PACE Social Affairs Committee urges respect for children's international adoption rights

A new report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee denounces the fully-fledged traffic in babies in Moldova, where 61 cases came before the criminal courts in 2006. The report is based on fact-finding visits to Ukraine and Moldova. The Committee said in a communique sent to Info-Prim Neo that it firmly condemns the increasing use of alternative circuits that can encourage the disappearance of newborn babies for illegal adoption in Europe. These practices of stealing and selling children, particularly newborn babies, have been facilitated by the lack of strict civil status regulations in some countries, the Committee said today when adopting report by PACE rapporteur Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold on the disappearance of new-born babies in Europe. “The point of international adoption is to enable a child to find parents, with respect for his or her rights, not to satisfy the parent's wish to have a child at all costs: there is no such thing as the right to a child!”, Mrs Vermot-Mangold concluded. The committee is calling for, at national level, the introduction of clear laws governing family rights and, at international level, a review of the Convention on Intercountry Adoption, bearing in mind the interests and rights of the child, in order to establish mechanisms for the strict control of adoption rules. The report, adopted yesterday, is due to be discussed by PACE at its winter session (21-25 January 2008).