GUATEMALA:
New Law to End Adoption
Business
By Inés Benítez
GUATEMALA CITY, (IPS)
- The Guatemalan
Congress approved a new
law Tuesday that will
regulate adoptions in
the framework of the
Hague Convention, which
goes into force in this
Central American country
on Dec. 31.
"We are pleased and
happy with the approval
of this law that will
make the adoption
process more
transparent,"
Attorney-General Mario
Estuardo Gordillo told
IPS.
The Hague Convention on
Protection of Children
and Cooperation in
Respect of Intercountry
Adoption, ratified by
the Guatemalan Congress
on May 21, 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.
So far this year, 3,406
Guatemalan children have
been placed in adoption,
only 36 of whom were
adopted by Guatemalan
families. The rest went
to families abroad,
overwhelmingly couples
from the United States,
according to sources
with the
Attorney-General's
Office, which approves
the adoptions. In 2006,
4,496 children were
adopted, 10 percent more
than in 2005.
In Guatemala, the entire
adoption process takes
no longer than a year.
Prospective parents,
almost all of whom are
from the United States,
shell out between 25,000
and 30,000 dollars,
which covers travel
expenses, the paperwork
and legal costs.
The adoptions are
processed under notaries
rather than judges,
which makes the process
exceptionally fast
compared to
international adoptions
in other countries.
That has made Guatemala
the fourth country in
the world in terms of
the number of children
placed in adoption,
after Russia, China and
South Korea, and the
leader in proportion to
the population,
according to the United
Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF).
"Today is a historic day
for the country, because
the foundations have
been laid for putting an
end to the theft of
children to place them
in adoption," said
parliamentary Deputy
Edgard Alfredo Rodríguez
of the centre-left
National Union of Hope (UNE),
after the law was
approved by more than
two-thirds of the
legislators.
Non-governmental
organisations (NGOs)
have long complained
that children are stolen
to feed the flourishing
adoption market.
In addition, "jaladoras"
or baby brokers convince
poor young pregnant
women to stay in "casas
de engorde" or
"fattening houses",
where the expenses of
the pregnancy and birth
are covered, and later
to give up their babies
in adoption.
Héctor Dionisio, the
legal representative of
Casa Alianza -- the
Latin American branch of
the New York-based
Covenant House, a child
advocacy organisation --
applauded the new law,
which he said was
finally passed after
more than a decade of
efforts by his group and
other NGOs.
As he told IPS,
"Adoption has become a
business here. Children
are produced for export,
distorting the meaning
of adoption, which is to
benefit children who do
not have a family."
Dionisio said that Casa
Alianza Guatemala has
run across cases of
"couples who get
pregnant in order to
give up their children
in adoption, or parents
who encourage their
teenage daughters to get
pregnant, to earn
money."
Although the bulk of the
money goes to notaries,
lawyers and other
intermediaries, young
women have admitted to
receiving between 650
and 1,600 dollars -- a
relative fortune for
poor women in Guatemala
-- for placing their
babies in adoption,
according to Nidia
Aguilar del Cid,
director of Defence of
the Rights of the Child
in the Office of the
Human Rights Ombudsman.
The new law is aimed at
eliminating economic
incentives from the
process. Article 10
prohibits the biological
parents and any other
people, institutions or
authorities involved in
adoptions to obtain
economic or other
material benefits from
the process.
The legislation also
creates a National
Adoption Council, an
autonomous regulatory
agency made up of
representatives of
different public
institutions that will
ensure that children
placed in adoption are
protected, promote
in-country adoptions and
match each child with
the right family.
"The creation of a
central authority will
imbue the adoption
process with a sense of
certainty," Gordillo
told IPS.
The chairman of the
congressional Commission
on Minors and Families,
Deputy Francisco Rolando
Morales, commented to
IPS that "the adoption
business in Guatemala
will automatically be
brought to a halt with
the new adoption law and
the Hague Convention.
It's true that the
number of adoptions will
go down, but so will the
theft of babies."
Activists and human
rights groups describe
the lawyers and notary
publics involved in the
lucrative adoption
business as "mafiosos."
But lawyers who spoke to
IPS rejected such
criticism and wondered
what will happen now to
thousands of poor babies
who will not be adopted.
The attorneys, who asked
to remain anonymous,
said that once the Hague
Convention goes into
effect, the adoption
process will be slowed
down, which will
encourage prospective
adoptive parents to look
elsewhere for children.
The lawyers said the
excessive red tape
required by the Hague
Convention will hurt
orphans or abandoned
children who could
otherwise have a much
brighter future.
According to official
statistics, more than 50
percent of Guatemala's
population of 13 million
lives below the poverty
line, although NGOs 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
of mixed-race heritage.
Indigenous people, who
comprise as much as 65
percent of the
population, have
historically suffered
from discrimination in
Guatemala, and most of
them live in poverty.
The maternal mortality
rate in Guatemala stood
at 121 per 100,000 live
births in 2005,
according to the UNDP’s
second report on
progress towards the
Millennium Development
Goals.
Aguilar said that many
of the children who were
adopted -- more than
20,000 in the last 10
years -- actually had
families.
"Adoption is necessary
for the country, but it
has turned into a
phenomenon of
trafficking in persons,
because of the economic
incentives involved,
which should not exist,"
said the official from
the Office of the Human
Rights Ombudsman.
Article six of the new
law states that poverty
or extreme poverty does
not constitute a
sufficiently valid
reason for parents to
give up a child in
adoption.
"Today the insecurity
hanging over all those
children who faced the
possibility of being
sold as merchandise has
been removed," Morales
told Congress a few
minutes after approval
of the law, which like
the Hague Convention
will enter into force on
Dec. 31.
Nineth Montenegro, a
lawmaker with the
centre-left Encuentro
por Guatemala (EG),
urged her fellow
legislators "to oversee
those who have used
‘casas de engorde’ to
carry on a trade with
children."
NGOs and representatives
of the Guatemalan
government presented the
problem of international
adoptions in this
country to the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights in an Oct. 15
hearing.
Up to now, adoptions
were 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, and there
was no specific law or
central regulatory
authority for adoptions.
The U.S. government
hopes to ratify the
Hague Convention itself
in the first half of
2008, a U.S. diplomat 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.
But Guatemala does not
yet apply the
Convention, because in
August 2003 the
Constitutional Court
declared this country's
accession to the
Convention
unconstitutional.
In addition, five
parties to the
Convention -- Canada,
Germany, the
Netherlands, Spain and
the United Kingdom --
objected to Guatemala's
adhesion, and suspended
adoptions from this
country because of
procedures that are not
in compliance with the
treaty, irregularities
detected in adoption
procedures, and reports
of the buying and
selling of children and
baby theft.
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."
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