1 April 2011<\/p>\n
United Adoptees International (UAI), on their Blog<\/a>, alert to the fact that the fastest growing Dutch adoption agency\u00a0NAS<\/a> is pushing for reopening Haitian adoptions by way of an Internet petition. The Dutch Secretary of State Fred Teeven had decided in December 2010 to temporarily suspend these adoptions. “Due to the limited capacity of the Haitian government, a careful adoption process can not be guaranteed at this time,” He planned a visit to Haiti in March 2011, but that now has been postponed because the new Haitian government is not yet in place.<\/p>\n In their Dutch Blog posting<\/a>, UAI is quoting a letter they received from the Dutch Ministry of Justice\u00a0(March 21, 2011)\u00a0about the finalizing of the adoptions of children from the Dutch babylifting in January 2010:<\/p>\n “I am aware\u00a0that\u00a0the\u00a0court\u00a0so far\u00a0only\u00a0has\u00a0converted\u00a0a few cases of\u00a0these weak\u00a0adoptions\u00a0into strong\u00a0adoptions,\u00a0partly because\u00a0of\u00a0these children\u00a0not\u00a0all\u00a0original documents are\u00a0available. Considering the fact that\u00a0these\u00a0conversions\u00a0concern\u00a0private\u00a0matters<\/span>,\u00a0I have\u00a0no\u00a0access to\u00a0information on\u00a0all of\u00a0these cases\u00a0and\u00a0I can not give you\u00a0exact\u00a0figures.\u00a0“ Private???<\/strong><\/p>\n First of all, these children were flown in by a plane paid by the Dutch government.<\/p>\n Second, the Dutch government asked authorisation from the Haitian Prime Minister to do so.<\/p>\n Under the Dutch law on access to\u00a0documents (WOB), ACT requested the formal correspondence about this:<\/p>\n \u00a0Full text HERE<\/a> (in Dutch and French).<\/p>\n Ttranslated from Dutch\/French:<\/p>\n Since Friday 15 January, Dutch humanitarian aid is in full move in Haiti. Considering the dramatic situation also for the children in the children\u2019s homes, the Dutch government has put in place an evacuation program for the children in adoption procedures by Dutch families. It concerns in total 102 children in three different \u2018creches\u2019. The files of 60 children passed the Court of First Instance of Port au Prince; 52 files are either with IBESR or at \u2018Parquet\u2019 for necessary follow up. Therefore, the Haitian adoption of these 52 files has not yet been finalized.\u00a0 I ask you in the name of my Government and in name of the 102 adoptable children to inform me as soon as possible about your decision. We need your written agreement or your approval by signing this letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, after guaranteeing the Haitian Prime Minister that the Dutch Government will start the adoption procedures, now the Dutch Minister tells UAI that finalising of the adoption is a PRIVATE MATTER.<\/p>\n The Minister also is not able to give further information? Interestingly enough Dutch courtcases are available online. We have found several cases where the Dutch Courts refused to acknowledge the Haitian adoption decision. And as a result also refused guardianship to the adoptive parents.<\/p>\n Remember: Haiti only knows \u2018weak\u2019 adoption, so the legal parent-child bond remains in tact.<\/p>\n Was the Ministry perhaps not aware of possible problems in getting Haitian adoptions legalised?<\/p>\n Did they not know about these problems when they wrote their reassuring letter to the Haitian Prime Minister \u2013 just days after the devastating earthquake?<\/p>\n Sure they knew. Already in 2002 there were serious problems with adoptions from Haiti. The Dutch Youth Inspection, responsible for monitoring the functioning of adoption agencies, wrote a report about adoptions done by FLASH. FLASH has merged in the meantime with NAS.<\/p>\n Report Inspection Youth Care: 1 October 2002<\/a><\/p>\n Also not protected in the Netherlands<\/strong>\u00a0 For single parents, the period of care is three years.\u00a0 Conclusion: <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n The custody\u00a0relationship\u00a0between\u00a0the adoptive\u00a0parents\u00a0and\u00a0children at the\u00a0time\u00a0of entry\u00a0into Netherlands\u00a0is not\u00a0clear.\u00a0For\u00a0Haitian\u00a0law,\u00a0the\u00a0parents are the legal\u00a0representatives. The current problems with the finalization of the Haitian adoptions are, however, not specific to the Netherlands:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAccording to C\u00e9line Boyard, vice president of the Federation, Enfance et Familles d\u2019Adoption, 600 children have arrived since January 2010. \u201cThey all had the papers, many more than those who recently arrived, and it is a battle at the Courts. The families all have difficulties to obtain the conversion and full French adoption. \u201c<\/p>\n These legal obstacles are not limited to France. According to C\u00e9line Boyard, in the Netherlands and Germany, families are also struggling in the Courts. It is impossible to adopt Haitian children without documents. \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0Today\u2019s French news<\/a>\u00a0revealed the existance of about a document of the French Ministry of Justice, of 22 December 2010, that instructs French judges to refuse\u00a0converting weak adoptions into full adoptions for children recently arrived in France.