ACERWC African Committee of Experts on the Rights & Welfare of the Child Member States • Countries of origin should put in place legislative and other measures that are focused on ensuring that children are not forced to migrate. This can be done by measures such as providing mechanisms to fight poverty, ensuring access to education and health facilities and taking steps to prevent conflicts. • Transit and destination countries should put in place legislative and policy measures that protect and promote the human rights of the children on the move. For instance, border control measures should not include detention of children and children on the move should not be subjected to discrimination or torture. Social and economic goods such as food, health services including sexual and reproductive rights and education in countries of transit and destination should be availed to children on the move. • Deliberations, policy and legislative initiatives on migration in countries of origin, transit and destination should take into consideration opportunities available to end peculiar challenges faced by children on the move. The deliberations, policy and legislative initiatives should be undertaken through a transparent, accountable and participatory process. • Pursuant to the principle of non-refoulement, transit and destination countries should ensure that children are not returned or taken to a country where their rights may be violated. Moreover, children on the move should not be returned or removed from a transit or destination country as a punitive measure. • States must recognise all persons under the age of 18 as children notwithstanding their immigration status and should not allow enforcement of immigration policies in a manner that is inconsistent with the best interests of a child and should ensure that immigration officers are properly trained in order to ensure that best interests of the child are protected in the course of enforcement of immigration policies. • State Parties should take measures to identity the pusch and pull factors that result in the movement of children that could potentially endganger their rights and welfare and adopt measures to prevent such movements by addressing the drivers that are not in the best interst of the child. • States of origin, transit and destination should put in place transnational measures of child welfare agencies to ensure that rights of children are protected and to guarantee that administrative hiccups or challenges due to differences in approach to immigration processes do not lead to violation of children on the move. For instance, there should be coordinated establishment of common regional policies for the administration of migration within Regional Economic Communities taking into consideration peculiarities of circumstances in different states. • States of origin, transit and destination should strengthen measures to combat 6