Kevin Brennan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and Families) | Hansard source
I am today announcing a suspension of adoptions of Guatemalan children by UK residents in response to concerns about adoption practice in Guatemala. The suspension takes effect immediately.
We have had long-standing concerns about the adoption process in Guatemala, as evidenced by the imposition of additional procedural checks administered by the British embassy in Guatemala and the UK's objection to Guatemala's accession to the Hague convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption in 2003.
I am now introducing a suspension of adoptions in response to new evidence which demonstrates that: there are insufficient safeguards in the Guatemalan adoption system to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given and improper financial gain being made by individuals in the adoption process. In particular that: there is a trade in babies being sold for overseas adoption; and mothers are being paid, or otherwise encouraged, to give up children for adoption. Such practices are, of course, contrary to the principles of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
I have given careful consideration to the position of UK prospective adopters currently in the process of adopting from Guatemala. I have decided that the suspension will take effect at the point when a Certificate of Eligibility is sent to Guatemala by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (or in a Northern Ireland case by the Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety for Northern Ireland). This is the last point in the application process administered by the DCSF (or the DHSSPS).
Applications already sent to Guatemala will be not be prevented from proceeding in the usual way (subject, of course, to the usual checks), but only in exceptional circumstances will I consider that any other application may proceed. A decision about any application for an exception to the suspension will take account of the best interests of the child and all the facts of the particular case.
I understand that the Guatemala authorities intend to legislate so as to implement the Hague Convention in the coming months, but I consider that the nature of the information currently held means we must act now. I will, of course, consider the effect on the ground of any changes to adoption legislation and practice in Guatemala, in keeping the suspension under review.
Adoptions from Guatemala have always been surrounded by a bad smell that just won't go away - from their obnoxious origins in the internal conflict to the current situation where it is a virtual industry, with constant allegations of children being abducted to feed it. Given that it can cost up to $30,000 per case, and current estimates say about 18 adoptions per day are being processed, the financial incentives for obtaining babies by coercion or kidnapping are clear. The result is that Guatemala puts forward more children for adoption per head of population than any other country.
Various organisations, such as Casa Alianza, have been raising the issue of irregularities in adoptions for a long time. Most recently, on October 12, Casa Alianza and the Centre for Justice and International Law, Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL) presented their concerns at a session at the Interamerican Human Rights Commission. They gave figures for adoptions - 2006,registered 4837 adoptions, with 2271 up until August this year.
Their joint investigation showed that 97.3% of adoptions were carried out by lawyers without supervision by a judge. They also recorded in the first half of the year 230 cases of abductions of babies, plus armed kidnaps, removal of children from single and poor mothers and coercion of others into giving up their babies. In one case a 9 month old baby was taken from her pram opposite a sports stadium and has not been seen since.
An adoption law is currently being debated in congress, though it has been subjected to more amendments than it has clauses, and has been a very long time coming. However, there may now be some incentive to get on with it, as the United States, which receives most of these children, is in the process of ratifying the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, which would, once in effect, prevent any adoptions occuring until Guatemala itself has mechanisms in place which conform to the convention. This convention governs inter-country adoption and requires thats states parties "take measures to ensure that intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights, and to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children". The legal situation in Guatemala is complicated - the website of Guatemalan Adoptive Families Network tries to explain it.
