Prime Minister Says Children Should be Seen and Not Heard

Prime Minister Says Children Should be Seen and Not Heard

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, recently announced that children of that nation should be excluded from all political activities. Quoted in the Indian newspaper The Daily Star, Hasina said that “Children would be aware of politics but should not be used in political activities.”

She made her proclamation in association with World Children’s Day and Child Rights Week 2009, suggesting that her nation’s actions were tied to its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This remarkable claim demonstrates how radically international human rights laws diverge...