Ghana Considering Implementing Hague Convention UPDATED

In June 2012, we discussed how Ghana was implementing a central authority. Now it looks like they are going to take it one step further.

The admission by the Minister for Gender, Children  and Social Protection that trafficking and adoption are intertwined is also remarkable.

“Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection has promised to make issues relating to child trafficking and adoption the priority of her administration, saying she would tackle them with all seriousness.

The Minister said this when Dr Lyabode M. Olusanmi, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative to Ghana paid a courtesy call on her on Wednesday.

She said there were a lot of loopholes in the adoption law which had paved the way for people to abuse the system.

She noted that there were instances where some Ghanaians living abroad adopted children in Ghana to be taken abroad just to pay less taxes and indicated that the Ministry would conduct a research in the area of adoption to come out with more stringent measures to regulate child adoption in the country.

Nana Oye Lithur also advocated for support to be given to single parents through social intervention programmes like the Local Enterprises & Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) so that they would not be tempted to give their children to human traffickers.

Dr Olusanmi said even though Ghana had been doing well in reducing poverty, there were gaps in improving access to education and reducing child mortality and regional disparities which needed to be tackled.

She said whiles inhabitants of the Volta Region faced acute water shortage, there was high prevalence rate of mother to child AIDS transmission in the Eastern Region, not to mention and the high prevalence rate of poverty in Northern Ghana.

She said the creation of the Ministry for Gender was very commendable and advised the Minister to give much attention to boys since they were disadvantaged in situations of child labour in the cocoa, galamsey and fishing sectors.

She also asked the Minister to give much attention to child protection issues, saying Ghana needed a child protection system that would meet the aspirations of all Ghanaians.”

Nana Oye Lithur promises to tackle issues of child trafficking and adoption

[Vibe Ghana 2/20/13]

“The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has said it would consider the implementation of the Hague Convention on Inter Country Adoption.

The Convention would establish safeguards to ensure that inter-country adoptions take place in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights as recognized by International law.

It would also establish a system of co-operation amongst Contracting Nations to ensure that abduction and sale trafficking of children is prevented.

The Minister for Gender Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur made this known when the U.S Ambassador to Ghana Gene A. Cretz paid a courtesy call on her at the Ministry on Wednesday.

According to her, this would help curb child trafficking under the guise of Child adoption.

She noted “we need to be able to have a better system so that it doesn’t get to that because it seems that when it gets to the court, once there is a social enquiry report and once the conditions are satisfied under the law it is a fair accompany and there is a need for us to look at that.”

According to her, “the orphanage is another issue that we need to look at, better regulation, more stream lining of the orphanage because it ties in with the trafficking issues.”

She explained “I am happy we have the three departments because then we can ensure that we have some of the social intervention programs in some of the areas where the children who are trafficked originate from the Coastal areas.

Meanwhile the U.S Ambassador Gene A. Cretz stated that the United States would help the Ministry achieve its aims and objectives.”

Oye Lithur Talks Tough: No More Trafficking Via Child Adoption

[Modern Ghana 2/21/13]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “Conditions imputable to poverty should never be the only justification for the removal of a child from parental care into orphanages, says an official of the Department of Social Welfare, Child Right Promotion and Protection.

Mrs Helena Obeng Asamoah, Deputy Director stressed that poverty should not be an excuse to separate children from their families to live in orphanages, but should be seen as a signal for the need to provide appropriate support to the family.

She said 80 per cent of children living in orphanages had families and could have been supported to live in their own communities.

Mrs Obeng Asamoah made the observation, at a press conference to throw light on adoption, and the need for children to be inculcated into the family system, in Accra on Thursday.

She said institutional care does not adequately provide the level of positive individual attention from consistent caregivers, compromises the emotional, physical, mental and social development of the child, and are at risk of sexual abuse, lack of stimulation and harsh discipline.

She said: “This is not to say that we do not need orphanages or children’s home, they serve very good purposes but children should not be there most of their lifetime.”

