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Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary The Assembly recalls that international adoption should constitute the very last option and restates the principle that there should be no right to parenthood. The Assembly in fact regrets that children are increasingly traded on a real market, and condemns the use of parallel circuits and the trafficking in children which arise in particular from the absence of rules on registration and general laxity in the procedures. The Assembly accordingly proposes that strict procedures be laid down for ensuring, in particular, post-adoption monitoring and, for that purpose, that inter-state co-operation be strengthened by means of bilateral agreements. It also recommends that member states which have not yet done so amend family law and criminal law in order to prevent any trafficking in children, together with illegal adoptions. A. Draft recommendation 1. The Parliamentary Assembly first recalls its Recommendation 1443 (2000) on âInternational adoption: respecting children's rightsâ, in which it pointed out that international adoption should be the very last option. It also reiterates that all children have rights and that international adoption should enable them to find a mother and father while retaining those rights and not enable foreign parents to satisfy their desire for a child at any price. The Assembly thus restates the principle that there should be no right to parenthood. 2. The Assembly nevertheless notes that countries still have different constraints and laws relating to adoption and that children are increasingly traded on a real market governed by money, to the detriment of poorer countries. 3. The Assembly condemns the increasingly prevalent practice of using parallel circuits and traffic, as well as all the ensuing dealings and psychological and economic pressures. Such practices were made easier when eastern borders were opened up, with pregnant women from east European countries travelling west in order to give birth and then put their children up for adoption. 4. The Assembly emphasises that such practices have been all the easier for the absence in some countries of strict rules on registration, with cases very frequently arising in which failure to declare the birth of children has made it easier for them to be sold abroad. The Assembly notes that this lack of a strict regime has given rise to a real trade in children, with the poorest countries suffering the consequences, and it firmly condemns all practices designed to sell or steal newborn babies, as well as all other forms of trafficking of children in general. 5. In this context, the Assembly mentions the example of the particularly tragic events which occurred in several countries where some newborn babies having disappeared immediately after birth, the authorities told the mothers that their babies had been stillborn, whereas they had actually been sold and taken abroad. 6. While bearing in mind the fact that international adoption should be considered only if there are no national solutions, the Assembly nevertheless regrets that some countries have large numbers of children living in institutions, whereas they could have a better and more decent life if the international adoption rules were eased. 7. The Assembly therefore wishes a single area to be created within which the rules are the same, in order to avoid disparities arising which would be against the interests of the child, and it wishes governments to introduce a monitoring procedure involving regular post-adoption reports. 8. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers ask the governments of member states: 8.1. to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against Organized Transnational Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; 8.2. to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse; 8.3. to revise the Convention on the International Adoption of Children, bearing in mind childrenâs interests and rights, in order to bring about harmonisation in this sphere and an easing of the adoption rules; 8.4. to use all available means to step up their co-operation to combat the trafficking of children and to eradicate organised criminal or other illicit networks, and to condemn without any exception the abuses committed in the field of international adoption; 8.5. to take the necessary steps to set up bilateral agreements relating to international adoption; 8.6. to ensure that persons wishing to make international adoptions are eligible and suitable to adopt, to provide them with compulsory training of an appropriate nature, to ensure that foreign children who are adopted are monitored, particularly psychologically, and to implement a monitoring system involving regular post-adoption reports; 8.7. to lay down strict rules on the setting up of specialist child adoption agencies; 8.8. to take the necessary steps to give adopted children the right to know their origins at the latest when they reach the age of majority; 8.9. to implement the Council of Europe strategy for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights; 8.10. to set up family planning services available to all. 9. The Assembly also recommends that the governments of member states which have not yet done so: 9.1. amend family and penal law in order to prevent and punish any trafficking of children and illegal adoption; 9.2. take all possible steps to make it compulsory and free of cost for births to be declared at the registry office or with another responsible authority; 9.3. systematically allow fathers and/or close family members to be present during delivery; 9.4. make provision for mothers' right to withdraw their consent for adoption, within a reasonable time, while safeguarding the interests of the child. 10. The Assembly more particularly recommends the authorities of the countries concerned: 10.1. to reopen the cases of newborn babies which have disappeared; 10.2. to conduct investigations, with the assistance of neutral experts, into the disappearance of newborn babies. 