Public Health Perspective

International Child Adoption during Conflicts or Natural Disasters

By ANNE GIRAULT

International adoptions emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War, when American families would adopt orphans from the devastated European continent. Since then it has become a global phenomenon, with families from developed countries seeking to adopt children from poor or developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. In a situation of war or natural disaster, adoption cannot always be done according to regulations. For example, following the communist era the European Union discovered that Romania, flawed by widespread corruption, was selling children to foreign families. In addition, 200 000 children were left in an inextricable situation, unadoptable as long as their biological parents had not surrendered their legal rights, as required by the law. More recently, the tsunami of 2004 triggered a rise in demands for adoption. But many countries decided to suspend international adoption for a time, fearing a surge in illegal adoptions, and child trafficking. Conditions did not enable adoptions to occur within the legal framework of the Hague Convention. Similarly, demands for adoption boomed in Haiti after the earthquake of 2010. Again, the United Nations feared that child trafficking, which was already a problem in Haiti before the disaster, would be encouraged. It is not clear how many children were taken after the earthquake. Moreover, the French government, attempting to tackle the urgency of the situation, shortened adoption processes. However issues were raised regarding the children’s mental health, children who were to go through sudden and drastic changes with no preparation right after the trauma of the disaster.

What is being done to respect the children’s interests?

There is considerable growing concern about the number of practices which do not respect the interests of the children, child trafficking being the most alarming. Such practices include the buying and selling of children (where the money spent on these transactions does not correspond to the professional services required in adoption procedures) as well as, in some cases, illegal practices such as faking documents, ignoring laws and regulations, pressuring  parents and authorities in the country of origin, and abducting children. Besides the obvious ethical objections to such practices the consequence is that, on a worldwide scale, the children that are being adopted are not necessarily in need of adoption, which violates their rights.

Children’s rights or the right to a child?

Children have rights. These rights are laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. Children and their biological parents have a right to respect for their family life.  A child who has been separated from his/her father and/or mother has a right to a permanent life project, preferably within a family environment. The child’s interests must be given top priority in any adoption which must respect his fundamental rights.

The prospective adoptive parents also have rights including the right to be informed, the right to receive support, and the right to financial transparency. Nevertheless, even if the suffering of a number of infertile prospective adoptive parents is taken into account, no one ever holds “the right to adopt”. If this existed it would imply the right over another human being who would become an “object” of the right of the adopting candidates. The needs of the children themselves, and not those of the adults, form the only legitimate basis for adoption. A prospective adoptive parent therefore cannot claim to be entitled to a child if no child needs to be adopted.

Principle of double subsidiarity

In accordance with the international conventions already mentioned, adoption is subsidiary to the child’s maintenance in or his/her biological family, even if outside help (financial, medical, social, psychological or community aid) is needed. Intercountry adoption is subsidiary to the adoption of the child by a family from his/her native country (national adoption). All countries, whether they are receiving or of origin, have the obligation to take proactive measures in order to guarantee each child the respect of this double subsidiarity and enable him or her, as far as possible and in his/her interest, to be offered (as a priority) the option to stay with or go back to his/her family of origin, and if this is not possible, to be adopted in his/her country of origin, before an intercountry adoption is envisaged.

Nevertheless, recent events suggest that these rights are not always respected.

Adoption controversies

 An article published in the Economist in 2010 about international adoption entitled “Saviours or Kidnappers?” highlighted different stories where children’s rights were not respected.  In Haiti, the New Life Children’s Refuge (a Christian group from Idaho, USA) decided to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic where they apparently hoped to build an orphanage with paperwork or official permission. Ten of the group’s members were arrested on charges of kidnapping. Many of the children turned out to have families. Several other examples of this type of practice occurring around the world were given. The author recalls that “the sentiment behind intercountry adoption may sound noble and often is” but the fact remains that intercountry adoptions happen in a fuzzy and sometimes murky world.

Worries about intercountry adoptions

One worry is that demand creates supply. Outsiders’ money can distort the decisions of officials and parents in poor countries. This may hamper chances of the most desirable outcome where children are fostered by relatives or adopted locally. Very few children described as orphans have no living relatives. If they move to another country, their chances of staying in touch with family members shrivel.

Another worry is that they disappear from view when they cross international borders. International law stipulates that reports on the adopted child should be sent regularly to the source country.

What should be done to secure international adoption?

Some situations could be qualified as “high-risk situations” when a country is experiencing a period of armed conflict, natural disaster or even socio-political upheaval and economic crisis. The heightened vulnerability of the children and their families, coupled with a sometimes sensationalist stance by the media and a surge of outsiders seeking to help, constitutes a breeding ground for abuse and malpractice in intercountry adoption. Abuses are, not surprisingly, more likely in countries where no effective legislation and administrative structures and/or no coherent and workable child and family welfare policy are in place. A couple actions could be put forward so that international adoptions in “high-risk” context could be secured.

1. Temporary protection measures are needed until all efforts have been made to trace families and it is formally established that the child is adoptable. Responding to the emergency situation in Rwanda in 1994, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement: “Children in an emergency context are not available for adoption. Since most unaccompanied children are not orphans, what they need is suitable interim care with a view to possible reunification with their families, not adoption.” Adoption should not be considered unless a reasonable time (normally at least two years) has passed during which all feasible steps to trace parents or other surviving family members have been taken.
2. Once it has been determined that a child is “adoptable”, consideration must be given to the possibility of placing the child with his/her extended family and, in the case of refugee children, within the refugee community or with families in the child’s native country. Intercountry adoption should only be contemplated after repatriation and other placement options have been excluded.

To conclude, we can understand that international adoption in complex situations such as during conflicts or post natural disasters is very tricky to deal with. While prospective parents are desperately looking for children, additional efforts should be made to secure children to make sure that those well-meaning parents to be do not become “kidnappers” instead of “saviours”.