Rwanda Seeks to Add More Postplacement Monitoring as Hague Convention Enters Force UPDATED
“MPs want the government to closely monitor Rwandan children adopted by foreigners and consequently taken abroad.
Speaking on Tuesday, several legislators questioned the country’s policy on child adoption, saying children who are taken to other countries by their adoptive parents risked losing touch with their country’s identity and heritage.
Official figures indicate that, from 2006 up to 2009, up to 263 Rwandan children were taken to several countries, including the United States, France, Belgium and Italy. In total, there are 361 adopted Rwandan children abroad, according to statistics from the National Children’s Commission.
MP Devota Uwamaliya wondered what the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion was doing to ensure that such children remained connected with the country.
“We have got the figures but we don’t know what arrangement is in place for follow up of these kids,” she said.
The chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies’ Standing Committee on Political Affairs and Gender, Alfred Rwasa Kayiranga, expressed concerns over the “the manner in which these children are brought up in foreign countries”.
“What kind of upbringing do they get? Are they in position to grow up as patriotic Rwandans? Are our embassies monitoring this, and how is the ministry playing a part…The policy needs to answer such questions,” she said.
Deputy Ombudsman Augustine Nzindukiyimana told the lawmakers that the ministry needed to address the matter urgently.
Zaina Nyiramatama, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Children (NCC), told The New Times that the agency was planning to come up with new guidelines on child adoption to complement The Hague Convention on Adoption. “We are in the process of proposing new guidelines that are in line with the national childcare reform.
“We don’t really have much information except what the adoptive parents tell us; we want to improve on that by working closely with our embassies,” she said.
Under the current arrangement, the NCC receives a progress report every six months for the first two years of adoption, after which the frequency of updates reduces to once a year until the child 18 years old.
Nyiramatama said the status updates come from foster families, and not adoption agencies.
Benilde Uwababyeyi, an NCC official in charge of adoption, said the status updates include such issues as the child’s health, education and adaptableness to foreign language and culture. But she added that the envisaged reforms would ensure more information is availed.
“For instance, the issue of (preservation) of our culture and values is not included under the current arrangement, but need to integrate it”.
Coordination
Responding to an e-mail enquiry from The New Times, Rwanda’s Ambassador to Belgium, Robert Masozera, said the embassy intends to work closely with “appropriate institutions” in Rwanda and in Belgium to improve on how they are handling the adoption issue. “We will ask relevant Belgian institutions to help ascertain the exact number of Rwandan children adopted by Belgians. That’s when we will be able to take appropriate strategies measures on the matter,” Masozera said.
“These children are Rwandans by origin, and not Belgians. They are members of the Rwandan community here and it is our responsibility to ensure they are an integral part of our community,” the envoy added.
Ernest Rwamucyo, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, said they follow-up on adopted Rwandan children in the UK to ensure their adoptive parents adhere to all their obligations to the children’s welfare, and that the children remain connected to their roots.
He said: “The cases differ according to circumstances. There are cases where adoptive parents are entirely non-Rwandan. There are also cases of non-Rwandans who married Rwandans and chose to legally adopt their Rwandan partners’ children or relatives. In the latter case, the children remain with deep attachments to Rwanda as they live in an environment where they have Rwandan relatives.”
“Currently, in the UK, we have only one known case where a Rwandan child was adopted by non-Rwandan parents. The Embassy was involved throughout the process of adoption and remains in contact with the family. The child was also brought by the parents to visit the Embassy on a number of occasions.”
The envoy, however, noted there is a challenge because “the entire adoption process is handled directly in Rwanda without coordination with embassies.
Hague Convention
The Hague Adoption Convention addresses international adoption, child laundering, and child trafficking. It was concluded on May 29, 1993 and entered into force on May 1, 1995.
“Intercountry adoptions shall be made in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights. To prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children each State should take, as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin,” reads part of the Convention.
As of April 2012, the Convention had been ratified by 87 countries. Haiti, Nepal and The Russian Federation are signatories, but have yet to ratify the instrument.
Rwanda is one of the 69 states that are not members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, but have signed, ratified or acceded to one or more Hague Conventions.
The government is in the process of gradually phasing out orphanages, preferring to have children raised in foster homes.”