11. The Assembly wishes to reconsider this question in the near future, in order to evaluate the changes and legislative amendments made at that stage. B. Explanatory Memorandum, by Ms Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold Further to the various allegations about traffic in newborn children, I made fact-finding visits to Ukraine (29 August-1 September 2005) and Moldova (5-7 February 2007). I. The situation in Ukraine Heartbreaking testimony 1. The question was whether Ukrainian maternity clinics, in particular the one at hospital no.6, Kharkov, were involved in trafficking newborn children for illegal adoption. 2. In that connection I met four mothers who assured me that they had given birth to babies who were in perfect health but had been taken away from them immediately. They of course never saw them again and were told that they had died shortly after birth. None of the mothers was allowed to see the body, which, according to the hospital authorities, had been buried by the hospital staff. 3. In one of the cases the chief medical officer had certified that the child weighed only 870g. The mother is sure that it weighed at least two kilos. Her general practitioner also told me that her pregnancy had been normal and provided the results of prenatal examinations as evidence. 4. The chief medical officer of the maternity clinic maintained the opposite but was unable to answer the parliamentary delegationâs questions. The same goes for the midwives. 5. Another mother informed the delegation that she had been shown the body of a newborn baby that had been made out to be her own but was actually much older than the one she had supposedly lost. 6. During my visit to Kyiv I also heard testimony from a mother who had given birth at hospital no. 5 in Kyiv. When attending the hospital for a check-up she had been informed that the babyâs condition was satisfactory. After 43 weeksâ pregnancy she was admitted to the hospital and told that she was too old and that there was a risk of the child having problems. The doctor had even threatened her, after which she had asked to be put on the table to have her waters broken. A Caesarean section was performed and when she woke up she was told that she had had a baby boy weighing 3.6kg and measuring 53cm. 7. The medical staff installed her in a corridor and they did not reply when she asked to see her baby. 8. After 4 days she was given a room and it was the young ward assistant who told her that her baby had died 2 hours after birth. She instinctively kept the babyâs identity tag and hid it in her pillow. Her husband, who was not informed until the following day, came to the hospital to see the body. He was refused permission on the pretext that the sight would be too upsetting. 9. After she had been in hospital for seven days the management asked them to sign a blank sheet of paper, which they refused to do. Her husband went to the mortuary several times but on each occasion they refused to hand over the babyâs body. There was also no record of an autopsy. 10. They came to the conclusion that the child was possibly still alive and had been exchanged at birth, as there was a discrepancy in the medical records. The record they were given on leaving the hospital stated that the babyâs head measured 35 cm and showed signs of microcephaly whereas there had been no reference to this on the original record. 11. They contacted the public prosecutor and then the Ministry of Health, but without result. 12. The young mother consequently decided to take gynaecology classes and worked in a hospital. Five years later she had a second pregnancy and attended hospital no. 6, where the analyses produced perfectly normal results. She gave birth by Caesarean on 29 December 1996 and on the fourth day was informed that the baby had died and that she was not allowed to see it. When she left the hospital 10 days later she was given the body of a six-month-old male baby whereas she had given birth to a girl. 13. She has since filed several complaints and in 2005 the Kyiv prosecutorâs office informed her that it had decided to exhume the body in order to carry out DNA analyses. 14. She personally is convinced that her baby is alive and was adopted by a relative of the hospital doctor. 15. In other conversations the parliamentary delegation heard the same basic story. The mother had given birth and barely been allowed a glimpse of her child, the hospital had refused to let the family see it, and then the mother had been told the baby had died. Because Ukrainians hold doctors in awe the parents, despite misgivings, had given in and signed the papers authorising burial of their supposedly stillborn children. 16. In one of the most recent cases, in 2003, a young mother had one of her twins taken from her. The baby boy was stated to be malformed but the motherâs regular doctor was able to prove from ultrasound scans that the twins had been viable and in good health. Reaction and replies from the Ukrainian authorities 17. When we talked to the mediator, Ms Karpachova, she said that since 1994 Ukraine had been faced with a problem of child trafficking covered up as international adoption. There had been investigations and a number of officials had been prosecuted. 18. During our conversation the mediator suggested that the delegation meet a mother whose daughter had given birth normally to twin girls after a pregnancy of 7 months. On the third day she saw only one of the twins and was refused access to the nursery. A nurse told her that one of the twins had died. She was not allowed to see it and was not given it for burial. She also noticed that the autopsy report gave the wrong date of birth. She complained to the prosecutorâs office and had blood tests carried out, whose results the prosecutor refused to register. She then turned to the health ministry, which refused to see her, and then to the chief prosecutor. There was no judicial inquiry and the hospital staff consistently backed up the hospitalâs account. 19. The Ukrainian authorities pointed out that the matters in question occurred in 2002, and that at that time parents were legally prohibited from seeing their dead babies. Since then the law has been changed to allow the mother to see her baby and the father to be present at the birth. 