The intercountry adoption debate: about children's rights then, now and in the future
Event details
Center for Children's Rights Amsterdam in collaboration with Spui25
External event
November 14, 2024
Spui 25-27, Amsterdam
0
20:00
21:00
Target group(s):
Interest groups and initiatives Family and loved ones Adoptees Professionals
On Thursday 14 November, the fourth edition of the Miek de Langen lecture will focus on children’s rights and the debate on intercountry adoption. The Miek de Langen lecture on children’s rights and the debate on intercountry adoption will be given by Karl Hanson. After studying at Ghent University and as an Erasmus student with Miek de Langen at the University of Amsterdam, Karl obtained his PhD in law from Ghent University, Belgium, where he worked as a researcher at the Children’s Rights Centre and as a senior researcher at the Human Rights Centre. He has worked in Switzerland since 2002 and is currently the director of the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies at the University of Geneva. His publications and main research interests concern interdisciplinary children’s rights studies and include theories of children’s rights and children’s studies, child labour and working children, juvenile justice and the role of independent national children’s rights institutions.
Karl currently teaches the Master Interdisciplinary in Child Rights (MIDE) at the University of Geneva. He is also programme director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Children's Rights (MCR), chair of the Children's Rights European Academic Network. He was co-editor of the journal Childhood for 11 years.
Machteld Vonk acts as referee. Machteld is currently professor of International and European Personal and Family Law at the Centre for Notarial Law at Radboud University. Machteld's research interests and expertise extend to the various aspects of the relationship between children and their parents/guardians in law, including adoption, descent, authority and contact, child protection, and above all artificial reproduction and the resulting legal questions regarding the parenthood of children. Machteld's approach is primarily children's law and grounded in the rights that arise from the CRC and the ECHR for children and their guardians.
Subject
The intercountry adoption debate: On children's rights then, now and in the future
Our view of intercountry adoption has changed dramatically over the past decade. Contemporary criticism of the way in which intercountry adoption took place between the 1970s and the early 2000s has led to intercountry adoption being regulated much more strictly or even banned altogether in many European countries, including the Netherlands. For example, organisations of adoptees criticise the way in which illegal adoption networks and fraudulent intermediaries, with at least the tacit complicity of the government, have arranged adoptions that deny them the right to know their identity. Another important cause of this changed approach is the growing awareness that intercountry adoption is an expression of structural inequality between countries rather than a solution to it. Long before these contemporary criticisms were formulated and followed up by more and more scholars and policy makers, Miek de Langen already raised sharp questions about the way in which intercountry adoption was conceived and regulated. In her 1976 speech, delivered upon accepting the position of extraordinary professor of juvenile law at the University of Amsterdam, she postulated, among other things, that adoption is too often seen as a favor to prospective adoptive parents rather than as a child's right to the best possible upbringing environment.
This lecture takes Miek de Langen's critique, which she formulated at the same time as the rise of the intercountry adoption boom in the West, as a starting point to reflect on the way in which children's rights are used then, now and in the future to promote the fundamental equality of children, both 'at home' and 'abroad'. In addition to intercountry adoption, the lecture also addresses the way in which children's rights are mobilised in other situations, such as migration or volunteer tourism. A fascinating comparison can be made with the way in which instruments of 'transitional justice' are used to request recognition and reparation for the forced migration of poor or orphaned children from England to Australia between the end of the 19th century and the 1970s. However, the promised 'better future' did not await them there, but a life characterised by exploitation and brutal violence in institutions. Adults who demand respect for their rights as children raise important questions not only about how abuses on such a scale were tolerated or even encouraged for so long, but also about how we should look today at past violations of children’s rights. How can these stories help shape the future of children’s rights?
Miek de Langen lecture
This annual lecture is dedicated to Miek de Langen. She was professor of Juvenile Law at the University of Amsterdam (1976-1992) and founder of the Children's Law Shop (1985).
Practical information
Date: November 14, 2024, 8:00 PM (there will be drinks after the lecture)
Location: University Library, University of Amsterdam, Doelenzaal
Address: Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam
Target audience : Pedagogues, lawyers, judges, employees of organizations such as the Council, youth care/youth assistance institutions, Children's Ombudsman and DCI, PhD candidates, students and other interested parties.
Report
Registration is via SPUI25. You can register here .
There are a limited number of places available. Access to the program is free.
To ask?
More about the organization of the event
In recent years, children's rights have increasingly attracted attention both worldwide and in our society. For example, on 20 November 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Convention entered into force for the Netherlands on 8 March 1995. The research conducted by the CCRA over the period from 1 January 2002 to 1 September 2011 has since made it clear that the CRC has gained considerable significance over the course of this period. The follow-up research from 1 September 2011 to 1 September 2014 has further confirmed this development. Judges and lawyers have increasingly invoked and continue to invoke the Convention. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) forms an important framework for the centre, within which contemporary social issues will be discussed during the various activities. However, justice would not be done to the subject of 'children's rights' if debates were conducted exclusively from a legal perspective. Knowledge from practice and other (scientific) disciplines, such as pedagogy, developmental psychology, sociology and medicine, is of crucial importance to fill in legal standards. The CCRA has therefore set itself the goal of promoting the exchange of knowledge between different disciplines and the interaction with practice. The CCRA has set itself the following goals: Research: acquiring knowledge and insight into the rights of the child – as laid down in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Education: transferring the findings to professionals and students who are involved in the rights and interests of children in various ways in various fields and within various disciplines. Interdisciplinary knowledge centre: acting as a platform where individuals, various institutions and scientific disciplines that are involved in the position of the child can exchange expertise and coordinate activities. The interaction between theory and practice is a central point here. After the establishment of the CCRA in 2008 under the aegis of the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the status of the CCRA was changed to that of an autonomous foundation as of 1 January 2016, with a strong connection to the UvA, as well as to the judiciary and the legal profession. The members of the foundation's board bear witness to this. The activities of the centre have remained unchanged, as have its threefold objective. For this lecture, the CCRA is working together with SPUI25. SPUI25 is the academic-cultural podium of Amsterdam. They provide scientists, writers, artists and other thinkers with a platform to shed light on matters that concern, inspire or worry them.