Madonna loses adoption bid in Malawi
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Madonna loses adoption bid in Malawi
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer 04.03.09
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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Malawi’s courts rejected the application of pop star Madonna to adopt a second child from that country, a decision that reignited the debate about what is in the best interests of that country’s 2 million orphaned children.
In its decision, Malawian Judge Esme Chombo rejected Madonna’s adoption petition for four-year old Mercy James, noting that Malawian law makes no provision for intercountry adoption and that it requires prospective parents to be residents of Malawi for at least 18 months.
Madonna’s previous adoption of a young boy named David Banda, in 2006, was controversial precisely because it appeared to sidetrack Malawian law. The adoption of young David, now 4 years old, was formalized in London in 2008.
Child rights activists hailed Friday’s decision.
“I think this suggests that the government of Malawi realized that it needs to set up a system to protect children,” says Karen Manda, chief of child protection for UNICEF in Malawi.
“This is not personal,” Ms. Manda says. “Not everyone who wants to adopt a child is as famous as Madonna. Unknown people can come to Malawi – they could be involved in the trafficking of children, they could be pedophiles. If you were adopting in your home country, you would have to go through an adoption agency, and the agency would screen you and deem you to have the character required to raise a child.”
Yet, Madonna’s bid to adopt a second child had the official support of members of the Malawian government.
”We have close to 2 million orphans in Malawi who need help,” Women and Child Welfare Development Minister Anna Kachikho told The Associated Press before the court decision. ”We can’t look after all of them as a country. If people like Madonna adopt even one such orphan, it’s one mouth less we have to feed.”
In 2006, critics, including a coalition of human rights groups called Human Rights Consultative Committee, had lambasted Madonna’s first adoption, of David Banda, saying that the singer had used her wealth and fame to set aside normal adoption procedures.
In court, Madonna’s lawyers had argued that the singer wanted to adopt Mercy James to spare her the “hardship and emotional trauma” of growing up an orphan in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. The young girl had been given up to an orphanage by her grandmother after the child’s mother died after childbirth at the age of 14; the father’s identity is unknown.
Madonna has the option of appealing the court’s decision at the Supreme Court level.
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/04/03/madonna-loses-adoption-bid-in-malawi/
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer 04.03.09
Print this
Letter to the Editor
Republish
Email and share
Get e-mail alerts
RSS
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Malawi’s courts rejected the application of pop star Madonna to adopt a second child from that country, a decision that reignited the debate about what is in the best interests of that country’s 2 million orphaned children.
In its decision, Malawian Judge Esme Chombo rejected Madonna’s adoption petition for four-year old Mercy James, noting that Malawian law makes no provision for intercountry adoption and that it requires prospective parents to be residents of Malawi for at least 18 months.
Madonna’s previous adoption of a young boy named David Banda, in 2006, was controversial precisely because it appeared to sidetrack Malawian law. The adoption of young David, now 4 years old, was formalized in London in 2008.
Child rights activists hailed Friday’s decision.
“I think this suggests that the government of Malawi realized that it needs to set up a system to protect children,” says Karen Manda, chief of child protection for UNICEF in Malawi.
“This is not personal,” Ms. Manda says. “Not everyone who wants to adopt a child is as famous as Madonna. Unknown people can come to Malawi – they could be involved in the trafficking of children, they could be pedophiles. If you were adopting in your home country, you would have to go through an adoption agency, and the agency would screen you and deem you to have the character required to raise a child.”
Yet, Madonna’s bid to adopt a second child had the official support of members of the Malawian government.
”We have close to 2 million orphans in Malawi who need help,” Women and Child Welfare Development Minister Anna Kachikho told The Associated Press before the court decision. ”We can’t look after all of them as a country. If people like Madonna adopt even one such orphan, it’s one mouth less we have to feed.”
In 2006, critics, including a coalition of human rights groups called Human Rights Consultative Committee, had lambasted Madonna’s first adoption, of David Banda, saying that the singer had used her wealth and fame to set aside normal adoption procedures.
In court, Madonna’s lawyers had argued that the singer wanted to adopt Mercy James to spare her the “hardship and emotional trauma” of growing up an orphan in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. The young girl had been given up to an orphanage by her grandmother after the child’s mother died after childbirth at the age of 14; the father’s identity is unknown.
Madonna has the option of appealing the court’s decision at the Supreme Court level.
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/04/03/madonna-loses-adoption-bid-in-malawi/