This article originally appeared in the Boston Globe:
Republican Representative Tom Marino of Pennsylvania and
Democratic co-sponsors David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jim McDermott of
Washington, and Brian Higgins of New York introduced a bill last week that
would put the United States in the position of supporting — rather than
undermining — the human rights of children worldwide. It is a simple bill,
consisting of only a few lines of text and requiring no new resources. But it
would have a profound effect on one of the most significant human rights crises
of our time.
The bill would essentially tell the State Department to stop
discriminating against children through its refusal to consider the violations
of human rights inherent in their unnecessary institutionalization.
Many millions of children worldwide are now locked into
institutions for no fault of their own, simply because they have been
abandoned, or removed from their parents because of maltreatment. There are
good homes waiting for many of these children if only nations would free them
up for adoption. Currently, most of these homes are available only across
national borders, since institutionalized children generally live in the
poorest and most devastated countries of the world, where few families can
afford to take in additional children to parent. Few of these countries have
any culture of domestic adoption.
But countries regularly shut down international adoption, or
create barriers that restrict it to only a lucky few. Unfortunately, the State
Department has in recent years joined with other forces to limit international
adoption as a meaningful option for unparented children. The result has been
the precipitous decline by 75 percent in the number of adoptions into the
United States since 2004, and by more than 50 percent in the number
international adoptions worldwide. This represents the deliberate and
unnecessary denial to well over 20,000 children per year of their most
fundamental human right other than life itself — the right to grow up with
nurturing parents.
This bill would put the United States in the position of
standing up for the human rights of unparented children. It would put us in the
position of calling out the human rights violations involved in condemning
children to the destruction inherent in growing up in institutions.
Gold standard social and medical science demonstrates how
institutions destroy children mentally, physically, and emotionally. It
demonstrates that there is a sensitive period in early life after which, even
if children are removed from institutions, it is much harder to undo the damage
done. The evidence also demonstrates that placement in adoption, whether in the
country of origin or abroad, works wonderfully well to help children make the
most of their lives.
This bill is supported by a coalition representing academic
experts in human rights and child welfare together with core organizations
committed to the rights of unparented children — the National Council for
Adoption, the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program, the Center for
Adoption Policy, Saddleback Church Orphan Care Initiative, the American Academy
of Adoption Attorneys, and Both Ends Burning.
This bill is simple but would represent a profound,
paradigm-shattering change. It would put the United States in an important
position of international human rights leadership. And Congress should be able
to agree on the position that children have the basic human right to grow up in
a family.
Elizabeth Bartholet is
professor of law and faculty director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard
Law School. Paulo Barrozo is associate professor of law and jurisprudence and
director of the Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy at Boston College
Law School
If
you would like more information on how the Orphan Care Initiative works to help
children remain in family, reunite with family, or regain family through
adoption, email orphans@saddleback.com
or call the Orphan Care line at 949-609-8555