Intercountry adoption: reinforcing legislation to ensure that the child’s best interests are upheld

On November 30, 2012 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a Resolution in which the member states are asked to improve the regulation of International Adoption. It argued that in some countries the human rights of childrean are violated when children are placed into the adoption system through kidnapping, trafficking, forgery of documents and pressure on biological parents. The resolution is based on a report by the German social-democrat Marlene Rupprecht. The report recommends to establish a central authority for the supervision of adoption agencies in all countries. International adoptions should be closely monitored before, during and after the adoption. Member states should ensure that adoptions should be integrated into the strategy for ensuring childrens rights (2012-2015). The report does not contain any new arguments or facts on IA. The problems are presented more or less accurately but in a rather impressionistic way. Scandals guide the arguments more than a systematic analysis of the issue. Independent adoptions, for instance, are not directly addressed even though they are a major problem particularly within Europe. The Council of Europe is an important institution for safeguarding human rights in Europe. Since IA is a crossborder issue which affects many member states both as receiving and as well sending countries, the council of Europe should become more active on the issue. It could also be more forthcoming in its recommendations and maybe become a coordinating institution. What is desperately needed within Europe is an ombudsperson on IA who could deal with human rights violations in IA. At the moment human rights issues in IA are not clearly defined and certainly not appropriately implemented.