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I wasn't sure where to add this into current discussions, so I thought I'd start a new post.
Quote:
Rising demand for Ethiopian children and the lack of adequate mechanisms to ensure compliance with procedures meant to protect their best interests have led to concerns about methods used by adoption agencies and child care institutions.
They would do well to extend their scrutiny throughout Africa. As the laws tighten up in Ethiopia, another country with equally lax laws will become du jour.
Tiff - I feel so bad about Ethiopia - the sheer onslaught of adoption agencies that hit around the time Guat closed - the huge spike in adoptions just made it more than Ethiopia could be able to oversee. It certainly was not handled by the adoption agencies with care and attention, especially after the failure in Guat - they should have learned their lessons. DNA should have been a requirement from the get go.
BUT there is hope it will get better...
The senate just passed "Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012" which from what I understand requires adoptions from non-Hague countries be processed under Hague rules. I think it will help but am sure it is not the be all - end all solution. But it is a start.
The problem with the "Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012" is that it does not come into force until 18 months after it is signed into law, and any applications for advance processing of orphan petitions pending, or approved (and approval has not expired), are exempt from the new law. That to me says there will be a huge rush in the 18 months prior to implementation.
The new accreditation standard would help safeguard against corruption and fraud in the adoption process.
“The safety of children across the globe should be our number one concern in the adoption process and this commonsense reform will help us get them placed into safe and loving homes. Piecemeal, conflicting adoption standards have made far too many cracks and chasms in the system that left room for corruption, deception, and often outright fraudulent adoptions. I’m grateful to our Ranking Member Dick Lugar and Senators Landrieu and Inhofe for partnering with me in this effort to elevate and put in place universal adoption standards that make kids the priority,” said U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
The link above provides this link to the law (note - I do not know if changes prior to the Senate passage)
And I applaud Unicef for their actions. The adoption agencies etc have no one to blame except themselves, they should have learned from their failures.
The families with whom I am familiar who've recently adopted from Ethiopia have chosen to adopt children who are HIV positive, whose parents have died of AIDS or who are very ill and unable to care for their children, whose custody has been relinquished to orphanages. All of the original parents of whom I am aware have been relieved and happy to have their children adopted into loving families who will provide the life-saving health care the children need and deserve, but which is largely unavailable in their native country. Such adoptive families are keeping in touch with their children's original families and have provided what support they can to assist them.
Of course, the underlying tragedy of AIDS needs to be addressed to minimize such situations. But I hope UNICEF's actions do not impede such adoptions as I described, as long as the AIDS crisis in Ethiopia remains unchanged.
The families with whom I am familiar who've recently adopted from Ethiopia have chosen to adopt children who are HIV positive, whose parents have died of AIDS or who are very ill and unable to care for their children, whose custody has been relinquished to orphanages. All of the original parents of whom I am aware have been relieved and happy to have their children adopted into loving families who will provide the life-saving health care the children need and deserve, but which is largely unavailable in their native country. Such adoptive families are keeping in touch with their children's original families and have provided what support they can to assist them.
Of course, the underlying tragedy of AIDS needs to be addressed to minimize such situations. But I hope UNICEF's actions do not impede such adoptions as I described, as long as the AIDS crisis in Ethiopia remains unchanged.
Craig, the problems UNICEF is highlighting is that the stories told to APs are often not accurate. Often, parents are being told lies by the agencies in order to get their children. This is a huge problem, and the fact that there really are guenuine orphans who could benefit from international adoption does not excuse the egregious wrongs being done by the majority of agencies operating in Ethiopia.
I have shared this video before, and I'm sharing it again because it is an individual story that highlights the problems rampant in Ethiopia. UNICEF is not investigating to halt ethical adoptions. They are working to make all adoptions ethical. Of course there are families who have adopted children from Ethopia in an ethical manner. However, it is coming to be seen that this is the rarity instead of the general principle. This is wrong and should be corrected.
APs should know the truth about the child they are adopting. The child should be legitimately available for adoption, not coerced from their family. Agencies are flat out lying to PAPs, and that needs to stop.
Guatemala ended up being closed to adoptions because if the rampant corruption. I would much prefer that Ethopia fix their issues so that children who legitimately can benefit from adoption, real orphans, can continue to be served. My personal opinions regarding the benefits of IA verses in-country assistance not withstanding, this is the method that would best serve the children before Ethiopia ends up shut down because the corruption is not stopped.
Tiff - I feel so bad about Ethiopia - the sheer onslaught of adoption agencies that hit around the time Guat closed - the huge spike in adoptions just made it more than Ethiopia could be able to oversee. It certainly was not handled by the adoption agencies with care and attention, especially after the failure in Guat - they should have learned their lessons. DNA should have been a requirement from the get go.
BUT there is hope it will get better...
The senate just passed "Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012" which from what I understand requires adoptions from non-Hague countries be processed under Hague rules. I think it will help but am sure it is not the be all - end all solution. But it is a start.
