Date: 02/13/18
How many families of European countries go abroad to adopt a child, and could do so in Europe, that is, at home, without spending considerable long and absurd bureaucratic stays abroad?
But above all, how many minors living in communities and educational institutions in the various European countries may find a family in any country in Europe, if we consider that only in Italy there would be 2,300 children currently adoptable?
After the news from the Ministry of Justice of the signing of (February 15) the executive decree activatingf the database of adoptable children and adoptive couples available – which is now awaiting publication – a new challenge starts for the associations for the defense of children’s rights.
We know that when, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty in force since December 2009, the promotion of the protection of children’s rights was officially included in the objectives of the European Union, the treatment of children in each of the Member States is no longer only an internal affair.
The European institutions are in fact called upon to play a key role in promoting the protection of these rights, among them are those of the vulnerable group of abandoned children and therefore adoptable.
But how many European countries have a database for the adoption, such as is compulsory in Italy by Law no.149/2001 art. 40?
This is the very first point from which to begin to think about a future of a Europe in which there is a greater cohesion between the Member Countries and in which discrimination in the treatment of children from one country to another is effectively eliminated.
If it is true that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a heritage shared by all Member States, as this – applied in accordance with UN guidelines – recognizes the right of children to live within a stable family, and not to remain within institutions except on a temporary basis, you need to now take steps to ensure that throughout Europe there are reliable data on adoptable children.
And it is necessary for every European country to be able to collect and manage data on these children waiting to be welcomed and people willing to adopt them. These data, when available, should also be accessible by the European institutions in order to make possible combinations within Europe where in the country of residence of the child there is not a family ready to welcome it.
“At a time of great demographic contraction in several European countries – alerts the President of Ai.Bi., Marco Griffini – it is unthinkable that adoptions remain a private matter of a couple and individual EU member states. ” “It is important – alerts Griffini – to ensure that European children have as many chances as possible to find a family within the territory of its citizenship, then in Europe. We need a new era where you do not speak only of national and international adoption, but also of European adoptions. To do this it is necessary that all European countries should establish databases for adoption. Now, thanks to the establishment of our database, Italy has won the title of leader for this new initiative in this direction. Ai.Bi. is already working to set up a working group with the major European associations for the protection of children’s rights. ”
