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Cantwell visiting EU Delegation: ica before institutions (preparing Unicef position) (DRAFT BOOK)

Exact date is in book Romania for Export

CANTWELL JAN 2004

Towards the end of January, in the middle of the Nastase -Berlusconi crises, I receive

in my office Nigel Cantwell, whom Unicef considered their expert in adoptions. I had

met Nigel before and I had read his reports about intercountry adoptions in Romania.

Issues in Implementing the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption

Intercountry Adoption

Some Issues in Implementing and Supplementing the 1993 Hague

Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in

Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

(Paper presented by Professor William Duncan at the International Conference.

Letter Ethica to Romanian Government - art 21b - keep adoptions an option

"Compliance with Hague Convention As noted in the preamble to the Hague Convention, States which are signatory to the Convention recognize that the child “should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding” and that “intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin”.

Article 2(b) of the proposed law acknowledges this principle. However, Article 2(e) includes language which adds “or cannot be cared for appropriately”. Additionally, Article 45(2)(b) states that international adoption may be allowed only if “the child cannot be appropriately cared for by the public or private services for the special protection of the child.” Such provisions, which allow for children to be cared for in public or private institutions instead of being adopted internationally, would seem to conflict with the basic tenets of the Hague Convention, and may thus result in an inability to fulfill Article 62, which provides for the issuance of a certificate “indicating that the adoption complies with the norms set by the Hague Convention.”

Therefore, Ethica respectfully suggests that Article 2(e) be changed to remove the clause “or cannot be cared for appropriately”, and that Article 45(2)(b) be removed from the law entirely."

"

RP: Summary of Opinion on Subsidiarity

In short: Nigel and ISS want individual decisions per child (micro level), while the Ministry/RSJ must look from the perspective of the macro-level.

The RSJ does quote from my article about the differences between UNCRC, Hague. But does not take that further.

They chicken out, and say it "subsidiarity cannot be properly observed"

But, whatever... RSJ killed the Hague subsidiarity, but also art 21b of the UNCRC.

They fully killed it all. Knowingly or unknowingly.

RSJ REPORT

Tegenstrijdigheid IVRK en het Haagse verdrag

Een ander knelpunt in het juridisch kader betreft het verschil tussen het IVRK en het Haagse

verdrag op het gebied van de pleegzorg. In het IVRK87 is vastgelegd dat opgroeien in een

(pleeg)gezin in het land van herkomst de voorkeur heeft boven interlandelijke adoptie.88

In het Haagse verdrag wordt interlandelijke adoptie als substituut gezien van binnenlandse

The Principle of Subsidiarity in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: A Philosophical Analysis

For decades there has been debate about where ICA would appear in the prior-
ity list after domestic adoption. The CRC appears to rank all domestic alternatives,

including foster care and possibly institutional care, ahead of ICA. For example,

Article (b) of the CRC indicates that states “recognize that inter-country adop-
tion may be considered as an alternative means of child’s care, if the child cannot

be placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be
cared for in the child’s country of origin.”

 The wording here holds open the pos-
sibility of a “suitable” caring situation in-country other than foster or adoption.