Mrs Obeng Asamoah said: “Child development is holistic. The child develops physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually as defined within the child’s culture.”

She said long periods in an institution make it harder for a child to assimilate back into a family and community, and deny access to the life-long attachment and community support systems that family relationship and communities can provide.

She urged stakeholders who take decisions on children requiring alternative care to avoid unnecessary delay in taking decisions about children so that they do not wait too long in institutions.

Mrs Victoria Natsu, Deputy Director, Department of Social Welfare, Justice Administration  said adoption is the legal process which permanently transfers all the legal rights and responsibilities of being a parent from the child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents.

She said it is a lawful process by which a person becomes a lawful member of a family different from their birth family.

She said Ghana accepted the absolute obligation to protect children without parental care, by ratifying the UN Convention on the rights of the child.

Mrs Natsu said Ghana had been identified to be one of the African countries that are experiencing a soar in inter-country adoption.

She noted that as part of reforms in child care, there are discussions on the possibility of Ghana preparing to be part of the Hague Convention since many inter-country adoptions are taking place.

Ms Natsu noted that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is concerned about the state of affairs with regards to inter-country adoption and had initiated moves to address the anomalies and inconsistencies in the practice.

She said the Ministry aims at ensuring that Ghana goes through an effective transition on reforms in adoption and put in place a system that would weed out practices that might not auger well for children who are subjects of adoption.

The Ministry had directed that with immediate effect, all agencies that claim to be involved in inter-country adoption in Ghana, but have not been given any authority should close down, or if found to be engaging in the practice it would find itself in the grips of the security agencies.

“The Ministry is committed to ensuring that children are protected and that any arrangement about children in need for care and protection would be carried out only in accordance with the guiding principles of the best interest of children being paramount,” Mrs Natsu said.”

Social Welfare Department defines conditions for placing children in orphanages

[Ghana Business News 3/15/13]

Update 2: DOS issues notice that Ghana has shut down but doesn’t really explain why. They do not seem to want to acknowledge that Ghana has been discussing Hague Convention.

DOS Notice can be found here and is pasted below:

“Alert: Government of Ghana Suspends Intercountry Adoptions

The Government of Ghana has temporarily suspended processing of all adoption cases, including intercountry adoptions, pending Ghana’s review of its current adoption procedures. The U.S. Embassy in Accra is seeking further clarification of the scope and duration of this temporary suspension by the Government of Ghana and how this suspension may effect pending adoptions.  The U.S. Embassy will continue processing adoption cases already approved by Ghanaian authorities.”

Update 3: Ghana says that it will reopen in Q4 2013. It does not look like Hague will be implemented at this time.

“One thousand one hundred and seventy-nine children were adopted throughout the country between 2009 and 2011 in Ghana. Out of the number, 823 were inter-country that means the children were sent to foreign countries.

Statistics made available to The Mirror by the Ghana office of UNICEF shows that 395 adoption cases were recorded in 2009, with 281 of the children sent out of the country.

In 2010, 431 adoption cases were recorded, with 305 sent to foreign lands. According to the statistics, 353 adoptions were made in 2011, with 273 accounting for the number of children taken abroad.

When contacted on the issue, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, said the situation had arisen because about 19 illegal adoption agencies were operating in the country.

She also said it was difficult to trace these agencies since they operate on the Internet. [It is not hard to trace them!]

That, according to the minister, was a contradiction of international requirements which permit only agencies licensed by a particular country to handle inter-country adoptions.

She said only three agencies: Friends of Children in Italy; Bethany Christian Services of the United States of America and Adoption Centrum in Sweden had been licenced to operate in Ghana by the Department of Social Welfare.

Those agencies, the minister said, also offer humanitarian services and support children in need of protection.

According to the minister, the ministry also placed a moratorium on adoption from Ghana on April 30, 2013 and that was still in place. She, however, gave the assurance that the moratorium would be annulled in the fourth quarter of this year.

That notwithstanding, Nana Oye Lithur said, there were exceptions where provision had been made for emergency cases during the moratorium period, where any application made must be sent to the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) which will use its discretion as to which cases were emergencies.

