Prof. Ann Skelton, Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

ISS/IRC analyses intercountry adoption (ICA) statistics yearly since its inception, three decades ago. The analysis provides with a global and comprehensive picture on current ICA trends and their evolution throughout the years.

Following the recent publication of General Comment No. 26 on Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate (GC26) (see child friendly version) and its launch on 18 September 2023, the ISS/IRC team has been reflecting on the link between climate change and children without or at risk of losing parental care

In this interview, Dr. Katherine Wade, Professor. Kirsty Horsey, and Dr. Zaina Mahmoud, collectively the team of the project Children’s Voices in Surrogacy Law, provide insights on the project’s aim and activities. The project took place in a regulated surrogacy context currently undergoing reform.

Adoption is essentially a measure to protect the child deprived of a family. It is based upon the best interest of the child and not on the wishes of adults. It consists of providing a family for a child and not of providing a child for a family…Principles seemingly generally accepted. Nonetheless, politics intervene in several aspects of adoption: attitude of certain receiving countries, regulations of certain countries of origin and individual decisions.

«A family for a child, rather than a child for a family». It is a principle easier said than done. How can one switch from the demand of prospective adopters in search of a supply of children «available for adoption» (the vocabulary used is often very indicative), to the supply of prospective adopters who meet the demand of children in need of adoption (psycho-medico-socially and legally «adoptable» children)? Here are a few ideas to explore.

“Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment… – Recalling that each State should take, as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin – Recognizing that inter- country 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.” Extracts from the preambles to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and The Hague Convention of 1993.

Children are waiting …

Millions of children and young people « with special needs » or “who present particularities” reportedly live in family or institutional placements around the world, both in developing countries or those in transition and in the industrialized countries. Too often, no permanency planning has been drawn up for them. Even if adoption is probably not the solution for the adequate permanent protection for each of them, a certain number are psycho-socially and legally adoptable. Many of them, however, do not find an adoptive family.

After ten years’ existence, the IRC is changing its name. It is in no way a change of mandate but the intensification and a more precise rendering of the terms of its activities.

Making it compulsory for prospective adopters to go through the adoption accredited bodies (AAB) of the receiving countries, although not imposed by The Hague Convention of 1993 (THC-1993), constitutes an absolute guarantee for inter-country adoptions between countries, be they members or not of the Convention. These AAB must be approved by the receiving countries (art. 9-11 of THC-1993), and authorised by the country of origin (art. 12).v

Experience shows that the involvement of the adoption accredited bodies of the receiving States in the inter-country adoption process can make a positive contribution to promoting the rights of the child deprived of family, to respecting the principle of subsidiarity of inter-country adoption, as well as providing multidisciplinary support at various stages for the children, the parents of origin and the adopters. The AAB’ mediation thus increases the chances of a successful adoption and serves as an ethical guarantee (see the Editorial in Bulletin 70). Nonetheless, this safeguard is not automatic. Thus, numerous private adoption accredited bodies, sometimes accredited in their own State, have never given serious consideration to what, in their practice, the ethics of the best interests of the child means. Some have been or are accomplices and sometimes protagonists in exerting pressure, in abusing, in violating the rights of the child, or even in trafficking. Furthermore, determining the number and the profile of adoption accredited bodies authorised to collaborate with a State of origin, often takes no account of children’s needs and from the outset becomes a source of competition and pressuring (see the Editorial in Bulletin 65).

Millions of children throughout the world are currently in, or in need of, out-of-home care because their parents are unavailable or unable to care for them. They live with relatives, in foster care, in residential facilities, in child-headed households or in the street. They reside in their own country or are displaced internationally (children placed abroad, separated child asylum seekers or undocumented migrants …). Sometimes, care is provided under conditions that violate their rights: abuse, lack of efforts towards family reunification and/or permanency planning, deprivation of liberty, etc.

For an adequate protection of children separated from their family during natural disasters

The ban on discrimination is a basic principle of the protection of human rights in general and the rights of the child in particular.

The ISS/IRC study on the age of prospective adoptive parents has been brought up to date. A sizeable number of States impose a minimum age but few of them fix a maximum age.

