Fleas Biting: Intercountry Adoption Suspensions

Showing posts with label Intercountry Adoption Suspensions. Show all posts

Friday, February 22, 2008

Republic of Togo Suspends Child Adoption

On February 7, the Togolese government suspended all forms of child adoption due to problems in its adoption system. According to the government, courts granted adoptions on the basis of "abandonment judgments without any social inquiry" while overlooking adoption procedures. The President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe, asked the Minister of Social Actions and Minister of Justice, to create order in child adoption procedures, settle adoption within Togo in the interest of parties outside the country and clarify legal procedures for children’s law.

Usha

Togo Suspends Child Adoption, Mathaba News Agency, February 11, 2008

Togo: Togolese Government Suspends Child Adoption, allAfrica.com, February 8, 2008

Monday, November 05, 2007

Republic of Congo Suspends International Adoption

In the early days following the Chad scandal, the Republic of Congo has suspended all international adoptions in a move it calls a preventative measure. The Congolese minister in charge of justice and human rights, Aime Emmanuel Yoka, noted that Spanish citizens were crew members of the plane chartered by Zoe’s Ark, and that 17 Congolese children had been adopted by Spanish nationals since he took office in 2007. Yoka said:

“This doesn’t mean I am calling adoption into question; this is an institution
fixed by family law in Congo. I have a responsibility to ensure that in any case
only the interests of the adoptee are taken into consideration in the adoption
procedure.”

Yoka said that the Republic of Congo is checking into the welfare of the Congolese children who currently are in Spain by writing to the foreign minister inquiring about what has happened to these children.

Roger Bouka Owoko, the executive director of a human rights group in Congo, L’Observatoire Congolaise des Droits de l’Homme, commented that there is a lot of complicity and bungling in international adoption where adoption procedures often are not followed.

Marie-Claude Arnauld, a representative of a French adoption association, Childhood and Adoptive Families, expressed concern about the decision to suspend adoptions because some families are well into the process of adopting: “These families already know the children, and have their photos and details about them. For these families it’s going to be a tragedy.”

Usha

Anger at Chad ‘abduction’ fiasco may shut door on Africa adoptions, TimesOnline, November 3, 2007

Chad Arrests Prompt Suspension of International Child Adoption, UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, allAfrica.com, November 1, 2007

Republic of Congo suspends international adoptions following Chad scandal, International Herald Tribune, November 1, 2007

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Ireland Suspends Adoption From Guatemala Because of Child Trafficking Concerns

The Adoption Authority of Ireland has said that it will no longer permit applications for adoption from Guatemala to Ireland because of serious concerns about the corruption of the Guatemalan adoption process.

Previously approved Guatemala adoption petitions will, however, continue to be honored and those Guatemalan adoptions still-in-process will be allowed to be completed.

This temporary action is based on several stated concerns including the following:

the lack of a prohibition in Guatemalan law against improper payments at various stages of the adoption process

lack of a system in Guatemala to accredit adoption service providers

lack of a Guatemalan central authority to oversee and safeguard the integrity of intercountry adoption process

Guatemala to Ireland adoptions are not yet governed by the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoptions because neither party has both signed and fully implemented the treaty requirements.

Ireland has signed the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoption but has yet to ratify and implement it.

Although Guatemala had signed the Hague Treaty, its legal status within Guatemala was questioned in a series of Guatemalan court cases. On May 16, 2007, the Congress of Guatemala clarified Guatemala's status within the Hague and affirmed its intentions to implement it. However, implementation has been slow and Guatemala continues to fall seriously short of the standards of the Hague Treaty.

Desiree

More about Guatemala's status in regard to the Hague Convention

Temporary suspension of adoptions from Guatemala, The Irish Times, 16 August 2007

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Why These Fleas Bite

Desiree: In 1998 my husband David and I adopted a sibling group of two older girls from India.

Within six weeks of their arrival, our new daughters, who were severely emotionally traumatized, told us they had been stolen from their birthfamily.

For six long and difficult years, our agency, though asked to do so repeatedly, failed to investigate our daughters allegations.

Finally, on our own with the help of an Indian activist for the poor, we found our daughters' birthfamily and confirmed their disturbing story.