She reiterated that a mechanism would be put in place to ensure that the structures for monitoring adoptions in the country would be strictly adhered to.

The minister said meanwhile, the Government of Ghana was working together with UNICEF in the interim, to create a central authority to process adoptions in Ghana with UNICEF providing technical support to ensure that all cases would be handled according to the required guidelines and regulations.

The Chief of Child Protection Programme, UNICEF Johanna Erikson Takyo told The Mirror in a telephone interview that “the increase in cases of adoptions, in particular inter-country adoptions, has been noted. The increase appears to have emerged, based on a steady demand for inter-country adoption of children.

“It should be noted that as per international good practice and standard, inter-country adoption should always be a measure of last resort and only an option when no domestic solutions can be found for the child,” she explained.”

1,179 children adopted in three years, 823 taken to foreign lands

[Ghana Web 8/4/13]

Update 4:“Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said the temporary suspension of child adoption was to protect the interest of the vulnerable.
The suspension was announced on March 24 and is expected to be lifted at the end of the year.
“The moratorium became necessary following the discovery of a worrying trend in the adoption of children which is detrimental to their welfare,” she said.
Nana Lithur said this during a media briefing on Wednesday to explain issues of inter-country adoptions and initiate media advocacy on public awareness creation.
The Ministry, she said, was aware that many interest groups were concerned about the period of the moratorium and the future of child adoptions in Ghana.
However, the Ministry had a responsibility to protect the vulnerable groups, including children, she said.
The temporary ban was, therefore, to enable the Ministry to re-engineer and to review the adoption process in order to guarantee best practices for effective service delivery, said Nana Lithur.
She said the moratorium aimed at streamlining the role of the Department of Social Welfare in the adoption process by developing more transparent and standardised guidelines.
The Minister, however, said during the period of the moratorium, emergency cases would be determined and granted approval for processing at the headquarters of the Department of Social Welfare.
As part of the reforms, Nana Lithur said an Adoption Desk had been created as a central data collection base on foster care and adoptions for the country.
She called on individuals and groups with relevant proposals on the design of an adoption and foster care policy to submit them to the Department of Social Welfare for consideration.”

Gender Minister Justifies Ban on Child Adoption-63772

[Ghana News Agency 8/21/13]

Update 5: “The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) Nana Oye Lithur has appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians and philanthropists to come to the aid of the various orphanage homes to support as a moratorium has been placed on adoption to enable them run efficiently.

 

Ghana: Minister Appeals to Philanthropist to Help Orphanage Homes

[All Africa.com 8/29/13 by Maame Agyeiwaa Agyei]

Update 6: From October 15:

http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=alerts&alert_notice_file=ghana_3says “Alert: Guidance on Processing of Emergency Adoption Cases during Ghana’s Suspension

On April 30, 2013, the Government of Ghana suspended processing of all adoption cases, including intercountry adoptions, pending Ghana’s review of its current adoption procedures.  This alert provides additional information on how the Ghanaian Department of Social Welfare (DSW) is implementing the suspension and how the suspension impacts processing of related Forms I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative.

Cases Subject to the Suspension

All adoption cases that received final approval by the Ghanaian Department of Social Welfare (DSW) or were filed with a court before April 30, 2013, are not subject to this suspension.

For cases filed with a court on or after April 30, 2013, only emergency cases may proceed to final adoption in Ghana.  Emergency cases include children who have special needs or medical conditions, children who could “age out” of adoption eligibility, and children adopted by biological relatives.  These emergency cases must be submitted to the Acting Director of DSW for approval before being submitted to a Ghanaian court.

We strongly encourage prospective adoptive parents not to proceed with an adoption in Ghana unless you meet the suspension exceptions described above.  If you wish to pursue an adoption in another country due to the suspension, please see the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website for more information at www.uscis.gov/adoption.

