INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION Child Protection or a Breach of Rights?

Roelie Post wants to distance herself from pro and anti-adoption labels and direct the discussion back to the heart of the matter: whether intercountry adoption is a child protection measure, if children have rights in their own country, and if intercountry adoption is ultimately a breach of such rights? Post ends with the crucial question: can intercountry adoption be legislated without it leading to a demand-driven child market? Romanian banned intercountry adoptions, Post will describe the experience and the consequences for other countries.

Towards a European Adoption Policy?

After the change in power at the end of 2004 in both the European Parliament and the European Commission, within these European institutions, serious efforts were made to reverse the Romanian adoption ban.

In the European Commission Franco Frattini, before Foreign Affairs Minister in the first Berlusconi government, became the Italian Vice President responsible for children’s rights. The European Parliament elections, in 2004, brought two new French members. They did not hide their mission to re-open Romanian adoptions. They had expected Romania to re-allow adoptions after their accession to the European Union, but when that did not happen these politicians took actions (written declarations, press conferences, visits to Romania). Failing success, the French Members of the European Parliament organized a conference on November 9th 2006. The theme was the issuing of a European Adoption Policy in order to re-open Romanian adoptions through the back door.

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