December. Ashgabat. Four o’clock in the morning. At this hour, children should be asleep. Warm. Safe. Instead, two very young children were brought out at night, into the cold, to welcome the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, during his official visit to Turkmenistan. While adult members of the delegation and state protocol were warmly dressed, the children stood lightly clothed. Not by their own will. Not by their own choice. Who decided that young children could be part of a state protocol? Who authorized waking them at four in the morning for a political image? Who took responsibility for their health and safety? This is not tradition. This is not respect. This is a violation of children’s rights. Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the best interests of the child must always come first — not the interests of the state, not the image of power, not television cameras. A child is not required to freeze for a political visit. A child is not required to participate in official ceremonies of adults. A child is not a symbol and not a prop. No adult, regardless of status or position, has an automatic right to touch children or to use them in public political rituals. When state power uses children to project loyalty or image, it does not demonstrate strength — it demonstrates contempt for childhood. Children should be sleeping at four o’clock in the morning. And adults should be held accountable for their decisions.
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