Legal changes and global events have given rise to new challenges for the Family Justice System in England and Wales. At Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) we experience these challenges first-hand in our work with lawyers, social workers, other professionals, and individuals who are navigating the complexities of cross-border cases involving children.

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CFAB was formerly known as ISS-UK, that is, the UK Branch of the International Social Service Network. The Network was established after the Second World War in response to the growing refugee crisis and huge numbers of children who were internationally displaced, giving rise to a need for cross-jurisdictional social work services to ensure their protection. CFAB now has partners in over 130 countries. Our partners include other ISS Network members, Central Authorities, statutory agencies, and charities. Importantly, in response to a rising demand for social work assessments from overseas, more and more of CFAB’s partners are independent social workers.

As children’s global connections change and grow, so too do the legal complexities associated with ensuring their protection and promoting their best interests. In response to this growing legal complexity, CFAB has developed a legal advice service. The service provides support and a range of resources to assist with child protection cases with an international dimension, as well as expert opinions on family law across the globe from our overseas legal partners. Arising out of this expansion, I will outline here some reflections on the legal and practice challenges we encounter at CFAB.

I first came into contact with the Intercountry Adoption Centre (IAC) many years ago. They were hosting our transracial and transnational adoptee group at the time. It was decided that they would rebrand our group ‘International Searchers.’ You don’t need a degree in English to work out the connotations attached to this rebranding. I was told by quite a few adoptees that this name is what drew them to join, in the hope that they would find help to trace their birth families across borders.

That help never came. We would sit and talk about the frustrations of being people of colour in a white privileged society and how this has affected our entire lives. How being raised in a white adoptive home meant we internalised that racism. Our parents claimed to be ‘colour blind’ but the world around us was far from it. Social workers were privy to those meetings and one of them, a Black staff member, spoke of how she was raised by a white mother and had grown up with racism. This does not equate to understanding how it feels to be a transracial and intercountry adoptee. Her lack of knowledge and reflection on what it means to be separated from your biological family and raised without any genetic mirroring was quite shocking. We were not advised or supported on what routes to take to trace our biological families or how to navigate foreign bureaucracy. I was even approached after one meeting by another member of staff to say they did help with tracing – for a fee!

On 1st July 2023, IAC joined the Coram Group. The amalgamation would enable them to “transform the lives of vulnerable children worldwide who…need a loving home in the UK” they proudly announced, but let’s take a closer look at this collaboration. Coram has a history. I’ve visited the Foundling Museum a number of times for various events and what shocks me is the absence of the children whose lives they moulded. Where are their stories and where are their portraits? There are large portraits of the founders hanging from frames everywhere. Noble men and women who did right by society at the time. The foundlings they ‘rescued’ are voiceless, faceless; they exist but are hidden. This is how many of us adult adoptees feel today. We are no longer living in times of colonial empire. Gone are the days of the workhouse, although poverty is rife and coexists with the privileged aristocracy just like in the days of Thomas Coram. The founders believed they were helping the children who had been deserted by their mothers because of poverty and stigma. Sounds familiar, right?

IAC is the only organisation in the UK that facilitates international adoptions and proudly lists their ‘special programmes’ — countries with which they have negotiated to be the exclusive supplier, as if they are purchasing excess or unwanted children from orphanages. As history tells us the word orphan is a global term to mean a child who has been abandoned, but we all know there are so many stories of those same children who have grown into adults, and learned after years of tracing that their birth families were forced to give them up; some were even illegally traded. 

What I find astonishing is IAC’s refusal to acknowledge that these children had a history prior to the orphanages they ended up in. They have participated in the removal of these children from their countries of origin and have an absolute duty of care to ensure that all their identifying paperwork is intact. They have a moral duty (though sadly not a statutory one) to assist us on a governmental level to return to our countries of origin and reinstate our citizenships if we choose to reconnect with our roots. Taking a child from an orphanage and replanting that human being thousands of miles away from their native home comes with a responsibility to see that that child grows into a whole intact adult with complete knowledge of why they were left and where they came from. We should not be attempting to navigate the long and difficult process of trying to contact organisations in our native countries for documents pertaining to our biological history without the help of a registered governmental intermediary and interpreters provided and paid for, where needed. Alongside this, all avenues for access to cultural heritage should be made available to the intercountry adoptees that they place here in the UK. 

Irene Piria Retweeted

Saleh Mwanamilongo

@SMwanamilongo1

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Nov 14, 2014

International Advocates for Children is holding its second International Dove Ball on February 5, 2005 at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta, Georgia at 6:30 p.m. Child advocate and actress Jane Russell and Dutch State Parliament Member Maarten Brekelmans will be honored for thier efforts in working with orphaned and abandoned children.

(PRWEB) January 20, 2005 -- The International Dove Ball slated for February 5, 2005, at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta at 6:30 p.m. will host a slew of attendees from politicians to CEOs to the citys socialites. The A-list includes Hollywood screen legend and adoptive parent Jane Russell along with Dutch State Parliament Member Maarten Brekelmans who are also serving as the Honorary Chairs for the event for their dedication to child advocacy.