20. The Ukrainian authorities also pointed out the steadily rising numbers of mothers opting not to keep their babies or having babies in order to sell them. 21. They likewise informed the parliamentary delegation that since 2003 proceedings had been instituted for illegal adoption in several cases in Ukraine and that the prosecutorâs office was conducting enquiries in search of fresh evidence. 22. In the period from 1996 to 2004 26,000 children had been adopted in Ukraine and 13,000 abroad. Each case was examined by the courts and the prosecutorâs office, but despite the rules there were still too many illegal adoptions. 23. With specific regard to the disappearances of newborn children, the Ukrainian authorities have set up an investigating committee and have found cases where doctors committed irregularities in connection with deliveries. An enquiry was instituted and Identikit pictures were issued. 24. Following the visit the parliamentary delegation was informed that the Ukrainian justice authorities had announced the exhumation of several newborn babies at Kharkov hospital. DNA tests are to be carried out. 25. According to some NGOs the disappearances are not an isolated instance and there have been similar occurrences in Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania and many other countries. Adoption and foster families issues in Ukraine 26. The issue which raises a lot of disputes in Ukraine is a necessity to ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption of 29 May 1993, which provides for inter-State cooperation in adoption proceedings. This issue had been put to vote four times at the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament). However, the Convention is still not ratified by Ukraine. The âSticking pointâ is a possibility for âaccredited bodiesâ to deal with the adoption proceedings, provided for by the Convention (Chapter III). 27. Opponents of the Convention refer to article 216 of the Family Code of Ukraine which prohibits mediation and commercial activities with regard to the adoption of children. However, it is obvious that in any case a kind of âmediationâ is necessary for international adoption, as it is hard to imagine any foreign couple which comes to Ukraine in order to adopt a child, neither speaking Ukrainian nor knowing the domestic legal procedure, and which is capable to solve all legal issues all alone. On the other hand, the very few staff members of the Department on Adoption do not speak foreign languages either. So, the mediators always existed, they are well-known both by the staff of the Department and by the couples. The Convention will legalise their work and therefore will control their possible abuses. Furthermore, Article 32 of the Convention prevents from their enormous remuneration, which is widespread now. 28. Ratification of the Convention will make work of the Department on Adoption and mediators transparent and controlled; will simplify access to information on children available for adoption and couples ready to adopt a child; will allow monitoring of fate of adopted children abroad and, consequently, diminish risk of trafficking. 29. Another most famous argument against this Convention is its alleged prevention from national adoption. However, according to the Preamble to the Convention, it recalls that each State should take, as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin; and recognises that intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin. 30. The existing procedure of international adoption and its non-transparency leaves room for variety of corruption schemes. On 5 February 2007, the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport of Ukraine adopted the Decree No. 313 âon order and conditions of acceptance of documents from foreigners who wish to adopt a childâ which provides for very restricted rules of acceptance of documents. For instance, period of validity of the documents submitted by the potential adoptive parents is only 1 year. At the same time, it takes at least several months to wait for the date of interview. Furthermore, during one visit potential adoptive parents can meet only two children, and in case they do not establish contact with any of them, the next visit is possible not earlier than after six months. Obviously, such strict rules make a fertile ground for well-paid shadow mediators. 31. Many specialists are concerned that the âfoster familiesâ project in Ukraine became substitution of real adoption The State does not pay anything to a couple which adopts a child, whereas the foster families have essential financial support. Therefore, in foster families with several children the latter maintain such family, not parents. Such ill-considered policy led to the situation when Ukrainian couples prefer to take a child to a foster family instead of adopting him of her. However, children living in foster care officially remain âorphansâ, and their future in such families is unclear â at any time they can be returned back by foster parents. But the worst thing â such project is very favourable for those who do not strive to create a real family for abandoned children, but who seek own benefits. In the âbestâ case we speak only about improvement of financial situation (as the case of foster family which took nine (!) children and bought a house on credit. Will the children remain in this family when the credit is called in? But itâs hard to imagine what could be âworstâ case, taking into consideration that the foster parentsâ consent is enough to take a child abroad, and they should not ask for any permission from relevant authorities. The same consent is necessary if someone wants to adopt a child living in foster care â but if foster parents took him or her only for financial reasons they will never agree to part with their âgolden gooseâ. Many abuses have been already detected by the Prosecutor Offices, 60 criminal cases were opened with respect to foster families only in 2007, and about 800 legal acts were quashed. In practice it is important that psychologists work both with potential adoptive parents and foster parents. 