14 July 2014
ACT hereby draws attention to the serious risks that exist for child trafficking for intercountry adoption.
The below quote is from the ISS report of April 2014 that was drafted at the request of the Danish Government:
Hague ratification does not mean total absence of risks.
As stated in the introduction of the ISS/IRC study about the grey zones of Intercountry adoption, “after eighteen years of practice, it seems that THC-93 has started to suffer from “too good a reputation”. In fact, its ratification, especially by a country of origin, is too often seen as a “guarantee of good practice” by many actors. Because receiving countries often assume that a Hague adoption procedure encompasses all the necessary guarantees for the child and his/her family’s safety, receiving States are often tempted to not look beyond what is said in the child’s file.
Daily routine, difficulties in cross-checking information about the child, the speed of the process once the matching is proposed can make people in charge less attentive to risks when dealing with a contracting State. (…) The THC-93, as a private international law instrument, does not aim to cover all issues surrounding the adoption process, especially the different steps taking place before the child enters the adoption system.
For instance, if official documents declare that a child is an orphan, but in reality, the child was stolen from his/her parents, the THC-93 is of no use in this case, as it does not cover the questions of birth registration and civil registry”
The full ISS Report can be read HERE
For more information about the Hague Adoption Convention:
THE PERVERSE EFFECTS OF THE HAGUE ADOPTION CONVENTION
R. Post, 2008
This article was first published in Dutch in November 2008, in Justitiële verkenningen 2008/07, title: Adoption under Fire (page 25-37). Justitiële Verkenningen (Judicial explorations) is published eight times a year by the Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice in cooperation with Boom Juridische uitgevers.
ADOPTION LOBBY ALERT is an initiative of Against Child Trafficking. We are closely monitoring the Adoption Industry.
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