Malawi : Take that Madonna

Adoptions Down Under

Australia's first National Adoption Awareness Week has led to some interesting debates.




Orphan Angels are lobbying to increase the number of intercountry adoptions for Australian families. Not an easy task in current times, where intercountry adoptions are worldwide in a downward spiral.

Today's AP article shows how deep the adoption industry in in trouble
Foreign adoptions by Americans drop sharply

I'd like to complement Ian Robinson for the countering of the Orphan Angel's spreading of the orphan myth.

These Angels Aren't Telling the Whole Story

By Ian Robinson
18 Nov 2008


Deborra-Lee Furness wants us to import a lot more children from other countries for the Australian adoption market — but it's an ignorant and selfish approach to the problem of child poverty, writes Ian Robinson

In a recent Weekend Australian Magazine, Deborra-Lee Furness breathlessly told her interviewer that there were "103 million orphaned children in the world". "How can we have two-year-olds walking the streets," she asked, "fending for themselves, looking through rubbish for food?"
Indeed, how can such a distressing situation be permitted to exist?

Well, you'll be glad to know it doesn't. Furness is just manipulating the numbers to persuade you to support her campaign to import more third-world children to Australia for childless couples here. By preying on public sympathy for these "103 million" poor alleged orphans she is trying to garner support for her pro-child-procurement lobby, charmingly entitled "Orphan Angels", in their attempts to convince the authorities to make inter-country adoptions much easier and supply the local demand.

The truth is quite different and there is no need to panic.

What Furness didn't mention in her PR spiel is that while it is true that UNICEF does cite a large total of "orphans" in the world, the UNICEF definition, for complex historical reasons, includes children who have lost just one of their parents as well as those who have lost both, thus most of them are not orphans by our Australian definition. The UNICEF estimate for true "orphans", those who have lost both parents, is closer to 13 million.

This is still a lot of kids, but the image of this many toddlers scratching around alone for mouldy crusts in the rubbish dumps of the world is also totally misleading. According to UNICEF, "Evidence clearly shows that the vast majority of orphans are living with a surviving parent, grandparent, or other family member". Nor are they typically helpless two-year-olds: "95 per cent of all orphans are over the age of 5" says UNICEF — still pretty young, but already at the point where they're not really attractive on the Western adoption market.

In fact, UNICEF itself is rightly concerned about people misusing the orphan figures in this way because it "may then lead to responses that focus on providing care for individual children rather than supporting the families and communities that care for orphans and are in need of support."

For anyone genuinely concerned about the plight of children in developing countries there is an enormous variety of programs available that do help the families and communities to support and nurture their children in need and keep them with their own relatives in their own culture. Invitations to contribute to such programs appear in your letterbox often.

Although Furness concedes that "Adoption will only ever be a partial solution for the homeless and abandoned children of the world", and her group mentions some of these other initiatives on their website, it is clear that their main focus is not helping children where they are, but bringing them here to live with relatively well-to-do Australians.

The danger is, as UNICEF warns, that the focus on bringing an infinitesimal proportion of needy children to Australia (one thousandth of one per cent), tends to take attention away from the needs of the majority. The cost to an Australian parent of one inter-country adoption would ensure literally hundreds of children thrived in their own countries.

Moreover, there are significant problems with inter-country adoption that Furness and her group have not addressed in their publicity. The first is that it encourages child kidnapping. This practice is rife anyway in many of the countries the children come from and the presence of rich foreigners looking for "orphans" is an open invitation to unscrupulous criminals to supply their needs. The governments of the countries involved are too poor and often too corrupt to set up adequate protective mechanisms to guard against this.

For example, US professor and inter-country adoption expert David Smolin was horrified to eventually discover, after having taken all possible precautions and working through a seemingly authorised agency, that both the children he and his wife had adopted from India had been stolen from their parents.

