DOCSLIB.ORG

CJ/ENF-ISE(2020)Inf3prov

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
CJ/ENF-ISE(2020)Inf3prov Strasbourg, 9 September 2020 CJ/ENF-ISE(2020)INF3prov Committee of Experts on the Rights and the Best interests of the Child in Parental Separation and in Care Proceedings (CJ/ENF-ISE) First meeting (24-25 September 2020) Agenda item 6. Best interests of the child in care proceedings – compilation of excerpts of relevant international and European instruments [email protected] www.coe.int/enf-ise Table of contents 1. International and European legal instruments ....................................................................... 3 a. International treaties ................................................................................................................... 3 b. European treaties ........................................................................................................................14 i. Council of Europe ............................................................................................................................................. 14 ii. European Union ................................................................................................................................................ 20 c. Council of Europe recommendations and resolutions ....................................................................24 i. Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Recommendations ....................................................................... 24 ii. Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Resolutions .................................................................................. 33 d. International and European judgments ........................................................................................38 2. Relevant International and European Guidance................................................................... 59 a. United Nations ............................................................................................................................60 b. Council of Europe ........................................................................................................................63 2 The best interests of the child in care proceedings 1. International and European legal instruments a. International treaties UN General Assembly, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), 1989. [Available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx ] Article 3: 1. In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration. 2. States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures. 3. States Parties shall ensure that the institutions, services and facilities responsible for the care or protection of children shall conform with the standards established by competent authorities, particularly in the areas of safety, health, in the number and suitability of their staff, as well as competent supervision. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), General Comment No. 14 (2013) on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration (art. 3, para. 1). [Available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/crc/docs/GC/CRC_C_GC_14_ENG.pdf ] Paragraph 56: Regarding religious and cultural identity, for example, when considering a foster home or placement for a child, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background (art. 20, para. 3), and the decision-maker must take into consideration this specific context when assessing and determining the child's best interests. The same applies in cases of adoption, separation from or divorce of parents. Due consideration of the child's best interests implies that children have access to the culture (and language, if possible) of their country and family of origin, and the opportunity to access information about their biological family, in accordance with the legal and professional regulations of the given country (see art. 9, para. 4). Paragraph 58: The Committee recalls that it is indispensable to carry out the assessment and determination of the child’s best interests in the context of potential separation of a child from his or her parents (arts. 9, 18 and 20). It also underscores that the elements mentioned above are concrete rights and not only elements in the determination of the best interests of the child. Paragraph 60: Preventing family separation and preserving family unity are important components of the child protection system, and are based on the right provided for in article 9, paragraph 1, which requires “that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when [...] such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child”. Furthermore, the child who is separated from one or both parents is entitled “to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child’s best interests” (art. 9, para. 3). This also extends to any person holding custody rights, legal or customary primary caregivers, foster parents and persons with whom the child has a strong personal relationship. 3 Paragraph 63: Likewise, a child may not be separated from his or her parents on the grounds of a disability of either the child or his or her parents. Separation may be considered only in cases where the necessary assistance to the family to preserve the family unit is not effective enough to avoid a risk of neglect or abandonment of the child or a risk to the child’s safety. Paragraph 64: In case of separation, the State must guarantee that the situation of the child and his or her family has been assessed, where possible, by a multidisciplinary team of well-trained professionals with appropriate judicial involvement, in conformity with article 9 of the Convention, ensuring that no other option can fulfil the child’s best interests. Paragraph 65: When separation becomes necessary, the decision-makers shall ensure that the child maintains the linkages and relations with his or her parents and family (siblings, relatives and persons with whom the child has had strong personal relationships) unless this is contrary to the child’s best interests. The quality of the relationships and the need to retain them must be taken into consideration in decisions on the frequency and length of visits and other contact when a child is placed