A/HRC/40/27 II. Empowerment through participation 6. Empowerment and decision-making are mutually reinforcing. Having a say and taking part in decisions concerning one’s own life and community promote agency and empowerment. At the same time, an enabling environment that fosters empowerment and the exercise of rights serves to strengthen participation and decision-making further. Participation is an ongoing process that includes information-sharing and dialogue between children and adults based on mutual respect, and in which children can learn how their views and those of adults are taken into account and shape the outcome of such processes. 2 The meaningful participation of children with disabilities in all matters affecting their lives is fundamental in the implementation of their rights, and should thus be at the heart of their empowerment. 3 It empowers children by helping them to build competence, skills and knowledge, expand aspirations and gain confidence. It also leads to the recognition on the part of duty bearers that children with disabilities are rights holders entitled to play an active role in their communities and in society at large. 4 Participation is a cross-cutting concept that is both a substantive right and a principle underlying the realization of all human rights of children with disabilities. A. Legal framework 7. Both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities set out a robust normative framework for the full and effective participation of children with disabilities in all decisions that affect them, whether they concern them individually or directly, regarding the entire range of their rights, including access to care, education, health, play or any other aspect of their life, or they relate to general policies relevant to all children, with or without disabilities. According to article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, States parties are to assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her views the right to express their views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the child’s age and maturity. This right reinforces the status of the child as an active participant in the promotion, protection and monitoring of his or her rights. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted the right to be heard under article 12 as one of the Convention’s fundamental values and general principles, along with the right to nondiscrimination, the right to life and development, and the primary consideration of the child’s best interests.5 8. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities builds on the language of article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by requiring States to ensure that children with disabilities have the right to express their views freely on all matters affecting them, their views being given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity, on an equal basis with other children, and to be provided with disability- and age-appropriate assistance to realize that right. It differs from the Convention on the Rights of the Child in that it does not refer to the child’s capability to form his or her views as a prerequisite to enjoy the right to be heard. This omission reflects the understanding that all children, regardless of their age and manner of communication, should be regarded as capable of forming views and, with appropriate support, conveying them. As stressed subsequently by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the young age or the impairment of a child does not deprive them of the right to express their views nor reduce the weight given to the child’s views in determining their interests. 6 2 3 4 5 6 Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 12 (2009) on the right of the child to be heard, para. 3. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 7, paras. 24–26, 33 and 74. Ibid., paras. 24–26 and 74. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 12, para. 2. Ibid., para. 21. 3