He subsequently studied the inter-country adoption system in depth, and concluded "there are systemic vulnerabilities in the current inter-country adoption system that make [such] adoption scandals ... predictable. Further ... there are no actors in the inter-country adoption system with the requisite information, authority, and motivation to prevent abusive or corrupt adoption practices. Under these circumstances, 'reform' of the inter-country adoption system remains elusive and illusory."

It would appear that what is needed is more regulation and monitoring rather than less, but what Furness and her group are lobbying for is easier access and less "red tape", which can only exacerbate these problems.

The second thing Deborra-Lee Furness and her "angels" neglect to mention is that frequently adoption — in particular inter-country adoption — does not have a fairytale ending, but on the contrary can be quite problematic.

The most extensive research has been carried out in Sweden, where the practice has been going on longer, and where it was found that inter-country adoptees had significantly higher rates of suicide than national adoptees and both were higher than their non-adopted peers. Additionally, inter-country adoptees had higher levels of drug and alcohol problems; males had significant rates of ADD, while females had significant rates of depression, anxiety, and schizoid and delinquent behaviour.

The same negative outcomes are also becoming evident in other countries, such as the United States, but not as much hard research has yet been carried out there. One of the few Australian studies, on a group of 102 Vietnamese children adopted in NSW during the 1970s, reported that the majority of children placed between the ages of 4 and 6 had difficulties bonding or establishing family relationships, as did 40 per cent of the children placed at 18 months and above.

The truth is that no adoption, inter-country or local, can ever be an ideal or even an admirable solution to any problem. It is always a last resort and is always the unfortunate consequence and cause of more than one person's loss and pain.

All of this has been known for many years and has been studied in detail by plenty of people who have the best interests of the child at heart. But don't advance "pro-child" views in front of Furness or she'll label you part of the evil "anti-adoption culture" which is trying to prevent her group, and the well-to-do Australians they are lobbying for, from getting their hands on more lovely, cute third-world children.

Furness's heart may be in the right place but her polarising attitude and her refusal to come to grips with the limitations of inter-country adoption and its misuse by wealthy westerners has led her not just to see the world through rose-coloured glasses but even to be selective with her facts in order to convince us her campaign is a good thing.

There is a myth in wealthy countries that just as everyone is entitled to vote, have health care and so on, everyone is entitled to a child. The truth is that no-one has the right to a child and in particular no-one has the right to someone else's child. Children are not commodities to be bartered nor possessions with which to complete the perfect home. Other people's children are real people, not just "cures" for infertility.

The author would like to thank Christine Cole for helping with the research for this article.
Discuss this article

Swedish Adoptees Speak Out Against Child Trafficking

Informal translation of yesterday's article in Aftonbladet.

Adoption may be child trafficking

12 foreign adoptees: Western needs should not allow human trafficking.

We support the Social Ministry's decision not to extend adoption agreement with Vietnam.

We want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that dominates the international adoption business, and defend our and all other adoptees right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities were committed in terms of our own adoptions, such as excessive commonly forged documents, false identities and invented stories, are writing 12 foreign adoptees.

The international adoption business since the turn of the millennium not only exploded in scale with the now nearly 40 000 adoptions per year, but was also shaken by a variety of reports on irregularities. Never before were so many children from the Third World adopted to the West, but at the same time, the business has never before involved so many corruption scandals than just in the 2000s.

Due to the falling birth rate in the West and growing prosperity in many countries in the Third Worldm international adoption is today facing an unprecedented situation: There are now more childless adults in the West who want to adopt, than there are adoptable children in the Third World. Then increasing sums of money in circulation have tagged this delicate situation for activities that increasingly are spiraling out in pure human trafficking.

Therefore, the adoption scandals were repeatedly documented over the recent years in leading countries such as China, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Brazil, Paraguay and Guatemala. This has led many beneficiary countries such as Germany, England, Canada, Holland and Australia to terminate its adoption agreement with the most
corruption-stricken countries of origin.

