Dublin (PRWEB) June 23, 2004
AdoptionIreland: The Adopted Peoples Association is calling for the immediate ratification of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Childrenin Inter-Country Adoption.
Legislation has been drawn up to ratify the Hague Convention, pending theoutcome of the recent Adoption Legislation Consultation. However,
AdoptionIreland says it is extremely concerned, regarding a recent newspaper report stating that the adoption authorities in Belarus say that prospective Irish adoptive parents are picky and the Department of Health and Childrens announcement of the finalisation of a bilateral agreement with Vietnam. AdoptionIreland, which is the representative organisation of adopted people with an Irish connection, states that Ireland cannot further delay the ratification of Hague if the best interests of the children involved are to be served.
AdoptionIreland PRO, Claire McGettrick says: Romania has set an excellent example by banning inter-country adoption. Ireland has an obligation to prove that it is serious about ensuring that children are properly protected from exploitation by abolishing all bilateral agreements and ratifying The Hague Convention.
The Department of Health says the agreement with Vietnam has been drawn up in the spirit of the Hague Convention. Claire McGettrick says, Anybody who genuinely has the best interests of the child at heart will not object to the ratification of The Hague Convention, so it should not have to wait until the Adoption Legislation Consultation is completed. Children’s rights are not protected by signing agreements that are not ratified into law, are easily broken and merely aspire to live up to Hague. The corruption exposed in Romania highlights the importance of the need for the highest possible protections.”
Mari Steed, AdoptionIrelands US Co-ordinator, has lived through the experience of Inter-Country adoption. Ms. Steed, who has been happily reunited with her natural mother, says, I was one of the 2,000 exported from Ireland for adoption and I cannot tell you what the loss of my country of birth has meant to me growing up. I was raised by an Irish-American family and it was a wonderful life, but its hardly the same as growing up in Ireland under my mothers care.
The notion that Inter-Country adoption is a completely humanitarian act is a myth says Claire McGettrick, We are sympathetic to people who find themselves infertile, but we are extremely concerned that Ireland has forgotten that adoption is supposed to be there to help children, not childless couples. The Irish foster care system is in a huge crisis at the moment and there are children who genuinely need homes, so why are so many couples seeking to adopt from abroad?
AdoptionIreland wishes to extinguish any fears that children will be left homeless resulting from a possible decrease in inter-country adoptions. Mari Steed says We have members living in Romania who have witnessed first hand the corruption in inter-country adoption. The portrayal of thousands of children languishing in orphanages does not depict reality. Most children in orphanages are not orphans, nor are they abandoned, they have parents who want to raise them but poverty prevents them from doing so. Adoption should not be offered as a solution to socio-economic problems.
AdoptionIreland says that by immediately ratifying the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children in Inter-Country Adoption, Ireland will send out a clear message that it does not want to play any part in the exploitation of children.
AdoptionIreland can be contacted at: info@adoptionireland.com web: http://www.adoptionireland.com
