Letter Dutch Minister of Justice - Dutch Parliament

To the chairman of the Second Chamber

Motive

The newspaper Trouw and a broadcast from EO Network on March 11, 2008 both focused on international adoption from China. The story which emerged is:

-- Certain Child Welfare Centres in China, from which children are available for international adoption, may have paid for these children as bought commodities;

- Adopted children may have been removed from their parents by the Chinese government under the one-child policy and then been made available for international adoption;

-- That it is not a question of a few dozen children, but of approximately 1000 children who are involved in child trafficking

-- Also was claimed that it could not be ruled out that some of these children came to the Netherlands ( as well as other countries) through international adoption;

Based on the foregoing, the conclusion was made that the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) may have misled Dutch authorities.

In response to this notice member Anker asked for my written response, which request I herewith respond.

Considerations following the report

I take the report very seriously. The report depicts a worrisome situation. And of course, a situation where there is talk of child trafficking and of children taken from their parents and made available for international adoption is not acceptable.

In order to evaluate whether such a situation is the case, I will ask the Chinese authorities for clarification. An important element in international adoption is trust. As Central Authority, I have to have confidence that other Central Authorities take their own responsibilities. There should be no doubt about that confidence. If that confidence is affected, then that will have unavoidable consequences for the further application of international adoption.

Secondly, I would like to warn against the making of elaborate foregone conclusions before the investigation is completed. In my view, missing from is a reaction from the Chinese authorities, including the CCAA. In contacts with the CCAA in 2006 and 2007 we perceived in CCAA the image of an organization with the intention to 'clean its own house'. In 2005 when the atrocities were found in Hunan, CCAA itself intervened and ensured that persons who were found guilty of child trafficking were sentenced.

Furthermore, my department also knows several examples where the CCAA, fully in line with the principles of the Hague Convention, have acted to support the return of children to their own parents or be placed with foster parents and grandparents.

In the light of this, and combined with the fact that the CCAA very recently has expressed that since 2006 no new negative developments have occurred, I conclude that first CCAA should be afforded the opportunity to respond to the penetrating questions demanded by the Dutch television report. At the moment I see no reason for drastic measures. If I would, then I would have to take into account the possibility that if the reporting is not correct, China, on their part, may have problems with the continuation of inter-country adoption with our country

Approach

Given the need to obtain clarification, I will first approach the Chinese authorities. I will do that by asking the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which among other things is responsible for the CCAA, for clarification. With this I will stress the seriousness of the issue; there will be guarantees then that this issue will be looked at some distance.

At the same time, I think that in the near future there will be a high-level official visit to China in order to see, in consultation with the CCAA, which possibilities there are for short-term additional safeguards to ensure that the children referred for adoption to Dutch families are in fact available for adoption in conformity with the Hague Convention.

Finally, in compliance with my earlier announced plans to deepen international cooperation, I want to contact the Central Authorities of the other 'receiving' countries which admit children from China for adoption. I wish to involve them in the procedure as I have outlined above. As you will understand these activities will take some time.

I shall strive to inform your Chamber on May 1, 2008.

SIGNED

The Minister of Justice,