RIGHTS-GUATEMALA:
New Rules for Lucrative
Adoption Business
By Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY, (IPS)
- Non-governmental
organisations from
Guatemala asked the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) to
consider a case
involving international
adoptions, a lucrative
business in this Central
American country that is
about to be subjected to
tougher rules.
At last week’s IACHR
hearing in Washington,
representatives of the
non-governmental Centre
for Justice and
International Law (CEJIL)
and Casa Alianza -- the
Latin American branch of
Covenant House, a New
York-based child
advocacy organisation --
sought to update the
commission on the
situation of adoptions
in Guatemala.
The NGOs also asked the
IACHR on Friday to
consider a case that was
presented on Jul. 19,
2006, Byron Alvarado,
legal adviser of the
Social Movement for the
Rights of Children,
Adolescents and Young
People, told IPS.
The IACHR has not yet
issued a report on the
case of Gustavo Tobar, a
Guatemalan taxi driver
who complained of
irregularities in the
adoption of his two
sons, Osmín Ricardo and
Jeffrey, who have been
living with two
different families in
the United States since
they left the country in
1998 at the ages of
seven and a
one-and-a-half,
respectively.
Tobar never consented to
the adoption of his
children, and says they
were taken from their
mother -- he was working
in Mexico at the time --
on the basis of false
reports that they were
neglected, mistreated
and malnourished.
While the IACHR
considers Tobar’s case,
the multi-million
international adoption
business in Guatemala is
facing an uncertain
future now that the
Guatemalan Congress has
ratified a global
adoption treaty and is
preparing to pass a law
that would regulate
adoption.
The Hague Convention on
Protection of Children
and Cooperation in
Respect of Intercountry
Adoption, which was
ratified by Congress on
May 21 and will go into
force in Guatemala on
Dec. 31, was created to
ensure that
international adoptions
take place in the best
interests of the child
and with respect for
their fundamental
rights, and to prevent
the abduction, sale of,
or traffic in children.
According to the United
Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), Guatemala is
the fourth country in
the world in terms of
the number of children
placed in adoption,
after Russia, China and
South Korea. But
Guatemala, where reports
of the trafficking and
sale of babies are
widespread, is the
world's leading
ex¬porter of children
per capita.
"Cesarean sections are
being practiced on women
who are seven months
pregnant, to be able to
register the babies" for
adoption on time, before
the treaty goes into
effect at the end of the
year, said Alvarado.
These are women who have
already arranged with
baby brokers and lawyers
to give up their babies,
and if the adoptions
fall through, everyone
involved stands to lose
the money they were
counting on earning.
Behind the booming
adoption market in
Guatemala is a "mafia"
of lawyers, notaries
public, "jaladoras" or
baby brokers who entice
poor young women into
placing their children
in adoption, so-called "casas
de engorde" or
"fattening houses" where
the expectant mothers’
pregnancy and
birth-related expenses
are covered, officials
in civil registers,
pediatricians, adoption
homes and foster
families, activists told
IPS.
"The baby business moves
100 million dollars a
year," which mainly
benefits lawyers and
notaries public,
Francisco Rolando
Morales, the president
of the congressional
committee on minors and
the family, told IPS. He
alluded to "pressure"
from lawyers to block
passage of the new
adoption law, aimed at
eliminating the economic
incentives from adoption
procedures.
Many pregnant women
arrange to turn over
their newborn babies
because they are unable
to support them.
According to official
statistics, more than 50
percent of Guatemala’s
population of 13 million
lives below the poverty
line, although
non-governmental
organisations put the
proportion closer to 80
percent.
Most of the impoverished
women who give up their
children either
willingly or as a result
of pressure, coercion or
deceit are indigenous or
mixed-race women.
Indigenous people, who
make up as much as 65
percent of the
population, have
historically suffered
from discrimination in
Guatemala, and most of
them live in poverty.
Nidia Aguilar, director
of Defence of the Rights
of the Child in the
Office of the Human
Rights Ombudsman, told
IPS that "over the past
10 years, women have
received money in
exchange for placing
their babies in
adoption, and there are
cases of women who have
given up as many as
three children."
Although mothers have
admitted to receiving
between 650 and 1,600
dollars -- a relative
fortune for poor women
in Guatemala -- they
receive small sums in
comparison to the
earnings of lawyers and
notaries public.
