Uganda Bombshell UPDATED
“Ugandan lawmakers passed a bill that says only Ugandans can be legal guardians of orphaned or destitute children, in a move aimed at stemming the rising number of adoptions by foreigners.
The bill eliminates a legal gap that allowed foreigners to apply for and get legal guardianship within days of arriving in the country, said lawmaker Margaret Komuhangi, who led a committee that examined the draft legislation before it was passed on Wednesday. The bill seeks to encourage more Ugandans to adopt needy children, she said Thursday.
The law sets tough new conditions for adoptions by foreigners, including background checks, and makes inter-country adoptions only permissible if the child has no known relatives and lacks a legal guardian.
The bill is necessary to protect children from traffickers and unscrupulous foreigners who seek to adopt children here, sometimes without having ever set foot in Uganda, said Marlon Agaba, a children’s rights activist.
“Someone would come here and apply for legal guardianship on Monday and by Wednesday they would have it, because it was given according to the discretion of a judge,” he said. “Actually the foreigner did not even need to be physically in Uganda to apply.”
The process of obtaining legal guardianship has been marred by corruption, he said.
There had been growing outcry here amid reports some families were being duped by lawyers to sign documents that assigned legal guardianship to foreigners, with some families believing their kids were going to study abroad and would be returning home regularly.
The new law ensures that adoption “is in the best interest of the child, not the person intending to adopt,” said Benard Atiku, a lawmaker who is a strong supporter of the legislation.”
Uganda: New Law Makes It Hard for Foreigners to Adopt Kids [NY Times 3/3/16 by AP]
DOS adds:
“Alert: Parliament of Uganda Passed Amendments to Uganda’s Children’s Act
On March 2, 2016, the Parliament of Uganda unexpectedly passed the 2015 Children’s Act Amendment Bill. The bill is now pending President Museveni’s approval prior to becoming law. Embassy Kampala is in contact with the Ugandan government to obtain a copy of the bill and ultimately to understand how the bill may affect currently pending and future legal guardianship and adoption cases in Uganda.
The Department will post further information regarding this matter as it becomes available on adoption.state.gov. ”
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: DOS sent another message here.
“Alert: Clarification on the Orphan Determination Process and Changes to the Ugandan Government’s Process for Document Verifications
As part of the processing of all Form I-600 petitions, USCIS (or, in some cases, the Department of State) will confirm that the child is an orphan, as defined in U.S. immigration law, and amongst other things, will determine whether there are any facts showing that the child does not qualify for an immigration benefit as an adopted child. As part of this orphan determination process, Embassy Kampala sometimes requests DNA sampling from the child’s living family members as well as verification of vital records from the Ugandan government.
The Ugandan government has informed Embassy Kampala that pursuant to the Registration of Persons Act of 2015 and effective January 1, 2016, the National Identity Registration Authority (NIRA) has taken over the function of birth and death registrations from Uganda Registration Services Bureau. Recently, NIRA provided Embassy Kampala guidance on changes to the procedures for requesting verification of Ugandan birth and death certificates, including the establishment of fees for service.
NIRA has established the following fees for services:
| Document | Fees Per Certificate (USD) |
| Inspection of the birth register | $20 |
| Inspection of the death register | $20 |
These new fees are considered part of the adoption process to be paid by prospective adoptive families, if required. Embassy Kampala will notify prospective adoptive families of the need to request verification of documents and at that time will provide NIRA’s instructions for payment submission. Do not submit payments for document verification services unless Embassy Kampala informs you of the need to do so. Each case is adjudicated on its own merits and therefore, not all cases will be required to go through the document verification process. These steps ensure the integrity of the adoption process, and Embassy Kampala continues to prioritize adoption cases to minimize any delays. ”
Update 2:”Parliament last week resolved to bar foreigners from acquiring guardianship of Ugandan children and taking them out of the country enroute to adopting them.
The amendment was the brainchild of Serere Woman MP Alice Alaso, who argued that human traffickers were finding it extremely easy to take children out of Uganda for selfish commercial gain.
Under the Children’s Act, foreigners can adopt Ugandan children if they have lived in Uganda for three years, fostered the child for three years under the supervision of a probation and social welfare officer, and met several other requirements.
However, legal guardianship had provided a loophole where judges sometimes misused their discretion and landed children in harm’s way. We would like to commend the position taken by the MPs, coming at a time when human trafficking is becoming an ever-bigger global problem – with Uganda as a notorious hub largely because of our lax laws.
Obviously, the decision of the MPs was not unanimous . Some argued – rightly so – that the amendment would disadvantage some poor children who would have otherwise found well-meaning foreign guardians. Others suggested that because Uganda has so many poor children, whom even the MPs are not helping, legal guardianship should be allowed to stay.
The latter diagnosis is right, but the prescription is wrong. It is admirable that our legislators are concerned about orphans and other vulnerable children. But it can’t
be that because they are vulnerable, these children lose the protection that citizens of a country should enjoy from the state.
In such matters – as with such issues as workers’ rights or minimum wage – our parliament should be legislating for more protection to the vulnerable, rather than removing any remaining legal restrictions and push helpless Ugandan children into the jaws of predators.
Needless to say, there are many children who have been adopted and they have lived happily ever after. That should not blind us to the many cases of those who lose out for landing in wrong hands.
It should also be noted that as other countries plug their holes, Uganda as a country was bound to become ever more vulnerable.”
Uganda: Adoption – State Owes Duty to Most Vulnerable Ugandans [All Africa 3/7/16]
Recent Comments