EU urged to fast-track adoptions from Haiti: Spanish presidency

22 January 2010, 16:27 CET

— filed under: Haiti, quake, children, adoption, Spain

(MADRID) - The Spanish presidency of the European Union will next week urge the bloc to forge a common position on fast-track adoptions from Haiti, Madrid said Friday.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos "will on Monday propose to the council (of EU foreign ministers) that there could be a joint common response," Spain's Vice-President Maria-Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

Publié le 16 janvier 2010 à 05h00 | Mis à jour à 05h00

L'adoption suspendue

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Unicef: 'Pas op voor overhaaste adopties'

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Dankzij aardbeving komt onze Mano al over twee weken'

Cruisepassagiers ruziën over aanleggen aan Haïtiaanse stranden

Nog weken speuren naar Belgen

Millions of children around the world grow up in residential facilities despite not being orphans, and many more in ‘alternative care’ within their wider families or communities. There is worrying evidence of care systems’ failure to protect children’s rights in developing and middle-income countries, and open questions around accountability when care is provided by the non-government sector. The European Commission funded a study on alternative care systems to inform development cooperation.

“The idea behind the report ‘Towards the Right Care for Children’ was that we were lacking a lot of information about the issue,” said Jean-Louis Ville, Acting Director for Human Development and Migration at DEVCO, the European Commission’s Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development. “We know what’s happening in Eastern and Central Europe, and in former Soviet Union countries, as we’ve had a lot of projects in these countries in the past. But reaching out to Africa, Asia and Latin America was something we’d start from nearly scratch. So there was a need to start from evidence, to gather knowledge.”

Coordinated by SOS Children's Villages International, researchers at CELCIS (Center for Excellence for Looked after Children at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland) conducted a desk review of childcare systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, and in-depth studies of two countries on each continent. These were Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda, a mix of middle-income and less developed countries with varying population sizes.

Key Terms & Findings of the report

Alternative care for children: any arrangement whereby the basic overnight care of a child is taken up by someone other than his or her parents.

2019 marks the 40th anniversary of Defence for Children International (DCI). Symbolically, 2019 is also the year the world celebrates the thirty years anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Defence for Children International was born on the 5th of July 1979 in Geneva. Since then, it became a worldwide Movement present across 5 continents.

DCI was granted consultative status at the United Nations in 1983 and then became the Coordinator of the NGO group co-drafters of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, until the treaty was adopted in 1989. The UNCRC is now the most universally ratified binding international treaty the world has ever agreed on. The Convention changed perceptions about children from passive objects of care and charity to full human beings with a distinct set of rights. But a treaty, no matter how universal, is only a piece of paper until it is effectively applied. Since the convention was adopted, DCI has focused on its implementation through lobbying and direct actions.

We chose to celebrate the 40 years of DCI and the 30 years of the convention together with children worldwide. We organised a Children’s Rights Award: “Hear my Story, know my rights”. Through which DCI gave children around the world the platform to express themselves artistically, with a variety of media; paintings, drawings, videos, poems and songs that highlight their ideas, opinions, views, and hopes regarding children’s rights. Such interactions with children in their communities encourage a better understanding of their rights enshrined in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, more specifically the articles of the Convention on which DCI focuses its work.

Hundreds of children around the world submitted their artworks which were reviewed by an international jury made up of child rights experts; Philip Jaffé, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Anne Grandjean, Child protection expert at UNICEF, Nigel Cantwell, Founder of DCI, and Christine Cornwell, member of DCI Advisory Committee, and Alex Kamarotos, Executive Director of the DCI.

Pune: Stringent government rules have considerably brought down foreign adoptions in the country, women and child

development department data revealed.

From around 600 since 2016, the number of inter-country adoptions is down to 275 this year till November. In comparison, the

number of in-country adoptions is 2,000 in 2019.

The adoption agencies attribute the fall in foreign adoptions to the changes in the adoption procedures and the “stringent”

AKIPRESS.COM - Davin Aisulu Tackabury, born Oct. 16, 2001, passed away on Sept. 1, 2019, at his family home in West Tisbury, The Martha's Vinyard Times reported.

Davin was born in Kostanai, Kazakhstan, and adopted into the West Tisbury community at 14 months of age through his parents, Wayne and Kathleen Tackabury.

With zeal and drive, he made his way through Island Childrens’ School, West Tisbury School, and ultimately Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (where he was entering 12th grade at the time we lost him).

Davin was also a member of the family of the Kazakh Aul of the United States, an organization founded to create lasting cultural celebration and appreciation of the Kazakh community across North America, whether that connection be through adoption or expatriation.

While Davin showed early gifts in gymnastics and dance, his prodigious command of visual arts directed his attention and boundless creativity toward photography and painting, going forward into his high school career.

Soul traffickers (Investigation of suspicions of fraudulent adoptions between Guatemala and Belgium)

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"Improve intercountry adoption system, don't stop it"

31 Jan 2017

File: Adoption

Today, Secretary of State for Security and Justice Dijkhoff presented his policy response to the report 'The future of the chain for intercountry adoption' by consultancy firm Andersson Elffers Felix (AEF), and the advice 'Reflection on Intercountry Adoption' of the Council for Criminal Justice and Youth Protection (RSJ). The RSJ advised in November last year to stop intercountry adoption. Defense for Children - ECPAT believes that the State Secretary should implement a number of strong changes in the adoption chain, but sees no improvement in the proposed adjustments on a number of fundamental points.

Defense for Children - ECPAT welcomed the RSJ report and recognizes the identified bottlenecks in adoption. In particular the influence of financial incentives on adoption and the problems with applying the subsidiarity principle. Strengthening child protection systems in the countries of origin of adopted children is most consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On November 8, 2018, the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers enacted new adoption regulations that restrict which children may be eligible for intercountry adoption. The new regulations restrict which children may be eligible for intercountry adoption and limit intercountry adoption to children in three groups: 1) children living in institutions, for whom an adoptive family in Latvia has not been found; 2) stepchildren of prospective adoptive parents; and 3) children living with a foster care family in Latvia, if the adoptive child is related to the prospective adoptive parents. The new regulations will also impose additional requirements on accredited adoption service providers (ASPs) and require more pre-adoption training programs, including classroom and practical training hours. ASPs have six months from the effective date of the new regulations to create new training programs and apply for an extension of their authorization to operate in Latvia. Latvia’s Ministry of Welfare (Central Adoption Authority) will post an official English translation of the new regulations on their website in January 2019. Once the regulations are posted, the Office of Children’s Issues will post an updated notice on adoption.state.gov with a link to their site, and will update the country information page for Latvia.

The U.S. Embassy in Latvia has met with the Ministry of Welfare to discuss adoption cases that were in process prior to the November 8, 2018 implementation of the new regulations (pending cases). The Minister confirmed that cases will not be subject to the new requirements if the prospective adoptive parents received an official referral prior to November 8, 2018. On a case-by-case basis, the Ministry will consider whether the new requirement will apply to situations in which the ASP submitted completed adoption applications OR letters of intent prior to November 8, 2018 but for which the prospective adoptive parents have not yet received a referral.

In an effort to ensure the Ministry is aware of all pending cases, ASPs should provide the following information to Jana Sipola, Senior Desk Officer at the Children and Family Policy Department of the Latvian Ministry of Welfare, by e-mail at Jana.Sipola@lm.gov.lv.

Names of the prospective adoptive parents;

Names of the children;