The new law on
adoptions, the passage
of which will allow the
Hague Convention to go
into effect, is in the
final stages of
approval.
A group of experts from
the Hague Conference on
Private International
Law, the
intergovernmental body
that adopted the Hague
Convention, visited
Guatemala for a week in
July to provide advice
on drafting the new
adoptions law and
submitted a report to
the Guatemalan
parliament with
suggestions that,
according to Morales,
have been incorporated
in the draft law.
Morales would like to
see the law passed
before the Nov. 4
presidential runoff
election, because after
that day, "the interests
of the winning party
could interfere."
The draft law would
create a Rectoría
Nacional de Adopciones,
an administrative body
under the
Attorney-General's
Office that would be
made up of
representatives of
different state agencies
and would approve
adoptions.
Adoptions are currently
governed by the Civil
Code, the Law on
Integral Protection for
Children and Adolescents
and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights
of the Child. There is
no specific law or
central regulatory
authority for adoptions.
The initiative would
also give priority to
local adoptions, which
currently represent less
than two percent of the
total; make the process
for approving adoptive
parents stricter; and
put in place greater
oversight of the entire
process. Foster and
adoption homes would be
given a deadline to
register with the
authorities.
So far this year, 2,560
children have been
placed in adoption,
according to the
Attorney-General’s
Office, which approves
adoptions. In 2006,
4,496 children were
adopted, 10 percent more
than in 2005.
In Guatemala, the
paperwork for adoptions
is fast, and the entire
process takes no longer
than a year, because the
adoptions are processed
under notaries rather
than judges. Most of the
couples who adopt
children here are from
the United States. The
entire process costs
them between 25,000 and
30,000 dollars, which
covers travel expenses,
the paperwork and legal
costs.
The government of the
United States, the
country that accounts
for virtually all of the
adoptions of Guatemalan
children, expects to
ratify the Hague
Convention itself in the
first half of 2008, the
U.S. Embassy in
Guatemala told IPS.
So far, 71 countries,
including Guatemala,
have acceded to the
international treaty,
which was approved in
1993 and went into
effect in 1995.
However, Guatemala does
not yet apply the
Convention, because in
August 2003 the
Constitutional Court
declared this country’s
accession to the
Convention
unconstitutional, even
though it was carried
out with congressional
approval.
In addition, five
parties to the
Convention -- Canada,
Germany, the
Netherlands, Spain and
the United Kingdom --
objected to Guatemala's
adhesion, and have
restricted adoptions
from this country
because of procedures
that are not in
compliance with the
international treaty.
An Aug. 2 press release
issued by the U.S.
Embassy in Guatemala
stated that "in response
to concerns about the
unregulated adoption
process" in Guatemala,
the Embassy now requires
"a second DNA test, to
verify that the adopted
child for whom an
immigrant visa is being
requested is the same
child matched at the
beginning of the
adoption process with
the birth parent."
There are cases of women
who are deceived or
coerced into signing
blank documents and
undergoing medical tests
along with their
children in exchange for
medical or economic aid
and without even being
aware that they are
submitting to DNA tests,
Héctor Augusto Dionisio,
head of Casa Alianza’s
legal programme, told
IPS before taking part
in last Friday’s IACHR
hearing.
The IACHR was also
presented with a report
on an Aug. 11 raid of
Casa Quivira, an
adoption home in the
western city of Antigua,
where 46 children
between the ages of
three days and two years
were seized due to
irregularities in the
paperwork for their
adoptions, and two
lawyers were arrested.
In a Sept. 28 warning
posted on the web site
of the U.S. Embassy in
Guatemala, the U.S.
State Department "urges
American citizens not to
commence an adoption
process from Guatemala
at this time.
Fundamental changes in
Guatemalan and U.S.
adoption law will take
effect over the next six
months. These changes
are likely to inject
considerable uncertainty
into the adoption
process."
"We want the corrupt
adoption system to end
and the transparent
Hague Convention system
to begin on Dec. 31,"
said Alvarado.
Meanwhile, Gustavo Tobar
hopes that "justice will
be done" and that the
IACHR will take up his
case and pressure the
Guatemalan authorities,
"because children can’t
be like merchandise in a
supermarket, coming in
different prices, sizes,
colours and ages," he
told IPS. |