Since the 1950s, Russell has facilitated the adoptive placement of nearly 38,000 children through her organization WAIF, which pioneered the adoption of children from foreign countries by American families and also helped match foster children in the US with permanent families. Adoption is one of the most important things in the world," says Russell an adoptive mother of two children.

Brekelmans echoes Russells sentiment and has also witnessed the need of parentless children first hand. After retiring a few years ago, he has dedicated his time to traveling through many countries mentoring and working with orphaned children -- children whose greatest desire is to have a family of their own.

The International Dove Ball will feature dinner, music, and both silent and live auctions. Proceeds from this event will go towards funding International Advocates for Childrens (IAC) initiatives. IAC, is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, focused solely on protecting the rights of orphaned and abandoned children worldwide. The organization offers assistance to governments to build more efficient systems that will best serve children in need of loving and safe homes. For additional information on IAC, please visit www.iachildren.org. For tickets, volunteer and sponsorship opportunities please call Executive Director Lynda Lee Smith at  678-893-7470 .

Mexicos Sistema Nacional para el Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) will sign agreement with the IAC to launch adoption management system pilot program in one of their 32 states

ATLANTA GA (PRWEB) September 24, 2003 -– On Saturday, September 27, 2003, representatives of the Mexicos Sistema Nacional para el Desarollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) will sign an agreement with the Intercountry Adoption Congress (IAC) to pilot an adoption information management system in one of the countrys 32 states. This historical event will take place during the IACs International Dove Ball at The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.

National DIF General Director Ana Teresa Aranda Orozco, General Subdirector Dr. Carlos Pérez López, and Project Coordinator Arturo Cornejo Moreno Valle will travel from Mexico City to Atlanta for this prestigious event. This milestone will mark the culmination of a relationship that began a year ago between the IAC and the DIF.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and First Lady Mary Perdue, who are serving as Dove Ball honorary chairpersons, former Governor George Busbee and First Lady Mary Beth Busbee, Georgia State Senator Jeff Mullis, and Georgia Congressman Mac Collins, to name a few, will be on hand to witness this landmark agreement.

The IAC, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit human rights group, was formed to give orphans a strong advocate and to overhaul adoption systems badly in need of repair. Through a partnership with a technology company, the IAC has been granted a license for an adoption information management software which the organization can offer to government entities gratis.

members-l] Synopsis of Symposium on Children Without Parental Care Chronological Thread < Chronological > < Thread > Reply to sender to list From: Hwall334@aol.com To: members-L@lists.jcics.org Subject: [members-l] Synopsis of Symposium on Children Without Parental Care 

Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 22:57:08 EST 2nd World Conference on Children without Parents November 9-11, 2005 Boston (Worcester), Massachusetts, USA Conference Synopsis The conference launched on Wednesday, November 9. 2005, at 9:00 a.m., in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. The conference marked the second gathering of international child welfare policy and decision-making professionals aimed at exchanging information about the realities of children without parents on a global scale. The functional goal of the conference was not only the exchange of critical information but to outline and begin to establish globally accepted best practices for more efficient programs and policies that serve the "best interest of a child" in need. The organizations supporting the conference through sponsorship and participation were International Advocates for Children (IAC), Focus on Adoption (FOA), and Center for Adoption Research (CAR). 

The Harvard University Law School Child Advocacy Program sponsored one of the key workshops and debates on the school campus. The attendees of the conference included child welfare policymakers, government officials in charge of child welfare infrastructures, researchers and experts from the fields of law, medicine, psychology, economics, and decision science, and non-governmental organizations. These stakeholders represented 31 countries including Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Vietnam, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Republic of Georgia, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Lesotho, Sweden, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Pakistan, Mongolia, The Philippines, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bahamas, USA, Nicaragua, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Belgium and Thailand. The meeting commenced with Lynda Lee Smith, Executive Director of IAC, welcoming the 115 delegates with sentiments of thanks to all of the countries and hope for the positive influence that this group can have in the future of children without parents. Hannah Wallace, President of Focus on Adoption, followed with her expressions of support for IAC's efforts and hope for real outcomes from the conference. Debra Chaison-Demers, Executive Director of Center for Adoption Research at the University of Massachusetts, wrapped up the welcome with her support based on the success of the 2004 conference in Atlanta and her hope that this conference would result in even further steps being made in the efforts for children without parents. 