<\/p>\n In Germany the District Court took it a step further. On\u00a031 May 2010\u00a0the\u00a0German District Court of D\u00fcsseldorf\u00a0ruled that an Ethiopian adoption\u00a0could \u00a0not be accepted\u00a0under German law, as it is obviously incompatible with the fundamental principles of German law, in particular with the fundamental rights. This decision was appealed by the adoptive parents.<\/p>\n On\u00a018 January 2011\u00a0the German Higher Regional Court\u00a0(Dusseldorf)\u00a0confirmed this ruling. This decision cannot not be appealed.<\/p>\n The ruling was based on the fact that article 21-b of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was not complied with, meaning that\u00a0a child may only be\u00a0transferred for adoption into a foreign country and into another culture, when all avenues have been exhausted for the placement of the child in his own family and in its own country.<\/p>\n Article 21 Additionally,\u00a0the Court rulet that the\u00a0appointment of new (adoptive) parents further requires that they have factually grown into the role of the failed parents<\/strong>, so in terms of German law that between the child and his new parents and vice versa, a parent-child relationship has been founded or its formation can be expected.\u00a0 Therefore,\u00a0the personality right of the child has not sufficiently enough been respected, as far as before the adoption no initiation of a parent-child relationship took place, which for practical reasons (visa handling ) should have taken place in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n Full text (informal translation): HERE<\/a><\/p>\n What to conclude? Intercountry adoptions are nowadays rarely in compliance with article 21b of the UNCRC. And\u00a0even so \u00a0it is rare that parents have grown into the role of the failed parents before they adopt the child in the country or origin.<\/strong><\/p>\n The question then remains: how could all previous adoption have been granted in Germany, and elsewhere?<\/strong><\/p>\n Food for thought!<\/strong> 1 April 2011 United Adoptees International (UAI), on their Blog, alert to the fact that the fastest growing Dutch adoption agency\u00a0NAS is pushing for reopening Haitian adoptions by way of an Internet petition. The Dutch Secretary of State Fred Teeven had decided in December 2010 to temporarily suspend these adoptions. “Due to the limited capacity… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2190"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2200,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2190\/revisions\/2200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n[\u2026]
\nI can guarantee you that the Dutch government, immediately after the arrival of the children in the Netherlands, will start the adoption procedure of these children in close cooperation with the Haitian government. Also follow up reports after six (6) months and after one (1) year are guaranteed.<\/p>\n
\nWhen the children arrive in the Netherlands they are by Haitian law adopted by parents who collect them at Schiphol, but under Dutch legislation this is not the case.\u00a0The parents in question need, when are married, first have to have had the children in care for one year before the adoption process can start in the Netherlands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThere is no registration system in the Netherlands, in which is monitored when the children\u00a0
\nshould be adopted and whether that happened.\u00a0
\nAlso custody during the period of care until adoption is not standardly provided.\u00a0The children are in some cases registered by the local administration “visiting relatives”.\u00a0Information about the custody is not clear and on questions by the Inspection about the custody relationship sometimes parents reacted shocked as the parents do not know.\u201d
\n[\u2026]<\/p>\n
\nIn\u00a0Haiti\u00a0there is\u00a0a\u00a0parent-child\u00a0relationship.\u00a0In the\u00a0Netherlands, the adoptive\u00a0parents\u00a0must provide their\u00a0children\u00a0first\u00a03 years\u00a0of care\u00a0and\u00a0education\u00a0before they\u00a0 actually\u00a0can adopt.\u00a0The\u00a0Civil\u00a0Code\u00a0states\u00a0that\u00a0for any minor there needs to be provision for custody.\u00a0It remains\u00a0unclear\u00a0how\u00a0the adoption\u00a0legislation\u00a0relates to\u00a0the\u00a0requirement\u00a0of\u00a0the Civil\u00a0Code\u00a0and\u00a0whether\u00a0the Dutch\u00a0law\u00a0provides for\u00a0the\u00a0custody\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0minor.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nStates Parties that recognize and\/or permit the system of adoption shall ensure that the best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration and they shall:
\n[…]
\n(b) Recognize that inter-country adoption may be considered as an alternative means of child\u2019s 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\u2019s country of origin;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"