Intercountry Adoption and the Hague Convention

Intercountry adoption, sometimes perceived as a rapidly growing modern social phenomenon, is in fact long established. It was and continues to be associated with the disruption to normal family life caused by war, civil unrest and natural disaster. The subjects are often orphans or refugees fleeing danger for sanctuary in any country offering safety and protection. This has recently been the experience of children in the Balkans following the violent breakup of Yugoslavia and is presently the case in Somalia, Darfur, the Sudan and other parts of Africa. Increasingly, however, disruption to care arrangements in the family of origin are now more likely to have their roots in chronic poverty, the affliction of AIDS or other forms of socio-economic deprivation. While the outcome does not necessarily involve the complete and permanent severance of a child's links with their culture and kinship networks, as some may well be absorbed into the homes of displaced relatives or friends of their birth parents, it often does.

However, intercountry adoption is now most usually seen as a consequence of the demand led pressure to satisfy the parenting needs of infertile couples in modern western societies. While inevitably some of the children available will be the orphan victims of war, disease or natural disasters, many will simply be from deprived backgrounds, abandoned in institutional care, with or without parental consent. The transfer of such children to adoptive homes invariably involves a total break with family and culture of origin.