In 1997 the European Council decided that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was to be
considered inseparable of the EU Treaty and thus was placed on the acquis list as legal basis for the accession
monitoring and negotiations under the Copenhagen Criteria. Article 24 - The rights of the child - of the EU
Charter on Fundamental Rights is also based on the UNCRC.
There is also another international convention, the Hague Adoption Convention (1993). This private law
convention, however, is not part of the acquis. Although it was meant to prevent child trafficking, in practice, in
Romania, it created a demand-driven market in children. Behind this legal market, all kind of abuses are hidden,
such as corruption, abuse of power and the infiltration of pedophiles.
The European Commission and the European Parliament, at the time (2000), spoke with one voice in
condemning this market, and requested from Romania the full respect of the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child. Especially as concerns article 21b of the UNCRC, which limits intercountry adoption as a last resort
– after all local care options such as foster care, adoption, residential care and any other suitable manner of care
(the so-called subsidiarity principle).
It then appeared that those with vested interests in intercountry adoption (United States, Israel, France, Italy,
Spain and the Scandinavian countries) interpreted children’s rights in a different manner. While these countries
respect the UNCRC, article 21b, for their own children (except the US which did not ratify the UNCRC), they
apply the Hague adoption Convention’s version of subsidiarity for countries from where they adopt children.
The Hague Adoption Convention’s interpretation of subsidiarity conflicts with article 21b of the UNCRC, as it
does not consider foster care and residential care as suitable care, but only as short term temporary options.
Instead the adoption proponents see three options: return of the child to the children’s family, national adoption,
intercountry adoption. Strict time limits for the first two options then automatically lead to the availability of
children for intercountry adoption. If families cannot take back their children from residential care or foster care
timely, their parental rights are terminated and children become “adoptable”.