The spirit of The Hague Convention 1993 invites States of origin to collaborate with the number and type of partners in receiving States that best fit the needs of their children.

This article establishes minimum standards: they can surely be improved by good practices in both receiving countries and countries of origin.

Besides preventing the separation of the child from his/her parents, one of today’s great challenges for many countries resides in the development, for each child placed in institution or in a foster family, of an individualized plan for permanent and preferably family life.

One of the difficulties of the adoption process consists of striking a balance between two apparently contradictory aims: on the one hand, the need to take the time to identify the best permanent solution for the child, and on the other hand, the child’s need not to stay too long in the uncertainty of a provisional solution (institution or foster family).

While some children are certainly “trafficked for the purpose of adoption”, there is no evidence, as far as we know, that children have been “trafficked through adoption for subsequent exploitation.”

A State giving preference to simple adoption or to full adoption is certainly linked to its cultural concept of the family and thus raises ethical questions when it comes to recognising intercountry adoptions.

At the start of a series of three editorials devoted to the post-adoption period, the IRC presents the issue of professional support during the first moments of the adoptee’s life together with his new family.

During the post-adoption period, the child and the adoptive family may need professional support, as explained in our previous editorial. Concurrently, another step of a different nature aims at monitoring the welfare of the internationally adopted child for the information of the State of origin.

This editorial is the third of a series devoted to the post-adoption period. In the previous two editorials, we presented the issue of professional support in the first moments of the adoptee’s life together with his/her new family, and addressed the question of follow-up reports required by the States of origin. Given the complexity of the search for origins, it will be addressed in two parts: the first one presents the theoretical aspects of the issue whilst the last editorial will be dedicated to the implementation of this specific aspect of adoption.

Having presented the different points of view on the right to know one’s origins, we address, in this last editorial on post-adoption, some practical aspects of the implementation of the search for origins.

When people living outside their country of origin adopt a child from this same country, it frequently happens that national regulations are inconsistent with those at the international level, particularly the Hague Convention of 1993 (HC-1993). If the responses vary according to the situation, the best interests of the child, here too, should be the primary consideration.

If full adoption continues to be the most widely followed approach when it comes to placing a child in a new family on a permanent basis, one wonders if this choice is always the one that best safeguards the rights of the various persons involved, and particularly those of the biological parents. Through the few examples presented below, we have intended to open a debate on the place of full adoption in the future.

A decisive step towards the adoption of the United Nations Guidelines for the Protection and Alternative Care of Children without Parental Care.

Developments in intercountry adoption and its implementation in countries of origin may sometimes share similarities with development programmes, thus creating a new dynamic whilst also raising important issues. Although conventional texts highlight the need for genuine cooperation among countries, the meaning and the scope of the latter still remain to be defined in a context which experiences constant change.

In order to better disseminate the ethical principles, which govern intercountry adoption and, thus, to rectify the biased news coverage of adoption in general, and even more so when celebrities are adopting, it would be useful for adoption professionals to appear more in the media.

Stays abroad are often at the root of adoption procedures, which soon become particularly complex, since they fall outside any legal framework. Emotions often obscure the legal principles yet designed to protect children. The following is an overview of adoption on holiday…

Initial statistics for the year 2006 reflect a tendency towards a decrease in the number of intercountry adoptions. This slowdown, however, raises a number of questions, in relation both, to its possible causes and to its possible long–term consequences.

Although countries of origin increasingly take more steps to protect themselves against the pressure from receiving countries, which “lack children”, the latter must now find the means of better managing the flow of their prospective adoptive parents.

As part of a joint UNICEF-ISS project, the Monthly Review will include a series of articles on the protection of the best interests and the rights of unaccompanied children.

Whilst in receiving countries, there is great concern about information relating to the health, psychological state of the child and his/her possible background, the same occurs in countries of origin in relation to the criteria of evaluation of prospective adoptive parents.

A major fear, if not the greatest, of all those affected by an adoption and those involved in the process is that the adoption fails to create an attachment and that, despite the efforts provided by all, an assessment of the child’s situation may conclude that his separation from the adoptive family is in his best interests. How could these situations be prevented and responded to?