32. In addition, it is necessary to mention that the Stateâs financial encouragement for birth of a child (UAH 8,500 â around 1,400 euros), apart from its real purpose â to increase the birth-rate, has also become a âtitbitâ for alcoholics and drug addicts. Therefore the quantity of abandoned children has dramatically increased from 5,900 in 2003 to 9,300 in 2007. II. The situation in Moldova Cases of child trafficking 33. In the various talks held by Mrs Vermot-Mangold she had pointed out that her visit was following up information that organised selling of babies had been found as well as newspaper advertisements inviting unmarried mothers to sell their babies for around 3,000 euros. 34. In 2006 61 cases of child trafficking were prosecuted and 5 cases were found of illegally taking children from the country. 35. In 2006 Moldova had 5 cases of organ trafficking, organised by a group whose leaders were arrested and imprisoned. 36. In our various talks it was stated that at present there was no information about pressure being applied in maternity clinics. In Chisinau there was co-operation between the maternity clinic and the state services. 37. It was pointed out, however, that in 2007 12,000 children had been abandoned and placed in institutions where conditions hindered childrenâs mental development. Such children were found to have great difficulty integrating into society. 38. In Moldova, according to staff of La Strada, illegal adoption exists mainly among prostitution victims. The women concerned avoid giving birth in hospital and go abroad. Young women who abandon their children are generally involved in networks whose ringleaders allow the mothers no parental rights. 39. It is worth pointing out that in Moldova a mother is allowed to arrange a temporary placement for her child for up to six months. The position of the Moldovan authorities 40. In a conversation we had with the Speaker of the Moldovan parliament he stressed that there was genuine co-operation between civil society and international organisations to combat abandonment and trafficking of children. 41. He made the particular point that Moldova was very vulnerable to child trafficking because of the low standard of living. In addition, Moldova was losing population to growing emigration. In that context two laws had been passed: one on prevention of trafficking, the other on combating trafficking. Moldova had been the first country to ratify the convention on action against trafficking. The Moldovan criminal code contained penalties for trafficking. 42. With particular regard to child trafficking, at the end of 2004 Moldova had set up a national adoption committee, the adoption rules being based on the family code and on the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. A special ministry for child and family welfare had been established in 2006. 43. At present a child under placement cost around 80 euros a month and a single mother received 15 dollars per month. In addition she received from 3 to 4 dollars a month for a child aged 18 months to 18 years. The average income, he pointed out, came to 130 dollars per month. 44. A mother received 80 dollars when the baby was born and a single mother received care free of charge under an insurance scheme. 45. The most sensitive problems arose mainly from vulnerable groups, essentially the Gypsies and Roma. 46. The various representatives of child-welfare NGOs said that Moldova had made great progress in combating child trafficking and abandonment. 47. Unfortunately, many children were still not registered at birth because of mothers not completing the necessary formalities. That was why children born in Moldova were found begging in Russia. 48. It was necessary for the Moldovan authorities to take the necessary measures to ensure that adoption agencies were officially registered and strictly supervised. 49. The national adoption committee held regular meetings in the districts to explain the trafficking-prevention arrangements to mayors and school pupils. 50. The rapporteur stresses that the easy sale of babies in Moldova is due to the fact that there is no law to punish the perpetrators of such trafficking. Besides, further considering that parents are not compelled to have a childâs birth recorded or declare it to the registry office, it is very easy to take children across the borders, especially as the attitude of the police is found to be very permissive. III. The situation in other Council of Europe member states Romania 51. In the early 1990s Romania was almost synonymous with international adoptions: thousands of children left the country to be adopted in Western Europe and North America, sometimes in dubious circumstances. At around the same time Romanian children begging in the streets began to appear in European Union countries, mainly Italy, Spain and France. 52. Before 1989 international adoption was uncommon in Romania and needed the approval of the President. 53. Against that background, a law was passed in 1990 relaxing the requirements for international adoption and large numbers of people went to Romania in search of children to adopt. Traffic in children began to appear since, between 1990 and 1991, a large number of children left the territory to be adopted abroad. 54. It was not until June 2001 that the Romanian government suspended international adoptions, and since 2004 international adoption has no longer been possible other than in exceptional cases. Indeed, under the terms of the law enacted in 2004, international adoption of a child resident in Romania is possible only if the adopter or one spouse of the adopting family, resident abroad, is the grandparent of the child in respect of whom a national adoption procedure has been instituted. In this way, according to the national statistics, 10 938 international adoptions were authorised between 1997 and 2007. At present, Romania applies the legal arrangements applicable to international adoptions, founded on Article 21.b of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 55. The Romanian Governmentâs efforts are thus concentrated principally on keeping the child in its family and, where that is not possible, on finding family care alternatives in the state of origin. To achieve this, services to prevent children from being separated from their families, mothersâ centres, services in support of the birth family and services for the protection of children temporarily or permanently separated from their parents have been developed. In addition, a network of professional motherâs helpers and of child care services on a family model has been set up. Bulgaria 56. Where Bulgaria is concerned, the rapporteur wishes to recall the court case in 2006 implicating a family of Gypsy origin who had purchased babies from young Bulgarian women. This traffic was discovered by criminal investigators in the Paris region as a result of an investigation of trafficking among Gypsies. 