In Sweden, which is the country in the world that proportionately adopted far the largest number of foreign-born children, have adoption organisations, however, chosen to ignore the destructive developments by expanding its operations into new countries that are notorious for child trafficking, and by continuing to adopt from such countries with the argument that the Swedes have a higher morale than other
Westerners. In 2002, for example Adoptionscenter got authorisation of the State Agency for International Adoption Affairs to adopt from Cambodia, despite reporting
about trafficking and the U.S. that stopped adoptions from the country.
The authorization was later lifted after the Swedish Embassy in Cambodia protested against this with reference to the extensive trafficking in the country.

Now this pattern was recently repeated by Social Affairs that decided not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam with reference to the presence of child trafficking, and that the country is not to enter the Hague Convention on Protection of Children in International adoptions. This convention back in 1993 meant to curb an increasingly uncontrollable adoption industry, but still Sweden has a number of
Swedish adoption agencies engaged in activities in countries of origin, including Korea, Thailand and Colombia, that not signed the Convention.

We wish to express our support for the Social Ministry's decision not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam. Western needs to receive adopted children should not steer the international adoption industry, thus risking that trade in human beings gets legitimized and legalized.

As foreign adoptees, we want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that today dominates the international adoption affairs, and assert our and all other adopted children's right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities occurred in terms of our own adoptions, as they are unfortunately too common,
with forged documents, false identities and fake histories, which is a consequence of the adult needs and profit-making governing the international adoption business.

Today's debaters
Daniel Cidrelius, socialantropolog and adopted from Sri Lanka
Gitte Enander, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea
Charlotta Göthlin, Information and adopted from Korea
Daniel Hansson, jur. Stud. and adopted from the Dominican Republic
Linda Place, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Mikael Jarnlo, social and adopted from Ethiopia
Fatima Jonsson, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Patrik Lundberg, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Danjel Nam, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Helena Nilsson, behaviorist and adopted from Korea
Matilda Sjödell, teachers and adopted from Korea
Malena Swanson, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea

Adoption under Fire

Justitiele Verkenning (Judicial Explorations) is published eight times per year by the Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. The central theme of this month's issue is: ADOPTION UNDER FIRE.

Articles:

Adoption and prosperity; an analysis of the demand and supply of adoptive
children, B.M.J. Slot

The perverse effects of the Hague Adoption Convention, R. Post

The development of intercountry adoptees; a research survey, F. Juffer

Alternatives for (intercountry) adoption, P. Vlaardingerbroek

The adoption practice: is it in the obvious best interest of the child? A.P. van der Linden

The full Dutch text, as well as an English summary can be found by clicking HERE

The Adoption Business Explained: The Stork Market

There are people who, after reading my book, are left puzzled... By the intrigues, by the pressure, by all that surrounds intercountry adoptions.

To those interested in learning more about the issue I sincerely recommend Mirah Riben's book 'THE STORK MARKET':

Adoption Today Magazine Review by Denise Roeslle
Adoption Today Oct/Nov 2008(pages 58-59).

“The Stork Market: America’s multi-billion dollar unregulated adoption industry,” Mirah Riben, Advocate Publications, 2007

The Stork Market is not an easy read, whatever your perspective on adoption. Chances are you will squirm, gasp and shake your head in disbelief (as I did). Then, you will likely come to realize that this book is an important addition to the body of adoption literature — in fact, a must-read for every mother who is considering surrendering a child, every couple seeking to adopt, and every adoption professional and legislator in the United States.

You won’t find a more straightforward account of the adoption industry as it exists today. Concise, well researched and documented, The Stork Market offers a comprehensive history of current adoption practices, including the lack of regulations (no requirements for training, licensing and reporting) for agencies and facilitators in 47 of our 50 states, transgressions committed against both natural mothers and adopting parents (including recognizable names like Georgia Tann and Seymour Kurtz), varying international adoption policies, trends toward rushing mothers into the decision to surrender, unenforceable open adoption agreements, safe havens, foster care, and sealed records.