Guidance Regarding Form I-600 Petition Processing

When filing any Form I-600 petition, U.S. prospective adoptive parents must establish that the adoption or grant of custody took place in accordance with the law of the child’s country.  For all Form I-600 petitions filed on behalf of a child from Ghana USCIS and the Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy in Accra require evidence that the Minister or Acting Director of DSW has approved the adoption case filed with the court after April 30 to ensure it was completed in accordance with the regulated exceptions to the suspension.  In an effort to efficiently process these cases, USCIS Accra will continue to contact the DSW directly for petitions filed in Accra, when necessary, to confirm whether the case was approved by DSW.  Prospective adoptive parents may also choose to obtain this evidence directly from DSW and submit it with their Form I-600 petition.  The address for the Acting Director of the Department of Social Welfare is P.O. Box MB 230, Accra, Ghana.

Please note there is no fee by DSW or USCIS for confirmation that a specific case was approved by the DSW.  If prospective adoptive parents are unable to obtain this information from the DSW, please notify USCIS Accra at uscis.accra@uscis.dhs.gov.

The Department of State and USCIS will continue providing updated information on adoption.state.gov as it becomes available.  If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the Office of Children’s Issues at 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States.  Email inquiries may be directed to AdoptionUSCA@state.gov. ”

Update 7: “The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has suspended child adoption to enable it to deal with challenges associated with the adoption process in the country.

The initiative is also to protect adopted children and their foster parents.

In view of that, the Ministry has commenced a review of the adoption processes to establish a Central Adoption Authority in line with mandated international regulation and obligations.

Nana Oye Lithur, the Sector Minister, explained that the new adoption policy would do away with the current system which allowed people to adopt children in all the regions of the country and take them outside the country without proper coordination.

Taking her turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra on Tuesday, Mrs Lithur said the Ministry is therefore proposing an amendment to the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560) and finalising the draft Adoption and Foster Care Regulations for Parliament.

She said the Ministry’ as it is now, is a merger of the then Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) with the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD) and the Social Protection Division of the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare (MESW) established by an Executive Instrument in 2013.

Consequently the new MoGCSP has assumed a new and expanded mandate to ensure gender equality, promote the welfare and protection of children, and to empower the vulnerable, aged and persons with disabilities, for sustainable national development.

She explained that its policies are guided by the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) and the Sector Medium-Term Plan (SMTP) 2010-1013, adding that, in 2013 and the first half of 2014, the Ministry made some remarkable achievements in the implementation of its programmes.

These achievement include drafting and validating the Comprehensive Restructuring Plan and Performance Management Framework to reflect its new and expanded mandate, which also aim at enhancing performance and service delivery at all levels, commissioning the development of institutional restructuring and the Human Resources Policy to enhance performance delivery of the new Ministry, as well as drafting a National Gender Policy to address Gender Equality, Equity and Empowerment of Women for National Development, among others.

Mrs Lithur said the Ministry had also commissioned the development of the Justice for Children Policy and inaugurated an Advisory Committee to guide the process while the framework for the policy had already been drafted

A review of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy to improve ECCD services for children aged 0-8 years has also commenced while a campaign against violence and abuse against children with specific focus on early and forced marriage, cyber safety, corporal punishment, and gender-based violence in schools has been commenced.

In the area of Children’s Rights Promotion, Protection and Development, the Ministry has finalised the National Child and Family Welfare Policy to ensure the holistic protection and welfare of the Ghanaian child within a functional family welfare system.

Also stakeholder consultations have been held nationwide to obtain community input from over 7,000 Ghanaians from all walks of life, and to galvanize public support for the policy.

Mrs Lithur said the Ministry also launched the Women’s Summit on International Women’s Day, which provides a platform to recognise women’s contribution to Ghana, promote gender equality and celebrate the country’s progress.

The summit brought together female parliamentarians, ambassadors, ministers, ladies of the clergy, chiefs and queenmothers, women in academia and in the corporate and business fields, market women, students, public servants and civil society organisations.”

Gender Ministry to centralise child adoption[Vibe Ghana 6/24/14]