Rwanda: Adoption Policy Questioned
[All Africa 7/19/12 by James Karuhanga]
Hague Adoption Convention Enters into Force July 2, 2012
The country page on the DOS site, but not the alert/notice or home page has the following notice. See here and pasted below:
“Rwanda
Notice: The Hague Adoption Convention Enters into Force for Rwanda
On July 1, 2012 the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention) entered into force for Rwanda. However, the Government of Rwanda has notified the U.S. Embassy in Kigali that the current suspension on intercountry adoptions will remain in effect until the country has a fully functional Convention process in place. The Government of Rwanda believes implementation will take several months.
We caution adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents that important steps to ensure intercountry adoptions from Rwanda comply with the Convention must take place before intercountry adoptions between the United States and Rwanda resume. Adoption service providers should neither initiate nor claim to initiate adoption programs in Rwanda until the Department of State notifies them that the Government of Rwanda has lifted its suspension on intercountry adoptions and that Rwanda’s procedures meet the requirements of the Convention.”
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
Update: “The National Commission of Children (NCC) has opposed a string of proposals in the draft law on child adoption.
Appearing before Parliament’s standing Committee on Political Affairs and Gender debating the Bill governing persons and family, Sylvestre Hitimana, the NCC lawyer, highlighted concerns, especially on Article 280 on minimum age for adoption.
It states that no one shall be allowed to adopt a child unless he or she is 18 years old. The clause adds that potential adoptive parent must be at least three years older than the child.
But Hitimana argued that at 18, one is too immature. He said: “We are saying that this [18 years] is too low an age, and a person hasn’t really embarked on a firm path in life. The right age should, at least, be 25 years.”
He also expressed objection to Article 293 which in part states that if an intended adoptive parent dies before court grants an adoption order, court shall proceed with the application and the adoption shall have legal effect as if the intended adoptive parent is alive.
“This isn’t in order because the intended adoptive parent is dead yet it is him or her who had wished to adopt,” he said.
The council’s memo presented to the Committee on Thursday also opposes a proposal requiring a married prospective adoptive parent to seek consent of his or her spouse before taking on a child.
MPs recently traversed the country to consult about amendments to the 1998 law. They were reportedly warned to be “very careful” not to pass clauses that will make Rwandan children completely cutting ties with their homeland.
Another sticky issue in the Bill concerns the term “absolute adoption” as a new option. The Bill defines absolute adoption as a legal relationship between a child and non-biological parents where the child completely ends ties with his or her original family.
Violating rights
MPs, NCC and the general public fear that this reform of adoption could violate rights of adopted children instead of improving it.
“All the people we talked to indicated that this issue [adoptee cutting ties with original family] is very serious,” Committee Chairperson Alfred Kayiranga said.
He said respondents argued that because of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, some Rwandan children were taken to foreign countries illegally, and if absolute adoption is approved, these children will be lost completely.
“People indicated that we must be very careful. People are concerned.”
The 1988 law only provides for simple adoption where the one basic requirement which is a 15-year age difference between the adoptee and the adopter, Jean Pierre Kayitare, the assistant Attorney General in charge of Legislation Drafting Services in the Ministry of Justice explained.
This legal undertaking allows the continuity of relationship between the child and its first family.
Kayitare warned that simple adoption “has consequences to the adoptee because they have no rights” to the adopter’s property.
“This is a problem, and secondly, this child continues to have rights on the family of origin yet, probably, it exists no more, like we have seen in Rwanda,” he added.
Kayitare said the ‘absolute adoption’ clause was informed by views suggesting that the adopter becomes a parent completely.
“A child should come to a new family and enjoy equal rights as other children. The child can inherit, and this is really helpful to the child. It is called absolute adoption.”
It was also decided that the law should be amended to “have another option of international adoption” since Rwanda ratified international conventions including the 1993 Convention on the protection of children and collaboration in international adoption.
Kayitare said care was taken to include “necessary strict conditions so that there first be a child’s consent, and consent from pertinent authorities and institutions, to avoid situations where people could just come to scramble for children to take abroad.””
Rwanda: Children Council Rejects Adoption Age
[All Africa.com 5/3/13 by James Karuhanga]
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