N° 71 – The Mediation of the Adoption Accredited Bodies (AAB) of the Receiving States: a guarantee for inter-country adoption but on what conditions?

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).