outside the family. Paragraph 67: The Committee is of the view that shared parental responsibilities are generally in the child's best interests. However, in decisions regarding parental responsibilities, the only criterion shall be what is in the best interests of the particular child. It is contrary to those interests if the law automatically gives parental responsibilities to either or both parents. In assessing the child's best interests, the judge must take into consideration the right of the child to preserve his or her relationship with both parents, together with the other elements relevant to the case. Paragraph 70: Preservation of the family environment encompasses the preservation of the ties of the child in a wider sense. These ties apply to the extended family, such as grandparents, uncles/aunts as well friends, school and the wider environment and are particularly relevant in cases where parents are separated and live in different places. Article 9 1. States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately, and a decision must be made as to the child's place of residence. 2. In any proceedings pursuant to paragraph 1 of the present article, all interested parties shall be given an opportunity to participate in the proceedings and make their views known. 3. States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests. 4. Where such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party, such as the detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation or death (including death arising from any cause while the person is in the custody of the State) of one or both parents or of the child, that State Party shall, upon request, provide the parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the family with the essential information concerning the whereabouts of the absent member(s) of the family unless the provision of the information would be detrimental to the well-being of the child. States Parties shall further ensure that the submission of such a request shall of itself entail no adverse consequences for the person(s) concerned. Article 12 1. States Parties shall assure to the child who
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnaping, and Stealing Children
    CHILD LAUNDERING: HOW THE INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION SYSTEM LEGITIMIZES AND INCENTIVIZES THE PRACTICES OF BUYING, TRAFFICKING, KIDNAPING, AND STEALING CHILDREN DAVID M. SMOLIN† Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ...................................... 115 II. THE INCIDENCE OF CHILD BUYING, STEALING, KIDNAPING, AND TRAFFICKING WITHIN THE INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION SYSTEM ... 117 A. Methods of Operation ............................. 117 1. Child Buying Scenario I ......................... 118 2. Child Buying Scenario II ........................ 119 3. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Scenario I: Kidnaping Children Placed into Orphanages, Hostels, or Schools for Purposes of Education or Care ................... 119 4. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Scenario II: Obtaining Children Through False Pretenses ........................ 121 5. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Children Scenario III: Lost Children ................................... 121 6. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Scenario IV: Traditional Kidnaping .................................. 122 7. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Scenario V: Intra-Familial Kidnaping .................................. 123 8. Child Stealing/Kidnaping Scenario VI: “Your Money or Your Baby:” Taking Children in Payment of a Debt .... 124 B. Extreme Poverty and Sending Nations .................. 124 C. Cycles of Abuse .................................. 132 D. Stories of Abuse: Tracking Child Laundering Within Various Sending Nations ................................. 135 1. Cambodia ................................... 135 2. India .....................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Transnational Illegal Adoption Market
    The transnational illegal adoption market Citation for published version (APA): Loibl, E. C. (2019). The transnational illegal adoption market: A criminological study of the German and Dutch intercountry adoption systems. Eleven International publishing. https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20190515el Document status and date: Published: 01/01/2019 DOI: 10.26481/dis.20190515el Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sale of Children and Illegal Adoption
    THE SALE OF CHILDREN AND ILLEGAL ADOPTION NIGEL CANTWELL THE SALE OF CHILDREN AND ILLEGAL ADOPTION COLOPHON © Terre des Hommes Netherlands, 2017 The sale of children and illegal adoption November 2017 Author: Nigel Cantwell Layout: Nettl Den Haag Cover photo: Terre des Hommes This publication has been made in assignment of Terre des Hommes in cooperation with Defence for Children-ECPAT The Netherlands. Terre des Hommes Netherlands Zoutmanstraat 42-44, 2518 GS Den Haag The Netherlands Tel: +31 (70) 3105000 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.tdh.nl Nigel Cantwell is an international consultant on child protection. He first became concerned about illegalities in intercountry adoption in the 1980s when he was working with Defence for Children International (DCI) and coordinating the inputs of the NGO Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child into the drafting of that treaty. Since then, he has undertaken assessment missions on adoption systems in a wide range of countries and he has authored many articles on the protection of children’s rights in alternative care and adoption. Terre des Hommes Netherlands prevents child exploitation, removes children from exploitative situations and ensures children can develop in a safe environment. Terre des Hommes works towards a world where all children have a decent life and can grow up to be independent adults. A world in which children are no longer exploited. Terre des Hommes will continue its work until this is accomplished. 1 4.B.ii. Moratoria imposed by receiving countries 36 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4.C. Current conditions for a “perfect storm” in intercountry adoption 39 4.C.i.