Mirah Riben’s conclusion (a view shared by Origins-USA, on whose board of directors she serves) is that family preservation is the answer — with kinship adoption and legal guardianship as viable alternatives to adoption by strangers, the end to amended birth certificates, enforcement of open adoption agreements, and a greater focus on finding families for older children in foster care.

“It is far easier for the general public to identify and empathize with the plight of someone who desires to be a parent and cannot, than with expectant mothers needing support,” Riben writes. Many in the media “lament the ‘shame’ of the lack of ‘adoptable’ babies, and describe painfully desperate attempts to adopt and ‘deserving’ couples being forced to endure long waiting periods, traveling overseas and/or paying exorbitant fees, and being victimized by scammers. What is overlooked is that the intended purpose of adoption is not to fix infertility but to find homes for children whose families cannot raise them.”

After reading The Stork Market, I believe family preservation is an aim worthy of our consideration and effort. At the very least, major reforms are in order. Riben (along with Evelyn Robinson, a social worker, author and speaker on the long-term outcomes of adoption separation, who has lived and worked in Australia since 1982 and wrote the book’s foreword) cites Australia’s Children’s Protection Act of 1993, an adoption alternative model based on the best interests of children that might well provide a road map for changes here in America. The act makes private adoption illegal, bans commercial adoption agencies and payments of any kind connected to adoptions, encourages and supports expectant mothers in raising their children, requires counseling after birth at least three days prior to consent for adoption, prohibits consent for adoption until the child is at least fourteen days old, and includes the names of both the natural and adoptive parents on the birth/adoption certificate.

Change of this magnitude takes years. In the meantime, The Stork Market provides vital information on mothers’ and fathers’ rights and how adoptive parents can avoid being victimized by unscrupulous agencies and facilitators.

“Adoption is a very personally and emotionally charged issue for those touched by it,” Riben acknowledges. “Few can think about or discuss it without passion. For that reason, this may be a difficult or painful book for some to read. It may make you sad, it may shock you, or it may make you angry. But it is for just these reasons that you might need to read it.”

The French Adoption Reform Further Explained

Some days ago Secretary of State Rama Yade announced further details of the French adoption reform: a new Central Authority will be set up in spring 2009. headed by Ambassador Monchau. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kouchner will make available 3 million euros for project aid and assistance to adoption agencies.

For those not mastering the French language, here an informal english translation of Ms. Rama Yade's speech of 28 July, during which she unfolded at first the French intentions.

Note: there are some 30.000 French families accredited to adopt, and intercountry adoptions and national adoptions are going down.

For the original French text CLICK HERE.

Launch of Network of voluntaries for international adoption
Joint press conference by Secretary of State for foreign affairs and human rights, Ms. Rama Yade, Mr. Jean-Marie Colombani and Mr. Gérard Depardieu


-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

Introductory Mrs Yade

(Paris, 28 July 2008)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Jean-Marie Colombani,

Dear Gérard Depardieu,

Dear Mr. Zannier,

Dear all,

"We have to imagine initiatives ...".

It is a call to action and by these words that the president wanted, as well as Prime Minister in the engagement letter addressed to you, dear Jean-Marie Colombani last October, stimulating reform of the adoption in France.

There was urgency in effect while it represents 80% of adoptions in France international adoptions decline since 2005.

The stagnation of national adoptions aggravates the hardship and frustration of our compatriots who want to adopt, it is obvious. The President has understood immediately that we could not remain inert. The failure in politics is still a lack of imagination.

I would therefore like to announce today the launch of "voluntary network of international adoption."

This is an initiative of the ground, because it is also on the in these countries, we are failing.

These volunteers will be a sort of "peace corps" where we train will young people to use their generosity and talent to a beautiful cause: children without families, abandoned or orphaned.

It is also a shared initiative, and it's up to you dear Gérard Depardieu that we must be able to immediately associate partners in this project. You know how happy I am for your commitment to serve all these children, all families. You are a fine example of generosity and solidarity. You have put your heart and your humanity, and for that I thank you.

