the family, the community an d society, 59 in accordance with their evolving capacities. States must therefore ensure the necessary institutional arrangements for the participation of young children and their caregivers. E. Accountability 91. Accountability is essential if the right to health is to be more than window dressing. International human rights law provides a legal basis for accountability. The three primary components of accountability are monitoring, review and redress. Multiple administrative, political and legal accountability processes have a role to play in guaranteeing the right to health, including survival and development, in early childhood. These mechanisms should provide accountability for the protection of the rights to health and healthy development in early childhood in national policies, programmes and plans and in the delivery of services and enable individuals and groups to seek redress where this has not happened. 92. Accountability processes provide an opportunity for duty bearers to explain what they have done and for adjustments to be made where human rights have not been respected and protected. They equally provide rights holders with an opportunity to engage with duty bearers in relation to the promotion and protection of their rights and to seek redress where violations have occurred. 93. In recent years, the importance of accountability for the health of young children has been increasingly recognized by the international community, including in the Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health and in the final report of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health. 60 94. The potential of individuals, communities and civil society to act as key forces for change in health outcomes has received increasing attention in recent years, particularly in relation to accountability. Experiences of citizen accountability include the use of scorecards, social audits and new informatio n technologies for social monitoring. Many civil society actors inform citizens about their rights and __________________ 58 59 60 20/25 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 12. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 7 (2005), pa ra. 14. Keeping Promises, Measuring Results, 2011. Available from http://www.who.int/topics/ millennium_development_goals/accountability_commission/Commission_Report_advance_ copy.pdf. 15-12535