AG/RES. 1632 (XXIX-O/99)

STRENGTHENING OF NATIONAL SYSTEMS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE AREA OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS

(Resolution adopted at the first plenary session, held on June 7, 1999)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the observations and recommendations of the Permanent Council on the annual reports of the organs, agencies, and entities of the Organization (AG/doc.3830/99 add. 2) and, in particular, on the Annual Report of the Inter-American Children’s Institute (CP/doc.3182/99 add. 1); and

CONSIDERING:

That the region has experienced a significant increase in the number of international adoptions in the past 10 years;

That most states of Latin America and the Caribbean are countries of origin of children adopted by residents of North American or European countries, which, for these purposes, are referred to as receiving countries;

That, in various international instruments, regulations have been adopted to govern international adoptions, with particular attention to the necessity of protecting the rights of children adopted by residents of countries other than the countries of origin of those children;

That the Inter-American Children's Institute has a history of developing programs for the countries of the region on this subject;

That from March 2 to 5, 1999, in Santiago, Chile, an intergovernmental conference on international adoptions was held, attended by representatives of 18 OAS member states and six permanent observers to the Organization of American States; and

That, at that conference, representatives of the states in attendance adopted the text of the declaration attached hereto, which contains the main principles to be developed by the states in the area of international adoptions, both in the development of internal policies and in the area of international cooperation,

RESOLVES:

1. To commend the Inter-American Children's Institute on its ongoing efforts to promote means of international cooperation in guaranteeing the effective exercise of children's rights in the region.

2. To take note of the Declaration of Santiago de Chile, adopted at the Intergovernmental Conference on Intercountry Adoption on March 5, 1999.

3. To urge the member states to carry out the recommendations contained in the Declaration of Santiago de Chile, adopted at the Intergovernmental Conference on Intercountry Adoption.

APPENDIX

Declaration of Santiago de Chile

In Santiago, Chile, on March 5, 1999, the representatives of the countries participating in the Intergovernmental Conference on Intercountry Adoption agree that:

CONSIDERING:

I. That all of the participating countries have signed or ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an instrument which prescribes directives and principles for the development and orientation of public policies relative to intercountry adoption.

II. That on the international level, numerous agreements have been reached, including the 1984 Inter-American Conventions on Conflict of Laws concerning the Adoption of Minors; International Return of Children in 1989; International Trafficking of Children in 1994, and the Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, signed in the Hague in 1993.

III. That the family is the fundamental unit of society to offer adequate protection to the child or adolescent and to provide them with the adequate conditions for their integral development.

IV. That a great number of children and adolescents of our region have the fullness of their rights affected daily by poverty, abandonment, mistreatment and the lack of institutional mechanisms to completely ensure the enjoyment of their Rights.

V. That the above explains, to a certain degree, that, when speaking of intercountry adoption, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are normally the adopted children's States of Origin, and Europe and North America are normally Receiving States.

VI. That a process of intercountry adoption commits the responsibility of the states–Receiving States as much as States of Origin–and consequently obliges that each process of adoption reinforce and not be detrimental to the best interests of the child.

VII. That, having signed or ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, our countries have explicitly recognized:

– That the child or adolescent, having his or her condition as a person and his or her specific state of maturity recognized, requires and may demand from his or her family, society and State, special protection and care, including due legal protection.

– That it is the obligation of the State to promote efficient and institutional policies to prevent the abandonment of children and adolescents and to favor their stay in the family environment.

– That it is the obligation of the State to provide special protection to children and adolescents deprived of their family environment and to ensure that they may benefit from a substitute for familial attention, if it be necessary.

– That children and adolescents have the right to preserve their identity, including nationality, name and family relations, in accordance with the law, without illicit interference.

– That when a child or adolescent is illegally deprived of one or all elements of his or her identity, he or she should receive appropriate assistance and protection to rapidly reestablish his or her identity.