The first two speakers were Justin Webb, age 14, adopted from Romania at one month old, and Larry Adams, age 56, who grew up in the "temporary" foster care system in the US from birth to adulthood without the benefits of a permanent family in his life. These two gentlemen were present during the conference to represent the "voice of the child" throughout the conference and to make certain that all discussions were focused on "best interest of child" from the child's perspective and NOT the adult perspective. Mr. Jacob Doek, Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a lawyer, and a judge, followed as keynote speaker. Mr. Doek focused his talk on The Need for Clarification of Conventions, Data Collection, and Reporting of Factual Information. He defined children without parental care to include orphans, social orphans, abandoned children, street children, AIDS orphans, and generally children without parental care. He noted the difficulty in collecting accurate data on a global scale and the reporting of factual information in regards to the reality of children without parental care. He specifically pointed out that all options for children must be considered and that the options for children vary based on the country. He placed emphasis on the option of intercountry adoption stating that while intercountry adoption benefits a small percentage of the total global group of children without parental care other options must be available for the majority of children in which intercountry adoption is not an option for many reasons. Making reference to children in Africa being left as head of households for entire sibling groups due to the AIDS epidemic, he challenged the group to develop and support best practices that offer solutions for all children in need of parental care. Dr. Mary Hansen, Professor of Economics at American University, and a research fellow at Center for Adoption Research, discussed the Economics of Policy-Making. Dr. Hansen presented an interesting perspective on making decisions and choosing options for children without parental care. She presented charts to show the cost to governments for making certain options and a need for achieving a balance in options for children based on the financial resources available from the government. Based on available financial resources, she demonstrated how some options become more viable than others to achieve. These factors must be considered when building child welfare models for specific countries. Dr. Sara Dillon, Professor of Law at Stanford University, addressed the Misperceptions of Intercountry Adoption. She gave specific examples of misleading information that has been fed to the media and government officials concerning intercountry adoptions. This information has lead to mistrust and ultimately a negative image of intercountry adoption. The majority of accusations are absolutely false and a few are based on exceptions to the rule. She stressed that the majority of intercountry adoptions are a great success and a wonderful option for children in need of parents. She holds a few of the key global children's organizations responsible for supporting and feeding the misinformation and not taking action to collect the facts. 

Lynda Smith, IAC Executive Director, and Maarten Brekelmans, General Manager of the Dutch IAC office, gave a brief introduction to the creation of a world council to be discussed in more detail the final day of the conference. The overview served to allow the delegates to consider the proposal prior to the final discussion. Rodolfo Rivera, international lawyer, spoke on the Practical Aspects of Implementing the Hague Convention. He pointed out the key areas that are vague and have lead to misinterpretation by many ratifying countries. There are those who believe that the Hague Treaty is the answer to eliminating the "sale of children," while others believe it is an unnecessary and ineffectual "cure." Has it hurt more than helped? The pro and anti Hague factions all agree on one thing--the best interest of the child is paramount. The differences arise in defining just what "best interest" means and the manner in which it will be implemented. Dr. Tom Whalen, Professor of Fuzzy Logic (decision science) at Georgia State University, presented How to Know What to Do showing the history of man's evolution of decision-making tools going back to the development of the lead pencil. The walk through the development and advancement of decision making tools allowed delegates to realize the limitations of the human brain in making complex decisions such as a placement decision for a child. Over the past century, the advancement of tools has expanded the abilities of the human mind to "juggle" multiple considerations. Today, with technology combined with decision science principles, critical decisions such as weighting options for a child placement can be accurately suggested based on an unlimited number of criteria. A series of workshops were then held: 1) Professor Rene Hoksbergen, Professor of Psychology at Utrecht University; Netherlands, conducted a workshop on the Effects of Neglect. 2) Dr. Tom Whalen, Professor of Fuzzy Logic at Georgia State University, USA, conducted a workshop on Screening Families, Placing Children: an Exercise with Tools of Thought. 3) Dr. Sara Dillon, Professor of Law at Suffolk University, USA, conducted a workshop on In-depth into the Misperceptions of Intercountry Adoptions. 4) Dr. Mary Hansen, Professor of Economics at the American University, USA, conducted a workshop on Country Specific Issues. 5) Dr. Monica Bouman, Psychologist in the Netherlands, and Maarten Brekelmans, General Manager of the IAC Dutch office, conducted a workshop on Lasting Solutions and Serving Leadership. The delegates then attended Harvard University Law School for an open debate with Mr. Jacob Doek, Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and Dr. Jane Aronson, Adoption Medicine Specialist, facilitated by Dr. Elizabeth Bartholet, Harvard Professor of Law. The debate clearly showed two different perspectives on solutions for children without parents. Mr. Doek's perspective naturally indicated a strong need for policy implementation and working through the existing government structure while Dr. Aronson emphasized a need for an "on the ground" approach with little dependence on government assistance. Law students from Harvard Law School joined the delegates in a series of questions for the two experts after the debate. On the final day of the conference, country delegates were offered an opportunity to share reports from their respective countries. Over ten countries shared a brief overview of the current situation on children without parents during this time. Susanna Luarca, attorney in Guatemala, presented Efficiency in Placement highlighting many of the challenges specifically in Guatemala. The core of the presentation focused on the ability of the child welfare system to place infants and young children in permanent families in a timely manner. The emphasis on time to placement results in less psychological trauma to the child and promotes the best interest of the child. 

Letter European Commission to US adoption lobbyist

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Letter from US lobbyist to the European Commission