    [Show full text]
  • The ECHR and Private Intercountry Adoptions in Germany and the Netherlands: Lessons Learned from Campanelli and Paradiso V
    This article from Family & Law is published by Boom juridisch and made available to anonieme bezoeker The ECHR and Private Intercountry Adoptions in Germany and the Netherlands: Lessons Learned from Campanelli and Paradiso v. Italy ARTICLE The ECHR and Private Intercountry Adoptions in Germany and the Netherlands: Lessons Learned from Campanelli and Paradiso v. Italy E.C. Loibl* 1. Introduction Within the past couple of years, numerous reports about abusive practices within the intercountry adoption system emerged. Children were purchased from their impoverished families, or abducted from their homes, the streets, or orphanages.1 Vulnerable birth parents were coerced or deceived in order to obtain their consent for an adoption.2 Birth certificates and other documents that are necessary for an adoption were falsified or fabricated to hide the children’s origin.3 Government officials or judges in the sending countries were being bribed to approve a fraudu- lent intercountry adoption.4 The intercountry adoption system has an intrinsically criminogenic character: the great imbalance between the demand for and the sup- ply of adoptable babies, combined with the large sums of Western money, incite greedy actors in poor countries to illegally obtain children for adoption and tempt even humanitarian organizations into abusive conduct.5 This renders intercountry adoption conducive to abuses. Private intercountry adoptions, meaning adoptions that adopters pursue without the involvement of an accredited adoption agency and the authorities in the receiv- ing country, are particularly prone to abuses.6 This is why the 1993 Hague Conven- tion on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adop- tion (‘Hague Convention’), which was adopted with the aim to tackle illegal and commercial practices within the intercountry adoption system,7 prohibits them * Elvira Loibl is Assistant Professor Criminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Maastricht.
    [Show full text]
  • Ius Gentium Conimbrigae/Human Rights Centre) European Master´S Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation A.Y
    UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA (PORTUGAL) (Ius Gentium Conimbrigae/Human Rights Centre) European Master´s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation A.Y. 2013/2014 “THE CASES OF `STOLEN CHILDREN´ IN SPAIN AND IRELAND: Curtailing the most suitable legal framework on the fight for `real´ identities” Author: Marta Trenado Díaz Supervisors: Professor Jónatas Machado and Carla Marcelino Gomes “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” ― Mahatma Gandhi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To all those mothers and `stolen children´ who gave me the opportunity to join to the fight for their cause, who welcomed me with open arms, offering me their help and showing me their indefatigable efforts to achieve general public awareness and accountability. To Carla Marcelino Gomes, who trained me in my first attempt to write this thesis and encouraged me and support me in every decision I took. A special word of thanks to the E.ma Master who provided me the chance to meet such amazing people, who shared with me these months of long- nights without sleeping, and who were always there for me, offering kind words, a huge smile and a warm hug . Especially to `la famiglia´ for the love and happiness they brought to my life since I met them in this Master. My special thanks to my parents and family, who gave me the opportunity to be where I am, to study what I always wished to and for their blindly trust in me; specially to my mother Inés M., who gave me the enough confidence to go through all the moments I felt overwhelmed and took care of me showing me the light at the end of the tunnel.
    [Show full text]
  • Adoption and Child Trafficking: Structural Violence in the International Adoption System
    Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 2014 Adoption and Child Trafficking: Structural Violence in the International Adoption System Vanessa Virgiel Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Virgiel, Vanessa, "Adoption and Child Trafficking: Structural Violence in the International Adoption System" (2014). University Honors Theses. Paper 114. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.116 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Adoption and Child Trafficking: Structural Violence in the International Adoption System by Vanessa Virgiel An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in University Honors and Applied Linguistics, Arts & Letters, and Liberal Studies Thesis Adviser Dr. Kimberley Brown Portland State University 2014 i Adoption and Child Trafficking: Structural Violence in the International Adoption System © 2014 Vanessa Virgiel ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I must thank my thesis adviser, Dr. Kim Brown of the Applied Linguistics department. She has been a mentor to me ever since I enrolled at Portland State, and her unceasing guidance and support since then has helped shaped the trajectory of my academic career in ways I never anticipated when I first returned to school. I owe thanks to Dr. Ann Marie Fallon and Nora Quiros of the Honors College; their flexibility and patience through this process allowed me to change course and pursue a topic of research I was passionate about.