The problem with the "Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012" is that it does not come into force until 18 months after it is signed into law, and any applications for advance processing of orphan petitions pending, or approved (and approval has not expired), are exempt from the new law. That to me says there will be a huge rush in the 18 months prior to implementation.
And I applaud Unicef for their actions. The adoption agencies etc have no one to blame except themselves, they should have learned from their failures.
The families with whom I am familiar who've recently adopted from Ethiopia have chosen to adopt children who are HIV positive, whose parents have died of AIDS or who are very ill and unable to care for their children, whose custody has been relinquished to orphanages. All of the original parents of whom I am aware have been relieved and happy to have their children adopted into loving families who will provide the life-saving health care the children need and deserve, but which is largely unavailable in their native country. Such adoptive families are keeping in touch with their children's original families and have provided what support they can to assist them.
Of course, the underlying tragedy of AIDS needs to be addressed to minimize such situations. But I hope UNICEF's actions do not impede such adoptions as I described, as long as the AIDS crisis in Ethiopia remains unchanged.
Craig - there are well-done adoptions and then there are corrupt adoptions. The Ministry of Women and Children (think that's what it is called) put the brakes on quite some time ago, and also closed a couple dozen orphanages that were pretty much just pipeline orphanages. They want adoptions done properly - not the type where you can get an infant in less than 6 months or a year, or where the parents think the kids are just going the US to be educated, and will be back when the turn 18, etc. They want it done right, and that includes not having non-licensed in Ethiopia agencies umbrelling onto licensed in Ethiopia agencies, just yesterday the DOS posted yet another notice to that effect. Either the adoption agencies play by the rules, and Unicef helps reunite those that can be, or the adoption agencies don't, and eventually Ethiopia will close like Guat and other countries. It won't be Unicef's fault - it will be the fault of agencies that don't play by the rules.
In the case of the family I described, both children were "older": their daughter was about nine when she was adopted; their son around four. They met the mother of their daughter at the time of her adoption, and the situation is exactly as I described above. I am not sure whether or not they met the parents of the little boy, but assume they used the same agency, so would expect his adoption to also be ethical. Obviously, this is not to say that all adoptions from Ethiopia are on the up-and-up, but neither are all adoptions from Ethiopia corrupt.
Once again, it would be wise for anyone considering adoption from Ethiopia (or anywhere else, for that matter) to exert caution, and to inform themselves as fully as possible before traveling and committing to a child or children, to make sure everything is done as it should be, with the child or children's best interests taking priority over all other considerations.
In the case of the family I described, both children were "older": their daughter was about nine when she was adopted; their son around four. They met the mother of their daughter at the time of her adoption, and the situation is exactly as I described above. I am not sure whether or not they met the parents of the little boy, but assume they used the same agency, so would expect his adoption to also be ethical. Obviously, this is not to say that all adoptions from Ethiopia are on the up-and-up, but neither are all adoptions from Ethiopia corrupt.
Once again, it would be wise for anyone considering adoption from Ethiopia (or anywhere else, for that matter) to exert caution, and to inform themselves as fully as possible before traveling and committing to a child or children, to make sure everything is done as it should be, with the child or children's best interests taking priority over all other considerations.
I think I was quite clear in saying not all adoptions are corrupt. An independent investigation of many adoptions outweighs the personal experience of knowing a couple people who adopted. I say this with no maliciousness, just fact. I don't disagree with your friend's personal experience. I disagree with what you are saying as related to the overall issues because of what independent investigations are finding- that by and large, there is a lot of corruption occurring in Ethipoia.
But I don't agree that it should be solely up to the PAPs to ensure everything is done correctly. There are too many risks involved. There are PAPs who won't care or don't know to do due diligence, for example. There will also be well-meaning people who do their best and still adopt a child who was not technically available. It is best to improve the entire system rather than rely on the inherent goodness of people.
Last edited by tiffjoy; 12-12-2012 at 05:42 PM..
Reason: Clarification
Craig, that's great your friends had a good experience. But a sample size of one ethical adoption (your friends) doesn't mean the whole country isn't troubled by corruption. I have friends who are great adoptive parents who have found out that their children were trafficked from Ethiopia. So there's an opposite experience. We need to be looking at the country (and continent) as a whole. I agree with Tiff that while your insistence that people are inherently good would be lovely in theory, it's just not true in practice. Insisting that we see the glass a half-full is not going to change the corruption.
I am sure you have seen that there are people being tried in Paris for illegally taking children from Chad, and that adoption and human trafficking are known to be intertwined. This has been written about at length in reputable journals, for example, at Harvard. International Adoption
There is a book about this, as well, Scott Carney's "The Red Market," as distasteful as it may be to you to think of trafficking. There is good with the bad, to be certain, but we need to fix what is wrong before we cover it over with "happy" stories. It's not all right to turn a blind eye to what is unethical.
Things need to change.
Last edited by MirrenC; 12-12-2012 at 05:37 PM..
Reason: grammar
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