Despite all this there has yet to be so much as an apology from our agency, and certainly no justice. Not for our daughters. Not for our daughters' first parents. Not for ourselves.

It seems that NO ONE CARES about this crime.

Our US agency--which has not disputed the facts of the case--says that it bears no legal responsibility even if, like we say, they helped place stolen children in our home.

Our pleas to both the Indian and US governments have fallen on what appears to be deaf ears, and therefore, we assume, uncaring ears. The state office which licenses our agency has a phone machine for complaints; apparently they do not return phone calls--at least ours was never returned.

Meanwhile, the Indian orphanage director has been jailed three times on child trafficking related charges. He is currently trying to be relicensed yet again.

We have been left to ask the questions:

1) How could this have happened? Was our case simply a rare happenstance or could there be specific flaws--specific or systemic--in the system that have allowed/caused it to happen?

2) Why is it that no one cares about this kind of crime?

This blog represents some of the answers we've found to these questions. It also is shares the ongoing answers as we continue to learn.

Flea bites are simply individual incidents of exposing the reality of international adoption practices--one example, one practice, one analysis, one real-life experience, one proposed remedy, and one "big picture" at a time.

If our insignificant flea bites can save other families the extreme pain that our daughters, our daughters' first family, and our own family have endured, these flea bites will not be in vain.

To find out more about Desiree's family's adoption follow the following link. NPR's" Adoption in America Series: An Adoption Gone Wrong, July 24, 2007

Usha: When I adopted from India not that many years ago, I was ignorant about the adoption landscape.

I believed the adoption myth that adoption agencies are basically trustworthy and that with all the hoops adopters must jump through, there are sufficient checks and balances to ensure that adoptions are ethical.

After adopting, I began participating in the adoption community.

My eyes were opened by the racist attitudes and beliefs I observed in fellow adopters from India. I couldn't believe the dim view I saw many take of my children's country of birth, my own country of origin.

Where were the checks to ensure that children were adopted into non-racist families? Later, my eyes opened wider when I learned about scndal after scandal with the recurrent themes of: getting children "out," agencies willing to look the other way, laws that are good on paper, but that are not enforced and individuals advocating for reform simplistically painted as evil and "anti-adoption."

First, I thought adoption corruption was primarily specific to India. It didn't take long, however, to become aware of how pervasive adoption corruption is.

With that knowledge came a sense of obligation that as a participant in the system: no matter how unwitting, I owe it to my children to advocate for reform

Favorite Corruption Quotes

"It takes a certain level of arrogance, greed, and defiance to deal children for money"

--indirect quote attributed (by a reporter) to officials investigating the FOC Samoan case

"Smuggling human beings into the US for money is one of the most egreigious exploitations of our nation's immigration system."

--an official at the press conference announcing the indictment of FOC on Samoan adoption related charges

"What begins as fraudulent rarely can be legitimized."

--the US attorney speaking of the Samoan adoption cases

"We all have an intense need to know. And the strongest human force on Earth is a parent searching for their disappeared child."

--Eric Stover, director, Berkeley's Human Rights Center, speaking on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 02/15/07

“Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured”

--Thucydides, Ancient Greek historians and author, 460-404bc

“The more I learn, the more race, culture, and class stand out as the key issues behind ethical problems in adoption, domestically and internationally—the same issues are at play in both"
”

--Tesi Kohlenberg, Adoptive Parent

"Sending" Country Parent and Community Voices

Books by Adult Adoptees

A Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Roots by Katy Robinson
Even Tough Girls Wear Tutus: Inside the World of a Woman Born in Prison by Deborah Jiang Stein
Fugitive Visions, An Adoptee's Return to Korea by Jane Jeong Trenka
Identical Strangers, A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Lucky Girl by Mei-Ling Hopgood
Outer Search, Inner Journey: An Orphan and Adoptee's Quest by Peter Dodds
Outsiders Within, Writing on Transracial Adoption edited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin
The Language of Blood by Jane Jeong Trenka
The Unforgotten War: Dust of the Streets by Thomas Park Clement
Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter by Betty Jean Lifton