    [Show full text]
  • Study on High-Risk Groups for Trafficking in Human Beings.Pdf
    Study on high-risk groups for trafficking in human beings Final report MigrationDirectorate-General and for Development and CooperationHome Affairs – EuropeAid Study on high-risk groups for trafficking in human beings Final report Authors This report has been prepared by Alessandra Cancedda (Ecorys), Barbara De Micheli (Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini), Dafina Dimitrova (Ecorys) and Brigitte Slot (Ecorys) for the European Commission. The report was based on country reports for internal use that were prepared by: Astrid Winkler (AT), Annemieke Pickles (BE), Dafina Dimitrova (BG), Rafaela Camassa (CY and EL), Hana Pazlarová (CZ), Dorothea Czarnecki (DE), Mikael Bjerrum (DK), Anu Laas (EE), Valentina Patrini (ES), Tiina-Maria Levamo (FI), Diletta Zonta (FR), Djurdjica Kolarec (HR), Viki Sebhelyi (HU), Rachel Blades (IE and UK), Angela Genova (IT), Karolis Zibas (LT), David Mosler (LU), Ilze Trapenciere (LV), Dominik Kalweit and William Grech (MT), Brigitte Slot and Lorijn De Boer (NL), Monika Sajkowska and Katarzyna Makaruk (PL), Ana Cardoso and Pedro Perista (PT), Andreea Biji (RO), Maria von Bredow (SE), Anita Ramsak (SI), Viera Spanikova (SK). Disclaimer: The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union.
    [Show full text]
  • “I Am Now Officially Non-Existent”
    “I am now officially non-existent” The impact of the discovery of illegal adoptions on the lives of adoptees in the Netherlands MSc Victimology and Criminal Justice Bente van Ruremonde ANR: 624744 First supervisor: prof. Conny Rijken Second supervisor: mr. Rachel Dijkstra Word count: 16.484 Acknowledgements I want to express my appreciation to all participants in this research for frankly sharing their moving and extraordinary life stories: Lauren, Sanne, Amanda, Fernando, Nova-Lilly and Shirona,1 you all have my most sincere gratitude. I would also like to thank my peer feedback group for their assistance and support throughout this research period. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisor, professor Conny Rijken, for her support in the past half year, for believing in this project and for her guidance and close involvement in this research. 1 To ensure their anonymity and security, some names in this document have been changed, except where explicit consent for using real names has been given. 2 Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 4 §1.1 General introduction ..................................................................................................... 4 §1.2 The history of intercountry adoption in the Netherlands ............................................... 7 §1.3 Identity formation and belonging in the context of adoption ......................................... 9 Chapter 2. Theoretical framework .....................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • THE FRACTURED VALUES of BEST INTERESTS: STRUGGLES and SPACES of TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION Stevie Larson a Dissertation Submitted To
    THE FRACTURED VALUES OF BEST INTERESTS: STRUGGLES AND SPACES OF TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION Stevie Larson A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Geography. Chapel Hill 2016 John Pickles Michael Hardt Jennifer Ho Alvaro Reyes Sara Smith © 2016 Stevie Larson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Stevie Larson: The Fractured Values of Best Interests: Struggles and Spaces of Transnational Adoption (Under the direction of John Pickles) Transnational adoption of children has been in practice for over sixty years, and it has developed and formalized to such an extent that scholars regard it as an efficient (even ruthless) system. But this approach largely fails to explain transnational adoption’s unruly heterogeneity, historical volatility, and highly uneven geography. I propose an alternative framework, one that approaches transnational adoption as an assemblage of social actors in struggle. The dissertation maps this assemblage as it shifts through three conjunctural eras – struggles over regulation of proper adoption conduct, class war over the rights and benefits in adoption, and disruptive subjectivities of adult adoptees – through each era’s primary civil society actors and agitators, the content and strategy of their organizing, and the lasting functions and consequences of their actions. Focusing particularly on the state of Minnesota and its unexpectedly large and politically active adult Korean adoptee community, I draw from civil society archives and adoptive parent and adoptee interviews to narrate a ‘people’s history’ of transnational adoption from the 1950s to today.
