Adoptee Rights do Exists ?

Canadian Adoptee lobbies UN Commission on the Rights of the Child

January 31st, 2011 | Author: Good Parents

Halifax (PRWEB) April 22, 2004 -

— Canada not doing enough to open up adoption records, UN says. Provincial governments throughout most of Canada could be doing a lot more to help adopted children find their birth parents, says the draft report of a UN committee.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child met in Geneva last month to review Ottawa’s record of implementing an international convention designed to improve protection for children throughout the world.

“The committee is concerned by the fact that certain provinces do not recognize the right of an adopted child to know, as far as possible, her/his biological parents,” said an Oct. 3 draft report obtained by The Canadian Press.

“The committee notes that while adoption falls within the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories, the ratification of the Hague Convention has not been followed up by legal and other appropriate measures in all provinces.”

While the UN report does not name the provinces, an expatriate Canadian who lobbied the commission on the adoption issue in Geneva said Nova Scotia tops the list when it comes to keeping records closed.

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” Ron Murdock said in a recent interview from Amsterdam. The other provinces that restrict access to adoption records are New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec.

“What we’re asking for is not painful reunions,” said Mr. Murdock, who was adopted out of the infamous Ideal Maternity Home in Chester, N.S., which was chronicled in the book .Butterbox Babies “Opening adoption records does not automatically mean painful reunions are thrust on people who don’t want to meet. What open adoption records should entail is: release of information and then contact, but only if desired.”

In a submission to the UN Commission, Mr. Murdock argued that Canada was violating the international charter on the protection of children by allowing provinces to continue their restrictive practices.

“How can you sign the United Nations charter on the rights of children and have sealed adoption records?” he asked. “The charter clearly states that a child has the right to know who it is and from whence it comes.”

While the commission did not go as far as to say Canada is in breach of the agreement, Mr. Murdock said, it’s clearly worded rebuke was heartening to see.

Mr. Murdock, 62, a singing instructor in some of Europe’s best opera houses, has spent the better part of 27 years trying to get information on his biological parents. His journey began when his son was diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome.

With the advent of genetic screening for many diseases, it’s more important than ever that adopted children have access to their records, according to a group that represents birth mothers.

“There are thousands of inherited diseases,” said Karen Lynn of the Canadian Council of Natural Mothers, which supported Mr. Murdock’s submission.

“If you have a group of people who can access knowledge about their inherited diseases and another that can’t, it amounts to discrimination. This is what has emerged with modern medicine and the ability to identify in advance genetic disease.”

Nova Scotia was singled out by Mr. Murdock, not only because it was his birthplace, but because of the Conservative government’s spectacular failure four years ago to open up the system.

In the fall of 1999, the newly elected government of Premier John Hamm moved quickly to fulfill a campaign promise of more open access to adoption information.

The bill was withdrawn after an emotional and bitter debate through public hearings and in the legislature.

“The bill was shot to pieces in the house,” said Mike Slayter of Parent Finders Nova Scotia.

“I suspect it will take a court to order the province to open adoption records now.”

The province has taken what critics have described as a couple of meek steps forward by telling new birth and adoptive parents that their records may be opened years down the road, but has staunchly refused to open older files.

“The understanding that was in place when the birth parents gave up the child for adoption was that their identities would be protected,” said David Morse, Nova Scotia’s community services minister.

“This is a really sensitive area.” The only way adoptees and birth parents can be reunited now in the province is if one or the other contacts the government, which will make discrete inquiries to see if contact is desired.

Mr. Morse said there are no plans to rewrite the legislation in the near future, although provincial officials will study the UN commission report.

Canada queries China on child abduction claims

By Richard Foot , Canwest News ServiceOctober 18, 2009

The Canadian government has expressed formal concerns to China about claims that Chinese babies are being kidnapped and sold to orphanages for adoption in Canada and other western countries, Canwest News Service has learned.

Canadian Embassy staff in Beijing have asked the chief of the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) — the state agency that oversees China's international adoption program — to investigate.

"Chinese authorities are looking into this question," says Janet Nearing, the director of adoption services for the government of Nova Scotia, who says federal officials in Ottawa informed her that embassy staff have held meetings on the subject with Chinese officials.

"(CCAA's) director general has assured the embassy staff that the agency is looking into this matter," says Nearing. "He added that no children adopted by Canadians were (illegally obtained). I don't know what his source of information would be, but that's the information we were given."

Newspapers in China reported in July that dozens of baby girls in the southern Chinese province of Guizhou had been abducted from their families and sold for $3,000 U.S. per child to local orphanages, which in turn adopted the babies out — for similar fees — to couples from North America and Europe.

Last month, the Los Angeles Times also published an investigative article quoting parents in the provinces of Guizhou and Hunan, who said their babies had been stolen, sold and adopted overseas.

"It raises serious concerns, no doubt about it," says Nearing.

Although China levies fines against citizens that have multiple children, it is illegal to seize a child without the parents' consent, or to buy and sell babies.

Reports of corruption in China's international adoption program first surfaced in 2005, but China said it was an isolated incident. New allegations this year prompted one Canadian parent — a mother in Nova Scotia who adopted a Chinese baby in 2006 — to go public this fall with fears that her daughter may not have been a legitimate orphan.

Although Cathy Wagner's child came from the province of Chongqing — where claims of abduction and baby-trafficking have not arisen — Wagner says she was required to pay a $3,000 adoption fee, supplied to her daughter's orphanage in crisp, new U.S. bills.

Nearing, who oversees all adoptions in Nova Scotia including those from overseas, calls this year's allegations "very troubling," and says they prompted her to ask Ottawa to look into the matter.

Although adoption is a provincial responsibility, Nearing says provinces have no means of investigating alleged corruption in other countries, or of dealing with foreign governments.

Those matters are handled by the Inter-Country Adoption Services, a branch of the federal Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.

Officials from the department did not respond to requests for details about what embassy staff asked of the Chinese, but Nearing says officials in Ottawa acted quickly this fall to seek information from China.

In the past, China has not responded kindly to questions about alleged corruption within its state-run adoption system.

When the Dutch government raised similar concerns in 2008, China warned the Dutch that ongoing questions would result in trade retaliation against Holland, according to government documents obtained by the Dutch adoption agency, World Children.

Canada's own queries of the Chinese government come at an awkward time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is seeking an invitation from China for an official visit to Beijing, possibly during a scheduled trip to Asia next month.

Nearing says Ottawa and other governments are virtually powerless to verify what Chinese authorities might tell them, calling the foreign-adoption program a matter of "trust" between countries.

She also says she has no way of telling parents who have adopted from China whether their child was abducted, trafficked, or legally obtained.

Despite such problems, Nearing says Canada should wait for more information before imposing a possible moratorium on adoptions from China.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service