Often faced with questions relating to the mechanisms available to States to fight against the violation of children’s rights through internet-based listing systems for children awaiting adoption, the ISS/IRC hereby wishes to address, question and raise the conditions under which this practice could be used to respond adequately and carefully to the needs of children.

Recent events between France and Chad have highlighted the risks that a blind desire ‘to save children’ may lead to. They also question the image, which the West may have of countries in the South. In addition, they illustrate a worrying confusion between humanitarian action and intercountry adoption.

At the beginning of this new year, the ISS/IRC team wishes to present the various activities, which have marked this exceptionally rich year. Given that most of the readers of the Monthly Review do not have access to the Centre annual report, the latter believes it useful to go back over these projects in order to provide you with a more comprehensive picture of its services.

Following the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, which declared the refusal to grant a certificate of eligibility, based – even partially – on the applicant’s sexual orientation to be discriminatory, this editorial reviews the very thorny issue of adoption by homosexuals.

Since 2004, the Netherlands have developed a practice, in which the waiting period for prospective adoptive parents is arranged at the beginning of the procedure for obtaining an authorisation to adopt a first child. The compulsory preparation of prospective adoptive parents constitutes another way to channel the flow of adoption requests.

This month, the ISS/IRC wishes to address the benefits and the challenges flowing from the entry into force of the Hague Convention in the USA, and its potential implications for the domestic and global situation of intercountry adoption.

Africa has rapidly become a major region of origin for intercountry adoptions and recent events have drawn the attention of authorities to the implications of such processes.

Although the issue of intercountry adoption costs remains a difficult topic to address, the sharing of responsibility between States of origin and receiving States remains inadequate in this field. However, better cooperation among States should lead to greater transparency.

The fall in inter-country adoptions, which is common throughout the world, reflects amongst other things, an improvement in the provision of domestic care for children in the countries of origin. Faced with this situation, the receiving countries are looking for new countries to adopt in, particularly in Africa.

The systems of parental leave for adoption vary considerably from one State to another. Irrespective of how essential they may be in questions of support for adoptive families, they do not always adequately respond to the needs of adopted children and their parents.

Sorting through the myriad of definitions being used and misused to identify the number of adoptable children can be an onerous task and requires clarification for better policy making

No doubt de-institutionalization is one of the main challenges in the field of child protection today. This editorial canvasses Brazil’s process of de-institutionalization based on the Masters Thesis* by Roberta Salle Levy which amongst others shows that de-institutionalization is not always optimal especially where alternatives are inadequate.

Recent legislative and practical developments have shown that a more important position is now granted to the family and culture of origin of the child. Are we witnessing a new perspective of intercountry adoption – one that is closer to its intercultural dimension?

The principle of subsidiarity, fundamental to adoption mainly conceived and understood as an obligation of countries of origin raises complex issues as intercountry adoption develops.

The draft UN guidelines for the appropriate use and conditions of alternative care for children faces a dilemma: advance forward without necessarily achieving a general consensus or, on the contrary, prioritising the latter at the risk of further postponing the adoption of the text.

With the growing number of celebrities adopting children, it is more than reasonable to ask whether the wealth, fame and publicity attached to such actions is helpful or harmful.

The adoptee’s rights and those of his biological parents on the one hand, as well as those of his adoptive parents on the other can sometimes lead to conflict. It then becomes a matter of seeking solutions that respect the needs and rights of all concerned parties with those of the child as a priority.

The statistics of the major receiving countries confirm once more the drop in the number of inter- country adoptions throughout the world. If the major countries of origin continue to be more or less the same, their evolution is notably different. The magnitude of demand in receiving countries still remains a huge unknown.

The specificities of adopted children are still too often the source of unsuitable patterns of behaviour at all levels of society. More awareness raising is still necessary.

When States terminate parental authority, there are a number of competing interests at stake, some of which are not easily reconcilable and can be of particular importance in the adoption process.

The Convention has made it possible to blaze indispensable trails for the protection of children, particularly those deprived of family. It is now a matter of reinforcing and implementing them better.

The response to dozens of adoption dossiers that were in the process of being finalised before the earthquake must be differentiated based on how advanced the procedure is. In every case at the moment, the finalisation of adoption is not a priority.