In this project, the state actually could not act alone. In today's world, we must be able to act in partnership with associations and companies. And by setting the highest standards of ethical requirement. I wish to commend and thank those who have agreed to commit to our side. They are with us to possibly answer your questions.

I think first of all to Mr. Jacques Godfrain, president of the French Association of Volunteers of Progress without the competence and expertise which the project could not see the day.

Roger Zannier, who is also honorary president of the Foundation Zannier-Holybaby, which agreed to finance the first program we will open next month in Cambodia.

Mrs Janice Peyré and Helena Mahéo respectively presidents of the Federation of Children and Families Adoption and the Movement for Adoption Without Borders, who have agreed to combine their movements to the Committee of Experts on the network to train volunteers and carry with them ongoing mentoring throughout their missions, thus ensuring ethical thing especially when acts with children.

The parliamentarians, who are often asked by families who were willing to contribute to our thinking in working with us, with heart and also with conviction and in particular Ms. Michèle Tabarot, member of the Alpes-Maritimes, president of the Higher Council of 'Adoption and co-chair of the Group of Studies at the National Assembly on the family and adoption. She was kind enough to join us today. I also think Mrs Patricia Adam, member of Finistère, also co-chair of the Task Force.

And of course you, dear Jean-Marie Colombani, who have spontaneously offered to chair the conference of contributors that we meet to complement the financing of state funding of local authorities, if they wish, and companies that agree to join us in this great adventure.

The mission of these volunteers, what is it? It is clear: we must help children out of institutions with the partnership of countries of origin of course. For help and support of an institution, as perfect as it is, does not give the affection of a family. It is the child, family, I want to put at the heart of this project. With ethics-driven, it is important.

The effectiveness as a mode of action. Happiness for children and families is the goal.

We must therefore focus on two things: speed up the release of children in these institutions in order to accommodate others, abandoned or orphaned, and help them build a family life the most viable and as soon as possible.

The volunteers will primarily seek all opportunities existing in the country of mission.

When these are insufficient, and we know that this is still often the case, they will support projects of international adoption.

The needs are immense. I think we should stop saying that the number of children without families falling. Wrong. We must increase our efforts to find concrete solutions, local and international adoption are complementary. What counts anywhere and any time is the interest of the child. That is the message I want to bring the countries where we operate, together with Nadine Morano who is also working remarkably on the topic of adoption, ithat s the message that will have the volunteers on the ground and it is a great ambition.

This network, we will explore with Bernard Kouchner, my minister, to bring this network close to the committed humanitarian embassies. Real synergies can be built.

It is an idea on which Bernard Kouchner is keen, and I will make sure to respect that.

I announce the launch of the first program of this network, in Cambodia next month.

There is a great tradition of solidarity with children between France and Cambodia. I've found with Michèle Tabarot when we visited Cambodia. I also believe that Gérard Depardieu was there also this summer.

But this country, Cambodia has suffered from the excesses of some often committed out of desperation in processes irregular adoption. Although these are very isolated behavior and a minority, where distress has its share, everyone pays the price: children, families, all those who work with heart and generosity for children on place.

So we must be uncompromising with the abuses. You do not play with children. There are major international conventions, including that of The Hague and they must be respected. The texts are valid only when applied. It is time to show that Cambodian families in France do not market children at home but on the contrary, working with them for the benefit of children. This message and the exemplary behavior in the name of the Government and in consultation with Nadine Morano, I would like, and I share whenever I visit a country with which France practices, or enters into discussions on , foreign adoption.

That is also why, along with sending a first volunteer in Cambodia next month, I also decided to reserve 400 000 euros to support financially the work of UNICEF in Cambodia. UNICEF Cambodia pilots the establishment of procedures for the Hague with the Cambodian government.

In 2008 again we will launch four other programs which will subsequently be expanded to 20 countries in 2009.

