Quebec halts most international adoptions amid human trafficking concerns
Province says it made the move to protect children from potential harm
The Quebec government has suspended most new international adoption applications, echoing moves by other jurisdictions that are rethinking the once-common practice because of human rights and trafficking concerns.
Quebec's decision is part of a global "culture change" in recent years as countries have become aware of serious shortcomings in the way many adoptions are carried out, Anne-Marie Piché, a professor in the social work department at the Université du Québec à Montréal who studies adoption, said in an interview Monday.
Despite international agreements that theoretically impose strict rules, "there are countries that have gaps in their adoption procedures," she said. In some cases, she added, "the children don't have their truthful information collected, for example on their parents, on the real reasons for placement, on their circumstances of birth."
As well, she said, mothers are sometimes coerced into signing a document to give up their child, children are falsely reported as abandoned or adoptions are quickly approved for financial gain.
Quebec's system, the province said in a Nov. 27 news release, needs to be reinforced to ensure that adoptions are free of illegal practices, including abductions, sales and trafficking of children.
"Child protection is at the heart of this decision, taken by applying the principle of precaution and in respect of the Quebec government's international agreements."
The province said it does not believe the current international system guarantees the rights set out under the Hague Conventions, which protect children and their families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad.
The moratorium, it added, will be in place while it develops a stronger framework to prevent those practices and also limit adoption failures that result in children entering the child welfare system.
"When there are crises, civil wars, coup d'états, wars … what the convention says is once there's a situation of instability in a country, international adoptions must stop," Geneviève Poirier, the secretary and director-general of international adoption at Quebec's Health Ministry, told CBC News.
"We aren't able to guarantee that the children have just been displaced and we aren't able to take every effort to find their extended families."
Not meeting all criteria of conventions
Poirier said officials in Quebec, and around the world, were increasingly realizing that adoptions from agencies abroad might not have been meeting all the criteria of the Hague Conventions, meaning that, in some cases, they were unsure if children had been bought or sold, or if every effort had been made to find their parents or families.
"The big takeaway is that this is being done to protect children," she said.
Quebec says it's following jurisdictions around the world that have decided to limit or review international adoptions, including France, the Netherlands and Denmark. Countries that once sent children overseas for adoption, such as China, have also decided to restrict the practice.
In South Korea, a recent investigation by The Associated Press found that many of the 200,000 children sent to Western nations later discovered that their adoption paperwork was inaccurate or fabricated.
In some cases, children were kidnapped off the streets, and children were systemically listed as abandoned even though researchers have found that the vast majority had known relatives.
International adoption can violate child's rights
Piché said she's not sure how Quebec plans to further tighten its rules — which she said are already strict. The number of international adoptions in Quebec has dropped to less than 30 last year from about 1,000 a year in the late '90s and early 2000s, she said.
She said the government's decision will have some negative consequences, including that some children in other countries will remain in orphanages, and heartbreak for families who had longed to adopt a child.
But overall, she believes international adoption should be a last resort for a child — after their birth parents are offered support and after other options are explored, including placement with extended family or within the child's community and home country.
International adoption, Piché added, even with the best of intentions, can violate a child's fundamental right to their own identity, including knowing their origins and family history.
"Even one who is doing well in their new family, and happy, can feel something missing in terms of knowing who they are," she said.
Quebec says adoptions that are already underway can continue, as can the limited number of adoptions that are allowed without certified agencies.
The Canadian government says on its website that all provinces and territories have suspended adoptions from certain countries, including Georgia, Guatemala, Liberia, Nepal and Ukraine.
Piché said such moratoriums are often put in place during conflicts or natural disasters, when families can become separated for long periods of time.
With files from Matthew Lapierre