DCI Advisory Committee meets, a new member introduced

23 March 2016

Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail

The Advisory Committee (AC) of Defence for Children International held its second meeting on 12 March 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The five members of the Committee, who were appointed in June 2015, with the addition of Ms Rosa Maria Ortiz Carrón*, were present, together with all seven members of the International Executive Council (IEC) and the staff of the International Secretariat (IS).

After waiting for 12 years (2004 to 2016), the children of Uganda finally made a big win on the floor of the 9th Parliament. On March 2nd 2016, the Parliament of Uganda, presided over by the Speaker, Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, passed the long awaited Children Act Amendment Bill 2015. This is a key milestone and demonstrates that despite the shrinking of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) space in Uganda, CSOs can still advocate and put pressure on the Government, achieving results at scale for children.

For the last 12 years, the children of Uganda have had no clear law protecting them. Children's rights which were being violated, as such, included being trafficked out of the country under the guise of legal guardianship and subsequently ending up in unprecedented adoption. Children were also ‘institutionalised’ in child care institutions (Baby and Children Homes) under the guise of care and protection, and issues regarding them were not effectively coordinated or monitored by the Government.

Key amended clauses that were fronted by child rights CSOs:

The law strengthens the institutional mechanism for the promotion of the rights of children through the establishment of the Uganda National Children’s Authority (UNCA). The Authority will be mandated to manage, monitor and coordinate the implementation of all child-related policies and laws, creating inter-sectoral coordination and management of matters related to inter-country and domestic adoption of children.

The law streamlines the provisions of Guardianship, Adoption and Inter-country adoption. The law provides legal guardianship to be granted strictly to Ugandan nationals and repeals legal guardianship for foreigners. Legal guardianship has been used as a conduit for trafficking of children outside the country, leading to an unprecedented increase in inter-country adoption.

Uganda Tightens Foreign Adoption Rules

Serginho Roosblad

March 17, 2016 1:00 PM

KAMPALA—

The Ugandan parliament voted unanimously this month in favor of a new law that makes it harder for foreigners to adopt children and take them out of the country. Proponents say the new law closes loopholes exploited by child traffickers while critics say it may rob needy children of the chance at a better life overseas.

Few topics are as sensitive from a children's rights perspective as intercountry adoption. This has nothing to do with the demand for attention for children's rights. Both internationally and in Flanders there is great unanimity to use children's rights as the most important stepping stone for the organization of international adoption.

The frame of reference for this is the Hague Adoption Convention, an elaboration of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The treaty aims that intercountry adoption only takes place when the child benefits most and when his fundamental rights are respected. Our country has signed the Hague Adoption Convention. This is also reflected in the operation of the various services that are active around intercountry adoption.

Despite this great unanimity, we still have a knot. This knot has a lot to do with the way we view children and their poor living situation (in the south and elsewhere) to this day. Our gaze is characterized by pity and hope. Pity about the often precarious situations in which children live there or sometimes even simply trying to survive. Hope, because it concerns children and there is therefore the idea that these children can still be saved.

Intercountry adoption is then about providing a cozy and warm home to children who would otherwise continue to live in misery. That is noble and at the same time seems so obvious. Surely there is no one who doubts that these children have it so much better here? But still. The reality turns out to be so much more complex. An adoption decision has a huge impact on the life of the adopted child. After all, the child not only gets different parents, but sometimes also a different name and it grows up in a different environment and often in a different culture.

From the scant research that focuses on the perspective of the adopted children, we find that adoption involves both positive and negative feelings, often at the same time. For example, adopted children are happy with life here, but are also curious about what it could have been like in the family of origin. Feelings are often incomprehensible and especially inexplicable. For example, the outside world expects gratitude. Adoptive children find this difficult because they have not opted for adoption. That's what their parents did. They could be grateful. At the same time, they don't want to be ungrateful.

"Adopted children are too often presented as a commodity '

16 March 2016 by Veerle Beel

The Flemish Children's Commissioner Bruno Vanobbergen requests the adoption agencies to take images of potential adoptees offline.

After foreign adoptions in recent months occurred more frequently in the news because of problems, now the Flemish children's commissioner finalised his advice.

You ask to get to adopt photos of children online. What bothers those photos?

A Beautiful Dream for India

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Robin Munro Comment

Jim with Children copy

Meet Jim De, Holt’s new India country director! From caring for foster children in his childhood home, to finding families for children orphaned by the 2004 tsunami, to greeting Holt adoptive families at the Delhi airport, he has always followed his life’s passion — advocating for his country’s orphaned and abandoned children.

It was 2:00 a.m. and 7-year-old Jim De sat awake in his home with his mother. She changed a baby’s diaper while he held another one in his arms, feeding her a bottle of formula. Tonight was their turn for “night duty,” a task in which they stayed up all night to care for the 30-40 children living in the care center that the De family ran out of their home. Jim and his mother were on night duty about once a week — and he loved it!

Meet Jim De, Holt’s new India country director! From caring for foster children in his childhood home, to finding families for children orphaned by the 2004 tsunami, to greeting Holt adoptive families at the Delhi airport, he has always followed his life’s passion — advocating for his country’s orphaned and abandoned children.

It was 2:00 a.m. and 7-year-old Jim De sat awake in his home with his mother. She changed a baby’s diaper while he held another one in his arms, feeding her a bottle of formula. Tonight was their turn for “night duty,” a task in which they stayed up all night to care for the 30-40 children living in the care center that the De family ran out of their home. Jim and his mother were on night duty about once a week — and he loved it!

“I was very excited about doing that kind of stuff,” Jim says now, during his visit from India to Holt’s headquarters in Eugene, Oregon. “It was so much fun to stay up all night — but by 4:00 in the morning, you were out!”

Throughout his years growing up in India, serving children — growing up with them as friends and welcoming them into his home as family — was a normal part of his life. Jim’s father worked as treasurer for the Church of North India and his mother was involved with child welfare organizations. What started as his family fostering just one child — Tom, who needed somewhere to stay while his international adoption was finalized — soon turned into the De family fostering many children out of their home and eventually opening up an official care center for these children.

“They were my friends,” Jim says. “For us, it was exciting! There was always a new child in the house, a new friend — we always welcomed them.”

The court was disposing off a PIL by NGO Advait Foundation seeking a moratorium on foreigners adopting Indian children, alleging that many children who are illegally taken away faced post-adoption abuse.

Observing that children required to be protected from abuse and trafficking, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to frame effective regulations within three months for making inter-country adoptions foolproof and transparent.

This was after the Ministry for Child and Women Development and Central Adoption Research Agency (CARA) told SC that a legal framework for intra and intercountry adoption has been provided in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 which came into effect from January 15. The rules and regulations are yet to be framed by CARA, the nodal agency for adoption, which also has to issue certain directions to state governments.

"We are told that the new Act is a comprehensive legislation on subjects involving care and protection of children including adoption. So a legislative framework is there but some regulations are required to make it effective. We hope and trust the authorities concerned take speedy steps. Children are to be protected against abuse and trafficking. The beneficial legislation may be made more effective to provide succor to children who may be adopted by framing necessary rules and regulations," said a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur.

"Central government shall expeditiously frame model rules. The centre shall also take up matter with state government. Interest of children is supreme whether it is in-country or intercountry adoption. The mechanism should be effective, transparent and credible," said the bench.

'Meeting my mother after 42 years was a miracle'

By Geeta Pandey

BBC News, Delhi

14 March 2016

Elisabet Purve-Jorendal was born in India and given away for adoption in 1973 when she was less than six months old.

Call on file