– That the best interests of the child must be the primary consideration to keep in mind in all processes of intercountry adoption.

– That the States must safeguard the best interests of the child in intercountry adoption through internal, national or domestic measures, and, at the same time, through the establishment of bilateral or multilateral agreements which guarantee that the transfer of the child or adolescent from his or her country of origin to another, by means of an intercountry adoption, should be done through the competent authorities or organizations and with arrangement of procedures which sufficiently care for the best interests of the child.

– That the States must ensure that the principle of subsidiarity of intercountry adoption remain in effect, with respect to national adoption, thus fulfilling the mandate of promoting all measures directed at keeping children and adolescents in their country of origin, when this corresponds to the best interests of the child, as the form of promotion of their right to an identity and culture of their own.

– That children and adolescents are active subjects and protagonists of their rights, something which must be expressed in the procedures that involve them. In particular, those procedures must permit children and adolescents to express their opinion and their opinion be a relevant precedent, which conforms to the domestic or international rule, when comes the time for the authority in charge to decide.

– That children and adolescents have the right to know their origins and identity, meaning that States must promote that minors given for adoption be given access to information about to their origins, respecting their best interests and their right to the truth about their life history.

WE PROPOSE THAT EACH STATE CONSIDER:

I. Promoting policies of prevention of abandonment, recognizing that the family–as a fundamental group of society and natural medium for the growth and well-being of all its members, particularly children and adolescents–must receive the protection and assistance necessary to fully assume its responsibility within the community.

II. Promoting internal adoption within a population as a form of giving a family to children and adolescents abandoned by their parents, once the possibilities of maintaining them with their biological family have been exhausted.

III. Promoting the social and legal conditions to ratify existing international conventions on the subject, particularly the International Convention Relative to the Protection of Children and to Cooperation on the Subject of Intercountry Adoption, signed in the Hague in 1993.

IV. Constituting a Network of Central Authorities in charge of making a proposal for the design, structure and definition of the common procedures the Central Authorities apply, which will meet periodically to monitor the functioning of international cooperation on the subject.

V. Entrusting the Inter-American Children's Institute, specialized organization of the Organization of American States, with the work of Technical Secretary of this Network in the Americas, providing all of the countries of the region with the support necessary to develop a technical registration system which permits the follow-up, evaluation and control of intercountry adoption and facilitates the fulfillment by the Central Authorities of the functions prescribed to them in the Hague Convention.

VI. Promoting, before the corresponding authorities, the criminal classification of activities that consist of:

a. The undue or deceptive obtaining of a minor through adoption, as well as the transfer of a minor to another country by way of illicit conduct or with illicit purposes;

b. The soliciting or accepting of any kind of remuneration or favors of any nature for the execution of, or cooperation in, any of the activities mentioned in point a); and

c. The obtaining of a minor through adoption for the purpose of commercializing or financially profiting from him or her.

The States should make sure that the aforementioned penal descriptions can be applied to the method of execution which covers the territory of more than one State, thus solving potential problems of extraterritoriality.

VII. Promoting, before the competent organizations of each State, the ratification of those international agreements which have the objective of penalizing the conducts linked to the trafficking of minors, or the cooperation for their persecution and punishment.

VIII. Promoting widespread cooperation between countries aimed at exchanging information on any situation related to the conducts described above, in order to adopt in each of them the measures deemed pertinent, to prevent them as much as to reassure the due respect for the best interests of the child.

IX. Promoting the signing of bilateral accords between the countries that practice intercountry adoption, in order to fulfill that which is prescribed in the Hague Convention and to adopt complementary instruments on the subject of intercountry adoption.

 

Clarification from the Delegation of Argentina

Notwithstanding its conformity with the Declaration in general, the Argentine Delegation states that its country does not foresee adhering to the forms of intercountry adoption which would make Argentina seem to be a country of departure of children and adolescents, due to express constitutional and legal prescriptions currently in effect.