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] Having trouble viewing this email? Click here <http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001dqhbEixxUOIEVpDXQyXNRudoH5OtEP3VwOTYGVYv4T5ACg0r6JsdyzWQmHtvGkdzb0QxikLwnh_7nLulDcM0SWMHYupmIFU6jMWslqrNN-W8orMqdC-II3DOZpLPYI1WQgbRXckQFTRLknW8RfjyfA%3D%3D> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *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>.* Forward email <http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1102292275706&ea=oneal%40ubalt.edu&a=1102562123174> Safe Unsubscribe <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?v=001nxNUBQroFr0TgdMbd0VUO5YVEPmah_JJ5z5A43tnd2sDEI0rdcI9dw%3D%3D&p=un> This email was sent to [log in to unmask] by [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>. 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