Hague Convention Becomes U.S. Law

An explanation of the new law and steps required for implementation

Guest Editorial
by Dr. William L. Pierce
© 2000 All Rights Reserved

In the opinion of many, the most important development in the history of intercountry adoption is the creation of the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, a treaty designed to reduce the incidence of trafficking in children and to expedite legal adoption of children across national borders. The Convention was the result of work by several dozen nations at The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands, meeting under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCPIL). HCPIL has an excellent web site, www.hcch.net, which has hundreds of pages of useful information relating to the Convention.

Now that the United States Congress has passed legislation to ratify and implement the Convention, and the legislation was signed by President Clinton on Oct. 6, 2000, expectations are that most countries will take those actions as a signal that the Convention will be a benchmark for most countries, even those that do not formally ratify the treaty.

Background

Intercountry adoption usually applies to a child who is not related to the couple or single person who is adopting. By adopting, that child is made a legal member of a family whose usual and habitual residence is a country other than the country of the child's birth.

Intercountry adoption is not a new phenomenon. The first wave of such adoptions took place at the end of the Second World War, with children being adopted by citizens of the U.S. and other countries from Germany, Italy, Japan and other countries directly impacted by the hostilities. For the U.S., the second wave began with the Korean conflict, when children who were orphaned or who were born to women as a result of nonmarital relations, usually with U.S. military personnel, were adopted. The third great wave took place as a result of the Vietnam war; as in Korea, orphans and children born out of wedlock were adopted. Although adoptions took place from dozens of other countries during these years, the numbers were minimal and received little notice until the 1990s, when substantial numbers of children from countries such as Romania, the former Soviet Union, and China began to be adopted internationally.

Although there are not reliable worldwide data, it is generally accepted that the U.S. adopts more children internationally than all other countries combined. Informed sources at the U.S. Department of State estimate that the number for the Fiscal Year which ended at the end of September, 2000, will exceed 17,300 children, a record high.

Intercountry adoption has been proved to be a wonderful resource for children without families. For instance, the research conducted by the Search Institute, a Minnesota think tank, demonstrated that such children thrive. Longitudinal work by Marietta Spencer, MSW, tracking the adjustment of children adopted internationally through the Children's Home Society of Minnesota, confirms the Search Institute findings.

Most of the children who are adopted by U.S. citizens from other countries are of ethnic or racial backgrounds that differ from their adoptive parents. Fortunately, the apartheid that so often exists within the U.S. public foster care system and which dictates that parents who are "white" or Caucasian may not adopt across racial or ethnic lines is not a barrier in intercountry adoption.

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