Adoption and Kafala

Adoption is the formal, permanent transfer of parental rights to a family other than a child’s own and the formal assumption by that family of all parenting duties for the child. Where a child’s parents are living and their parental rights have not been terminated, they must provide informed consent for adoption. In some countries it is not culturally acceptable to give the parental rights to a non-family member, and therefore alternative long-term care options must be pursued e.g. kinship care. In some Islamic countries, the term ‘Kafala’ in Islamic law is used to describe a situation similar to adoption, but without the severing of family ties, the transference of inheritance rights, or the change of the child’s family name.

Given the permanency of adoption, it should be used very carefully and only when it is in a child’s best interests. In some cases difficult choices must be made between keeping a child in a temporary care situation in the hope of eventual family reunification, and a child’s developmental need for permanent attachment and care within a family environment. Adoption should not be considered an option in an emergency context. In the case of family separation in an emergency all tracing activities must be exhausted before adoption can be considered.

The long term care of a child requires thorough assessment and planning, and should include the participation of all those affected, especially the child in question. The choice for adoption must meet the child’s long term needs and wishes, and enable their healthy development into adulthood. Wherever possible, children should remain with siblings and encouraged to maintain contact with relatives. All adoptive placements should be in keeping with applicable national law and international standards.

Ideally adoptive parents should come from a similar cultural and religious background to the child, so that the child can retain her heritage and sense of identity. This will be more likely when the adoption is within the country of the child’s origin. The child care policies of a country must therefore provide mechanisms for formal state adoption procedures, and provide workers to support this process. Intercountry or cross border adoptions should be used with caution since the child is likely to grow up in unfamiliar surroundings, and may therefore be more isolated and exposed to risk. When intercountry adoption is in the best interests of a child, international protection agencies should ensure standards are met and procedures should be in keeping with the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption.

This section of papers includes country and policy examples of the use of adoption and guidance on practice.

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Access to Origins: Panorama on Legal and Practical Considerations - ISS/IRC comparative working paper 2: Spotlight on solutions

International Social Service (ISS), 2019

This paper is aimed at supporting the professionals who accompany adoptees and their families in the process of searching for one's origins, and the various authorities with the competency to make decisions on this matter.

All Children – All Families 2019 Report: Celebrating Everyday Change-Makers in Child Welfare

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2019

This report highlights more than 70 child welfare agencies across the United States that partnered with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s All Children - All Families project to improve the services they provide to the LGBTQ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents.

30 Days to Family Study: Achieving Results for Children, Families, and Child Welfare

Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition, 2019

This brief from the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition in the United States provides an overview of the 30 Days to Family® program in the U.S. state of Missouri, an intense, short-term intervention developed by the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition to: 1) increase the number of children placed with relatives/kin at the time they enter the foster care system; and 2) ensure natural and community supports are in place to promote stability for the child.

Memoria de Labores 2019

Consejo Nacional de Adopciones, 2019

El Consejo Nacional de Adopciones se presenta al público en general la Memoria de Labores correspondiente al 2019, en la cual el único compromiso fue restituir los derechos de la niñez guatemalteca.

Chinese Special Needs Adoption, Demand, and the Global Politics of Disability

Erin Raffety - Disability Studies Quarterly, 2019

This open access article explores three related phenomena: first, the abandonment and institutionalization of children with disabilities in China that increased disproportionately in the 2000s; second, the important relationships between such abandonments, culture, economics, and politics in contemporary China; and third, the relationship between such abandonments, the increasing rates at which Chinese orphans with disabilities are being adopted to Western countries through Inter-country Adoption (ICA), and the global politics of ICA and disability.

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Planning and Supporting Birth Family Contact When Children are Adopted from Care

Elsbeth Neil - The Future of Adoption: Beyond Safety to Well-Being, 2019

When children are adopted from the care system staying in touch with members of their birth families must be considered.This research paper draws on the English experience.

Role of the Ombudsman for Children in Protection of the Rights of Children Who Are Raised in Adoptive Families

Tuzova O. N. & Stepanova D. N. - Psychology and Law, 2019

The aim of this article is to develop proposals for the organization of a legal and regulatory framework in Russia, in accordance with the social and psychological needs of guardianship families and to identify the possibilities of the Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child to protect the rights of minors raised in guardianship families.

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Black South Africans’ Perceptions and Experiences of the Legal Child Adoption Assessment Process

Priscilla Gerrand, Garth Stevens - Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 2019

This paper explores how Black South Africans perceive and experience the adoption assessment process regarding the adoption of abandoned children.

Adoption in the Netherlands: Preparation and post-care of adoptees, biological parents, adoption applicants and adoptive families in the Dutch adoption practice

Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V, 2019

This report from the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., DJI) assesses the adoption system in the Netherlands.

Promoting Adoptees’ Well-Being in Transracial Adoptive Families

Ellen E. Pinderhughes - The Future of Adoption: Beyond Safety to Well-Being, 2019

This paper discusses critical tasks facing adoptive parents of transracially adopted persons (TRAs), what we know about parents’ role and children’s outcomes.