57. The young Bulgarian women had become pregnant after coming to France to engage in prostitution. Not wishing to have abortions, they decided to sell their babies. Families of Gypsy origin were interested. In this instance the persons implicated were not criminals but, owing to their foreign origin, could not avail themselves of the French social services to adopt a child. The baby girls had been sold for 5,000 euros, the baby boys for 6,000 euros. The biological mothers had received between 400 and 2,000 euros each. This case nevertheless had a positive impact in Bulgaria as a law was recently promulgated, clarifying the criteria to be fulfilled for adopting a child. 58. It should nevertheless be pointed out that heads of this type of network usually locate young pregnant women from poor families in Moldova or other reputedly âpoorâ countries, and bring them to France. 59. The mothers-to-be go to hospital to give birth as last-minute emergencies, either under the name of the âadoptiveâ mother or under their own names, and the buyer declares the baby as his own at the local town hall. IV. The special situation of certain children 60. The rapporteur would take this opportunity to alert the international community to the very special situation of children born as a result of rape, child victims of natural disasters, and âstreet childrenâ. 61. Except where they are victims of natural disasters, most of the children, whether born as a result of rape or living in the street, have been either abandoned in institutions, or sold by their parents, or have fallen prey to rings that force them into begging on the streets or even prostitution. 62. With more specific reference to the case of children who are victims of natural disasters, the rapporteur would recall the recommendations made in Assembly Resolution 1422 (2005), in which the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee considered that children made orphans as a result of a natural disaster should receive stronger protection and that child sponsorships should be encouraged and established in order to spare them other traumas, in accordance with the terms of Recommendation 1443 (2000), where it was pointed out that international adoption should constitute the last option of all. 63. The rapporteur also wishes to draw the attention of the public authorities to the very special situation of children living in the street who in most cases are compelled to beg or resort to prostitution, although this state of affairs is in not at all directly related to the adoption issue. She nevertheless wishes to mention it so that the member states take all necessary steps to ensure that these children are speedily taken in by day or night aid centres or placed with host families, according to the principles set out in Recommendation R (87) 6 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on foster families. 64. Lastly, she wants the member states to take the same attitude to children born as a result of rape and children born in circumstances such that they are very often abandoned or sold and exploited by traffickers. V. Conclusion and recommendations 65. In the light of the foregoing the Assembly wishes the Committee of Ministers to request that governments of member states: - sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime and its accompanying Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, as well as the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; - revise the European Convention on the Adoption of Children bearing in mind the childâs interests and rights in order to achieve harmonisation in this field and more flexibility in the rules on adoption; - strengthen their co-operation by all available means in combating trafficking in children and eradicating organised criminal or illicit networks, and irrevocably condemn the abuses committed in the field of international adoption; - take the necessary measures for setting up bilateral agreements on international adoption; - satisfy themselves as to the adoptive capacity of candidates for international adoption, provide them with suitable compulsory training, and ensure support especially of a psychological nature for adopted foreign children and a monitoring system of regular post adoption reports; - lay down strict rules on the setting up of specialist child adoption agencies; - take the necessary measures to ensure that adopted children are entitled to know about their origin not later than on reaching majority age; - take whatever measures are necessary to prohibit street begging of any kind by children; - set up family planning services available to all; - establish day and night aid centres; 66. The Assembly specifically asks the Ukrainian authorities to: - reopen the files concerning disappearances of newborn children; - investigate with the assistance of neutral western specialists the question of the disappearances of newborn children; 67. The Assembly asks that all states not yet having done so: - take all steps to make it compulsory for births to be declared at the registry office; - in all cases allow the father and/or close family to be present at the babyâs delivery; - provide for the motherâs right to withdraw her consent to adoption, within a reasonable time, while safeguarding the childâs interests. 68. In the light of the foregoing, the Assembly also wishes to reconsider this question in the near future in order to carry out an evaluation of the changes made by then.
Rapporteur: Ms Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, Socialist Group