    [Show full text]
  • Seeking the Better Interests of Children with a New International Law of Adoption
    NYLS Law Review Vols. 22-63 (1976-2019) Volume 55 Issue 3 The Seventh Annual Adoption Policy Article 3 Conference Permanency for Children January 2011 Seeking the Better Interests of Children with a New International Law of Adoption Richard Carlson South Texas College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/nyls_law_review Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Family Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Legal Remedies Commons Recommended Citation Richard Carlson, Seeking the Better Interests of Children with a New International Law of Adoption, 55 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 733 (2010-2011). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@NYLS. It has been accepted for inclusion in NYLS Law Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@NYLS. VOLUME 55 | 2010/11 RICHARD CARLSON Seeking the Better Interests of Children with a New International Law of Adoption ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Richard Carlson is a Professor of Law at the South Texas College of Law. He was a member of the U.S. State Department Study Group on Intercountry Adoptions from 1990 to 1994. 733 SeeKING THE BETTER INTEResTS OF CHILDREN I. INTRODUCTION Intercountry adoption is in the midst of an identity crisis. Its character, its mission, and its morality are subjects of anguished and even angry debate. Most participants in the debate assert that they are seeking the “best” interests of children, but the paths they describe seem to lead anywhere but to common ground. Statistics showing the annual number of intercountry adoptions have marched consistently downward since 2004, as if to signal spreading disillusionment.1 This is not the end for intercountry adoption, it is a transition.
    [Show full text]
  • Irregularities in Transnational Adoptions and Child Appropriations: Challenges for Reparation Practices
    FUTURE SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS Irregularities in Transnational Adoptions and Child Appropriations: Challenges for Reparation Practices Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research Guest Editors Aranzazu Gallego Molinero, Department of Social Work and Social Services, University of Granada, Spain Chandra Kala Clemente Martínez, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain In this special issue of Childhood, we would like to explore the abusive practices in transnational adoption and child appropriations around the world. We are particularly interested in analyzing the impact of illicit practices in the victims’ lives, their claims, and identifying practices and examples of justice and reparation. Aims and Scope: Transnational adoption is a global movement of children across borders to new permanent and irreversible legal relationships. Far from being simple, transnational adoptive processes involve social, economic, cultural and political relations marked by geographies of inequalities of power on a global scale. It is a child circulation that visualizes unequal relations between sending and receiving countries, as children circulate mainly from poor regions and families to richer ones. Countries with low birth rates put considerable pressure on poor countries to locate children in order to satisfy the demands of foreign families. The cases of child ‘trafficking’ for adoption are one of the consequences resulting from this 'imbalance' in terms of 'supply and demand'. In this context, the process of obtaining children for transnational adoptions is characterized by illicit forms such as sale, fraud, deception, force, falsification of their legal status as orphans abandoned or in need of care, which at the same time are some of the possible means through which to include them in the international adoption system.
    [Show full text]
  • Surging Intercountry Adoptions in Africa: Paltry Domestication of International Standards Joseph M
    Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law Volume 27 | Issue 1 Article 7 7-1-2012 Surging Intercountry Adoptions in Africa: Paltry Domestication of International Standards Joseph M. Isanga Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/jpl Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Family Law Commons Recommended Citation Joseph M. Isanga, Surging Intercountry Adoptions in Africa: Paltry Domestication of International Standards, 27 BYU J. Pub. L. 229 (2012). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/jpl/vol27/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law by an authorized editor of BYU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Surging Intercountry Adopt ions in Africa: Paltry Domestication of International Standards Joseph M. Isanga* Abstract This Article is dedicated to addressing the issues surrounding intercoun- try adoption, specifically in regards to Africa. In light of the dramatic in- crease in the number of intercountry adoptions from Africa, it has become imperative to take a critical look at the arguments for and against inter- country adoptions, the existing framework for this practice, and the juris- prudence and legislation of select African countries in this area. Through expounding on the aforementioned topics, this Article showcases the need for improved regulation. It then presents recommendations for how this system can be improved to further facilitate intercountry adoptions, a vital step for finding stable homes for orphans. * Associate Professor of Law, Ave Maria School of Law.
    [Show full text]