CHILDREN AND ILLEGAL ADOPTION
In the Philippines, some new mothers who feel they cannot raise their own babies sell them in the illegal trade of child adoption.
MANILA: Christine holds her baby as she him in a quiet park near the Port of Manila. She has covered his small head with a piece of cloth to shield him from the burning sun. His eyes may be closed but the boy knows his mother is there. He grabs her with his tiny hands as she cradles him in her arms.
The baby is two months old, delicate and defenceless. His father died before he was born and his mother has become his sole protection, his only source of love and security. But he has no idea she wants to sell him as soon as she can.
Christine has decided her baby boy is worth US$200 and whoever can afford the price is welcome to adopt him.
Christine is unemployed and lives with her grandmother, who makes about US$2 a day. Life is already a constant struggle for them, even without the burden of raising a child. She already has eight children from three husbands. Most of them live with another relative elsewhere and hardly get in touch.
“Money,” Christine added. “Of course, I need that for my children. It’s not that I want to sell my kid. I just need the money.”
This study is based on a research paper developed to inform the thematic report on this subject of the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Maud de Boer Buquicchio. She provided much appreciated guidance and feedback throughout the preparation and finalization of the research paper.
The study responds to the broad interpretation of “sale of children” established in the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as noted in section I above, which includes but also goes beyond acts explicitly covered in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC) (see 1.C.ii).
The key elements of that mandate in this regard involve the analysis of the root causes of the sale of children for adoption and the factors that enable the phenomenon to persist. The explicit mention in the mandate of the need to address “demand factors” is significant. It demonstrates the importance to be attached to approaching the question of “sale” more especially from the standpoint of “purchase” — or procurement — and the profiteering that this implies. The scope and focus of this study fully reflects that perspective.
The study concentrates more especially on illegal inter-country adoptions. While illegal domestic (national) and inter-country adoptions share some characteristics, most differ as a direct or indirect consequence of the cross-border factor and are consequently subject to distinct international law provisions. Illicit practices would also appear to be far less common — though by no means absent — in domestic adoptions than at the inter-country level.
A few weeks ago, I came across a photo I assumed was staged. It couldn’t be real. In it, a mother had set her four children to sit on the front stairs of the house with a FOR SALE sign.
Originally published at https://www.crimeradio.ml.
