Features
Since the mid-1990s, the number of international adoptions each year has nearly doubled. At its peak, in 2004, more than 45,000 children from developing countries were adopted by foreigners. The Lie We Love documents that as international adoptions have flourished, so has evidence that babies in many countries are being systematically bought, coerced, and stolen away from their birth families. Nearly half the 40 countries listed by the U.S. State Department as the top sources for international adoption over the past 15 years have at least temporarily halted adoptions or been prevented from sending children to the United States because of serious concerns about corruption and kidnapping.
Adopting the Rights of the Child highlights that many children living in Nepal’s orphanages, other institutions are not currently able to enjoy their basic rights. While some child centres provide adequate essential support, the quality of care and protection in many is substandard. People managing child centres are powerful decision-makers in the intercountry adoption process. There are limited checks and balances and no centralized and systematic mechanism to authorize and monitor intercountry adoption.