The process of implementing the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption now begins. William Duncan outlines the Convention's key provisions and points to some of the difficult decisions confronting the UK.
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References
1.
20 November 1989.
2.
General Assembly Resolution 41/85, of 3 December 1986.
3.
See Van LoonJ. H. A., Report on Intercountry Adoption April 1990 Hague Conference on Private International Law, Part III. This report provided invaluable background material for the work of the Special Commission.
4.
See UNICEF, State of the World's Children (1991), and Ngabonzinza DAdoption and Fostering154 (1991) 75.
5.
On problems of abuse see, for example, Defence for Children International, Protecting Children's Rights in International Adoptions (June 1989); Defence for Children International and International Social Service, The adoption of Romanian children by foreigners (April 1991); and UNICEF et at, Regulating intercountry adoption from Albania (October 1992).
6.
Whether termination has or has not occurred is determined by the contracting state where the adoption is made.
7.
For example, Sri Lanka.
8.
See further Defence for Children International et al, Preliminary findings of a joint investigation on independent intercountry adoptions (March 1991); and DuncanW, ‘Regulating intercountry adoption’, chapter 3 in BainhamA and PearlD S, Frontiers of Family Law (London, 1993).
9.
The UK delegation, during the final session, withdrew its support for a rather complex provision designed to enable a receiving state, which insists on a probationary period, to give only limited recognition to an adoption made in the state of origin prior to probation. The Swiss delegation also withdrew support, and ensured its happy demise.
10.
DuncanW, ‘The protection of children's rights in intercountry adoption’, to be published shortly in a book on the protection of human rights, edited by HeffernanE, Irish Centre for European Law, Trinity College, Dublin.
11.
Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction (1980).
12.
For further background information on the Convention, see the report of Parra Aranguren M G on the Preliminary Draft Convention, Prel. Doc. No 7, September 1992, Hague Conference on Private International Law.