This experimental network will be an additional tool to serve the strategy for international adoption recommended by the report of Jean-Marie Colombani.

Dear Jean-Marie, you've actually done a remarkable job, which now gives us a lot! And so much the better! Because as you know the Ministry of Foreign Affairs agrees with your conclusions on international adoption and applies to its building since the submission of your report in March.

I am also pleased to present Ambassador Jean-Paul Monchau, who was appointed last June 25 in the Council of Ministers' ambassador for international adoption "with the mission, as you proposed, Mr Colombani, to develop a concerted strategy for international adoption in 2009.

At the beginning of next August 21, it is anticipated that there will be a joint submission with Nadine Morano. We will present all this communication to the Cabinet and it will review the findings of the report Colombani.

I can confirm that this ministry will reform in the sense that you proposed to fully assume its responsibility to pilot France's action in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

We try to give us the means, especially with Alain Joyandet, we decided to make the protection of children neglected an important focus of our policy of international cooperation and development assistance. I asked the ambassador Monchau to consider training for international adoption of our agents abroad. Proposals will be made to improve the functioning and capabilities of our operators, whether the French Agency for Adoption or OAA, ie private organizations dealing with the Adoption.

Finally, as announced by my colleague from the family, these actions will well in a wider reform of the adoption in its two components, national and international, driven by an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Adoption decided by the President of the Republic and chaired by the Prime Minister.

Ladies and gentlemen, I talked a lot but there was so much to say! I took the problem of international adoption to grips since my arrival in trying to understand why it was a road of the cross to adopt in France. We deblocked a lot of individual files with the collaboration of the Quai d'Orsay which proved exceptional in that groundwork and finding new solutions. You are more than one by helping us to find solutions.

So today let's give this ministry the means for a great policy that balances the adoption of both generosity, efficiency, clarity and ethics and that puts the child at the heart of our concerns and that does not rock illusions of families. This is a diplomacy of action in the service of people, confronted with reality.

Thank you.

Adopting 'Orphans' - The Lie We Love

It is not without reason that my book subtitles the untold story of the Romanian 'orphans' -
The children in Romanian children's homes were no orphans.
Slowly the world starts acknowledging where the orphan myth is leading to: to demand for adoptable children.

The US and Unicef definition of 'orphans' is that children with one parent are also considered to be 'orphans'. Unicef recently acknowledged that it is time to revisit the use of the term `orphan' and how it is applied to help overcome the confusion.

Unicef- majority of orphans have families

See also:

The Lie We Love

By E. J. Graff


November/December 2008

Foreign adoption seems like the perfect solution to a heartbreaking imbalance: Poor countries have babies in need of homes, and rich countries have homes in need of babies. Unfortunately, those little orphaned bundles of joy may not be orphans at all.

ALEXANDER MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Who's your mommy?: Parents might never know if their adopted child is truly an orphan.

We all know the story of international adoption: Millions of infants and toddlers have been abandoned or orphaned—placed on the side of a road or on the doorstep of a church, or left parentless due to AIDS, destitution, or war. These little ones find themselves forgotten, living in crowded orphanages or ending up on the streets, facing an uncertain future of misery and neglect. But, if they are lucky, adoring new moms and dads from faraway lands whisk them away for a chance at a better life.

Unfortunately, this story is largely fiction.

Westerners have been sold the myth of a world orphan crisis. We are told that millions of children are waiting for their “forever families” to rescue them from lives of abandonment and abuse. But many of the infants and toddlers being adopted by Western parents today are not orphans at all. Yes, hundreds of thousands of children around the world do need loving homes. But more often than not, the neediest children are sick, disabled, traumatized, or older than 5. They are not the healthy babies that, quite understandably, most Westerners hope to adopt. There are simply not enough healthy, adoptable infants to meet Western demand—and there’s too much Western money in search of children. As a result, many international adoption agencies work not to find homes for needy children but to find children for Western homes.

For the full text CLICK HERE.