Legal rights for adopted children stressed

Legal rights for adopted children stressed

Our Correspondent, Barisal
A workshop on child rights held in Barisal on Thursday afternoon called for giving legal rights for the adopted children and forming laws in favour of ensuring their social and financial security in future.
The programme was organised by Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) with assistances from Association of Voluntary Assistances for Society (AVAS) at the Celebration Point Auditorium of the city under caption of 'Withdrawal of reservation on Article 21 of Child Right Convention in Bangladesh'.
The workshop aimed at soliciting, without any pre-conceived ideas and opinions of the experts present, so country may arrive at a solution to protect children who are the future and hope our country.
Md. Kafiluddin, director, BSAF, gave the welcome address and Prof. Shahnaz Huda of law department of Dhaka University and consultant of Networking and Advocacy For Child Rights(NACR) project of BSAF presented a study report on the topics as facilitator and moderator of the workshop.
Rahima Sultana Kajol, executive director of AVAS presided over the program participated by more than 40 representatives from child organization, non-government organizations, religious leaders of Muslim, Hindu, Christian Communities, advocates, journalists, doctors, government officials, police and other professions.
The participants discussed the role of Bangladesh as one of the foremost countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) of 1989 declared National Children Policy in 1998 recognizing the basic rights of children in the country.
However Bangladesh when ratifying the CRC expressed its reservation to Article 21, which deals with adoption within and outside the country and now it needs to be withdrawal of that reservation to ensure social and economical security of the adopted child
The participants on this point called for introducing laws irrespective of religion to protect the rights of adopted child, who also may be a victim of war, natural calamities, family disputes, and validating their rights on property as member and inheritance of the adopted family to ensure social and financial security in future life.