It is our February editorial (instead of January) that looks back on 2009 to present our activities and recall the events that shaped intercountry adoption last year given that current realities have somewhat disrupted our habits.

There are numerous administrative and legal texts that foresee the obligation to convene a multidisciplinary team when it is time to take decisions about adoption. Such texts are helpful on the condition that safeguards are integrated for their effective implementation.

Given the frequency of moratoriums in intercountry adoption procedures, and irrespective of the context of why and how one is instigated, international law demands that certain minimum standards are evoked to ensure the best protection of children in their application.

The 3rd Special Commission to be hosted next month by the Hague Conference on Private International Law provides a unique forum to share information on the implementation of THC-93 and make recommendations to ensure a better respect of the Convention’ s requirements.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law hosted the 3rd Special Commission last June resulting in clear advances, yet much work remains for subsequent Commission meetings.

At the moment of publishing their study on adoptions in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, the ISS/IRC devotes this special edition to the question of adoption in the context of crises.

This bulletin offers mothers of origin a special position, by highlighting their difficult experiences and opening up ways of thinking ahead by providing them high quality support.

This editorial examines the complicated issue of determining the child’ s future placement when an independent body finds that s/he has been bought by his/her adoptive parents, who on the one hand can offer a stable and loving family but on the other hand have committed a crime against the child.

This new series aims to tackle the multifaceted issues that must be addressed when considering adoption as a permanent family option for children with disabilities in need of care.

At the beginning of this year, the ISS/IRC both enthusiastically and critically looks at the world of intercountry adoption in 2010 as well as how it has contributed to change.

The issue of discrimination in adoption matters has been the subject of a significant judgment issued by the Italian High Court: the decision recalls that the matching is not on the basis of the selection of a child by the adoption applicants.

In the light of the receiving countries’ increasing interest in Africa, countries of origin from this region are facing the need for legislative reforms aimed at tackling the risks related to illegal activities.

In order to consolidate and develop its activities, the ISS/IRC launches, for the first time, a call to the readers of its Monthly Review.

On the occasion of the publication by the ISS/IRC of a guide on the risks relating to intercountry adoption developed for professionals and prospective adopters, the ISS/IRC wishes to address the tricky issue of fraudulent civil certificates, which are sometimes issued with a view to intercountry adoption.

As essential actors in the intercountry adoption procedure, the embassies of receiving countries take on various technical tasks, whilst playing a nonetheless important political role, which is however not always easy to reconcile with the demands of their different counterparts.

Intrinsic to some traditional cultures, or a true emerging professional field, family mediation opens its doors to adoptive families. As evidenced in this editorial, it offers them many advantages.

In this review examines ISS/IRC explores the evolution of intercountry adoption, as well as the 2010 statistics and its project supporting children with disabilities.

The numerous deinstitutionalisation movements worldwide have propelled foster care to the front row. As a reaction to this controversial phenomenon, the ISS/IRC has decided to dedicate a special issue to this form of child care.

An increasing number of countries of origin and receiving countries agree on the importance of prospective adoptive parents coming to the child’ s country of origin. The debate focuses today more on the requirements linked to these visits, and their impact on the child and the parents.

As a recurrent issue in adoption, and one that is continually changing in accordance with modern developments, the search for origins must today face new challenges, which the ISS/IRC is reflecting on, in particular, the growing role of social networks in this process.

Dr Chicoine, Professor of Paediatrics at Montreal’s CHU Sainte-Justine (Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre), and J Lemieux, a Quebec Social Worker, who have been supporting and caring for adoptive families for over 20 years, share their views on the complex issue of the adoption of children with so-called ‘special needs’.

Two years after the earthquake, the issue of whether to resume intercountry adoptions with Haiti is insistently being raised, but for the ISS, it remains too early.

In June 2011, following a recommendation from the Committee on the Rights of the Child against the use of baby boxes1, the debate on this means of abandonment has been revived, prompting the ISS/IRC to reflect on this sensitive issue.

The African conference held in Addis Ababa on 29=30 May on Intercountry Adoption: Alternatives and Controversies brought together hundreds of participants concerned by this issue from across the continent.