I received this e-mail this morning. I'm not sure where the push for
this is coming from right now, but I am at a minimum ambivalent about
international adoption policies and at most view them as a kind of
genocide. I wonder whether anyone is aware of advocacy groups that are
coming out with counter-proposals.
-- Odeana
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Support Child Rights & International Adoption - Sign On Now
Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 10:05:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Harvard Law Prof Bartholet <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*PLEASE JOIN US IN ENDORSING THIS
INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION POLICY STATEMENT
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Law Faculty Members and Child Rights Supporters:
We write to urge you to join us in supporting the International Adoption
Policy Statement reprinted below. We hope to obtain significant support
for this Policy Statement from Faculty members in Law Schools and
Universities in the U.S. and throughout the world specializing in
Family, Child, Civil Rights and Human Rights Law, and from related legal
professionals. We believe that such support will make a difference in
the policy debate now surrounding International Adoption.
As you may know, International Adoption is in crisis, with the numbers
down significantly during each of the past four years, after steadily
rising during the prior six decades. This is not because of any decline
in unparented children; there continue to be many millions of children
in desperate need of nurturing homes, most of whom are now growing up in
terribly inadequate institutions or on the streets. Instead the
reduction in International Adoption numbers is largely because of
opposition by organizations and individuals alleging that they speak for
the human rights of children. They call for restrictions on
International Adoption that include temporary and permanent moratoria on
such adoption, preferences for in-country foster and institutional care
over out-of-country adoption, "holding periods" that require searching
for in-country homes for months or years before out-of-country placement
is permitted, and the elimination of the private adoption intermediaries
that often serve as the lifeblood of International Adoption. They seek
to severely limit International Adoption to last resort status. We
believe that International Adoption generally serves the interests of
children who cannot be raised by their birth parents better than
non-adoption alternatives like foster and institutional care. We
believe that International Adoption should be kept on the table as one
of the options to serve the needs of unparented children worldwide.
This International Adoption Policy Statement, along with its Supporting
Report, has so far been endorsed by the Center for Adoption Policy, the
Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program, the National Council for
Adoption, and the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. To see the
six-page Supporting Report, click here
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102562123174&s=2021&e=001xwCxodS046qNV3EAUUL36mx9ZMEB-hn8F0zqGZBGjG7OogmsVcgiv3BtO6rqAY_TJSja79qBYRqRoxa_mxkvBFL4_sVXoSQJW3cPPJCIbyLLVRTS-dj5AEWScq0i64fFCK8qjhp6VtSY8TrlCBFHY4ZouyteIjn39FBNGaeueps=>.
Competing views on the policy and legal issues are presented in treaties
and authorities cited in that Report's footnotes 1-3. A related
Recommendation on International Adoption has been adopted by the
American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates. To compare, click
here
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102562123174&s=2021&e=001xwCxodS046qx9Jl8BVwsoARMvVVwnaZpt-cf3_hozlKMIOQy3EQlS-EaQFeU5k1uKPCvUsVsht0mQjWht36Vrdy2eZDLwGAVfsea5MV7ZyHpKDLxLHtL343dWTwC6Kz4D8hhqZoAjZHD-duCGVq2PDG-zo5ntCiG>
for ABA Recommendation.
We urge you to join us in endorsing as individual Faculty members the
International Policy Statement reprinted below. *TO DO SO YOU NEED
SIMPLY PROVIDE YOUR NAME AND AFFILIATION HERE
<http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/cap/ia/law_professors>. PLEASE DO
THIS BY TUES, MAY 26.* We hope to go public with the full list of
endorsements shortly after that date. Click here
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102562123174&s=2021&e=001xwCxodS046qBcjSdasFr8TJLoc_Bj383AnV2Yho7p9FLHVqI-FzuaKuBw6eTAx99uGWVKK8Pr1ttBoyza3lT0gu44m4XYQ4snx1eMQjDRlZPHK6z9S-vIYXq4ippwUsJsRHTAzyoo86yiVTbs3z56PXZaSSESzzRJtGIDtHJ6rM=>
to view the list of the endorsing organizations and individuals, which
will be updated regularly.
Please email either Elizabeth Bartholet
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or Mary Welstead
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> with any questions and any
suggestions you may have for related action.
Please also forward
<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1102292275706&a=1102562123174&ea=oneal%40ubalt.edu>
this message to anyone you think might be interested in joining us in
this effort.
