When children pay for the sins of adults

Comment by UAI - The EU pro adoption lobby like Maud de Boer-Buquicchio Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Jean-Marie Cavada and adoptin mother Claire Gibault members of the EU Parlement are on their way to promote Intercountry Adoption without making any progress of condemning effectively malpractices. They still are not willing to work on necesarry international criminal laws to prevent illegal practices and make the recent practices punishable.

Besides this, the use of arguments which are used by children protection organisations and 'adoption watchers like the UAI are in favor to sharpen existing laws due the fact that they do not protect parents nor their children against childtrafficking, abuse and (State) negligence.

The recent attempt of French humanitarian workers to take a group of children out of Chad for adoption in France may have been well intentioned, but missed their cause and has been extremely harmful and painful - for all parties involved.

Humanitarian workers have bailed out of heavy prison sentences, and the prospective adoptive parents in France, saw their hopes and joyful expectations dashed. Then there are the children. It would appear that some of them are not orphans and the most of them returned to their families, while the future is more uncertain for others. They are certainly all without exception, exhausted, confused and traumatized by this whole experience.

Moreover, this case has worsened, with respect for international adoptions, the mistrust that has prompted some countries, including Europe, to prohibit by law. Certainly, in terms of adoption, national and international laws are not always followed to the letter. This attitude is sometimes due to ignorance, sometimes incompetence, and often the desire of some couples to adopt a child at any cost. It is also true that sometimes adoption procedures are diverted by traffickers of human beings who are fortune by exploiting the misery and despair of people.

Even if the problem is real, the solution will not come to a ban on international adoptions. Such a ban punishes children for the sins - even crimes – of adults.

When no family of their country of origin is able to take them, the ban deprives them of any chance of being adopted. Thus, children who might find the love of a family in another country are forced to grow up in an institution or a foster family in their country of origin. In short, such a prohibition violates the most fundamental principles meant to guide government decisions in all matters concerning children, to act in the best interests of the child.

To make matters worse, experience has shown that a ban has little impact, if any, in the fight against human traffickers. At best, it increases their profit margin and motivates them to use more aggressive resources, more barbaric and less scrupulous in their criminality. Instead of resorting to simplistic solutions, ineffective and even harmful, government should analyse the problems and weaknesses of procedures that currently govern the national and international adoptions, and cooperate more closely to strengthening safeguards and the prevention of malfunctions and diversions.

Countries that have already introduced a ban, should review their procedures and gradually restore the possibilities of Intercountry Adoption. Governments of member countries of the European Union and the Council of Europe should work more closely to the definition of safe and legitimate solutions, to guarantee the right to a family for orphans and abandoned children. They should do so on the basis of existing international legal instruments of the EU and the Council of Europe, but also, if necessary, consider whether to adopt new ones.

There are strong arguments in favor of European adoptions, based on standards defined jointly, in order to facilitate adoptions within the European area where domestic adoption is impossible or less favorable in the interest of the child.

http://www.lesoir.be/forum/cartes_blanches/carte-blanche-quand-les-2008-06-16-606425.shtml