Ralph Richard Banks
/Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law
Stanford Law School/
Paulo Barrozo
/Harvard University Graduate Program and
Assistant Professor of Law
Boston College Law School/
Elizabeth Bartholet
/Morris Wasserstein Professor of Law
Faculty Director, Child Advocacy Program
Harvard Law School/
Katharine T. Bartlett
/A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law
Duke University School of Law/
Kathryn Bradley
/Senior Lecturing Fellow
Director of Legal Ethics
Duke Law School/
Margaret F. Brinig
/Fritz Duda Family Professor of Law
University of Notre Dame/
Jessica Budnitz
/Lecturer on Law, Managing Director
Child Advocacy Program
Harvard Law School/
Richard Carlson
/Professor of Law
South Texas College of Law/
James L. Cavallaro
/Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Executive Director, Human Rights Program/
David Chambers
/Wade H. McCree, Jr., Collegiate Professor, Emeritus
Univ. of Michigan Law School/
Brenda Cossman
/Professor of Law
Univ. of Toronto Law School/
James Dwyer
/Professor of Law
William & Mary Law School/
Janet Halley
/Royall Professor of Law
Harvard Law School/
Joan Heifetz Hollinger
/Professor, Lecturer-in-Residence
School of Law
University of California, Berkeley/
David Kennedy
/Vice President for International Affairs
Interim Director, Watson Institute for International Studies
University Professor of Law
David and Marianna Fisher Univ. Prof.of International Relations
Brown University
Director, European Law Research Center
Harvard Law School/
Randall L. Kennedy
/Michael R. Klein Professor of Law
Harvard Law School/
Michael Meltsner
/Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law
Northeastern Univ. School of Law/
David D. Meyer
/Assoc. Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law
University of Illinois College of Law/
Martha Minow
/Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law
Harvard Law School/
Henry J. Steiner
/Professor Emeritus
Harvard Law School/
Joseph Vining
/Hutchins Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School/
Lynn D. Wardle
/Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law
Brigham Young University/
Mary Welstead
/Visiting Professor in Law, Univ. Buckingham, U.K.
Visiting Fellow, Child Advocacy Program
Harvard Law School/
* *
*INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION POLICY STATEMENT*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
International Adoption should be an integral part of a comprehensive
strategy to address the problems of unparented children, together with
the development of better temporary care for children pending permanent
placement, the development of in-country adoption and other truly
permanent nurturing placement options, and the provision of social
services to parents so that they can keep and nurture their children.
International Adoption is consistent with other positive social
responses to the problems of unparented children, bringing new resources
into poor countries to support such efforts, and developing new
awareness of and concern for the plight of poor children and poor
communities worldwide.
Adoption, whether domestic or international, generally serves children's
interests better than any form of state-sponsored care, whether that be
foster care or institutionalization, although there will always be
exceptions to this general rule, including for example situations in
which placement of a child in a permanent, nurturing kinship foster care
situation will be preferable for that specific child to adoption.
Children whose original parents cannot provide permanent nurturing care
should generally be placed as soon as possible in a permanent adoptive
home, whether domestic or international.
Efforts should be made to identify in a timely way all unparented
children and to promptly free for adoption all children who cannot or
should not be reunited with their birth parents in the near future, and
for whom there is no other preferable permanent parenting solution
immediately available.
Children free for adoption should be placed as soon as possible in
appropriately screened adoptive homes, whether domestic or
international: no children should be held whether in foster care or
institutions for any period of time for the purpose of placing them
in-country; any in-country preference should be implemented through a
concurrent planning strategy, planning simultaneously for both domestic
and international adoption, and preferring domestic adoption only if it
will involve no delay in placement for the child.
International Adoption should not be made more difficult for parents to
accomplish than domestic adoption; given the inherent difficulties posed
by adopting in a different country, efforts should be made to coordinate
the adoption systems and related laws and policies of sending and
receiving countries to reduce these inherent difficulties and make the
international adoption process more comparable to the domestic process
from the viewpoint of adoptive parents.
Adoption abuses, such as kidnapping and baby selling (defined as
payments to birth parents designed to induce them to surrender their
child and their parenting rights), should be dealt with by enforcing the
laws prohibiting such practices, and where needed developing new laws
and policies to discourage such practices, without unduly restricting
the placement of unparented children in domestic or international
adoption, and without unduly limiting the private agencies and other
adoption intermediaries that facilitate such adoption.
*To endorse this Policy Statement, click HERE
<http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/cap/ia/law_professors>.*
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Child Advocacy Program | Harvard Law School | Cambridge | MA | 02138
--
Odeana R. Neal
Associate Professor
University of Baltimore School of Law
1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-5779
410-837-4644 (voice)
410-333-3053 (fax)
OdeanaNeal (AIM)
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
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