CAMPAIGN FOR CHILD RIGHTS & INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION

Two weeks ago, we wrote you announcing the Campaign for Child Rights & International Adoption.  See below for email sent by 23 law faculty members.   We are thrilled with the success of the Campaign so far, with over 100 individual law faculty members from across the globe and 6 organizations endorsing our International Adoption Policy Statement.   To see the one page Policy Statement, click here. To see the six page Supporting Report, click here. To view the list of endorsements to date, click here.   Due to this enthusiasm and to the fact that some have forwarded the announcement on to others for endorsement we are extending the deadline for endorsing.   You can endorse as an individual AND/OR your law school clinic, program or organization can separately endorse.  Please endorse BY TUES, JUNE 9. Individuals:  Faculty Members and Related Legal Professionals Specializing in Child, Family, Civil Rights, and Human Rights Law, click here to endorse the Policy Statement. Organizations:  Law School Clinics and Programs Focusing on Child, Youth, Family, and Human Rights, click here to endorse the Policy Statement. Please email either Elizabeth Bartholet or Mary Welstead with any questions and any suggestions you may have for related action.   Please also forward this message to anyone you think might be interested in joining us in this effort.   For more about the Campaign, click here.

 

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Email Sent on 5/21/09

 

Dear Law Faculty Members and Child Rights Supporters:   We write to urge you to join us in supporting the International Adoption Policy Statement.  We hope to obtain significant support for this Policy Statement from Faculty members in Law Schools and Universities in the U.S. and throughout the world specializing in Family, Child, Civil Rights and Human Rights Law, and from related legal professionals.  We believe that such support will make a difference in the policy debate now surrounding International Adoption.   As you may know, International Adoption is in crisis, with the numbers down significantly during each of the past four years, after steadily rising during the prior six decades.  This is not because of any decline in unparented children; there continue to be many millions of children in desperate need of nurturing homes, most of whom are now growing up in terribly inadequate institutions or on the streets.  Instead the reduction in International Adoption numbers is largely because of opposition by organizations and individuals alleging that they speak for the human rights of children.  They call for restrictions on International Adoption that include temporary and permanent moratoria on such adoption, preferences for in-country foster and institutional care over out-of-country adoption, "holding periods" that require searching for in-country homes for months or years before out-of-country placement is permitted, and the elimination of the private adoption intermediaries that often serve as the lifeblood of International Adoption.  They seek to severely limit International Adoption to last resort status.  We believe that International Adoption generally serves the interests of children who cannot be raised by their birth parents better than non-adoption alternatives like foster and institutional care.  We believe that International Adoption should be kept on the table as one of the options to serve the needs of unparented children worldwide.   This International Adoption Policy Statement, along with its Supporting Report, has so far been endorsed by the Center for Adoption Policy, the Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program, the National Council for Adoption, and the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.  To see the six-page Supporting Report, click here.  Competing views on the policy and legal issues are presented in treaties and authorities cited in that Report's footnotes 1-3.  A related Recommendation on International Adoption has been adopted by the American Bar Association (ABA) House of Delegates.  To compare, click here for ABA Recommendation.   We urge you to join us in endorsing as individual Faculty members the International Policy Statement reprinted below.  TO DO SO YOU NEED SIMPLY PROVIDE YOUR NAME AND AFFILIATION HERE.  PLEASE DO THIS BY TUES, MAY 26.  We hope to go public with the full list of endorsements shortly after that date.  Click here to view the list of the endorsing organizations and individuals, which will be updated regularly.   Please email either Elizabeth Bartholet or Mary Welstead with any questions and any suggestions you may have for related action.   Please also forward this message to anyone you think might be interested in joining us in this effort.

 

Ralph Richard Banks Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law Stanford Law School Paulo Barrozo Harvard University Graduate Program and Assistant Professor of Law Boston College Law School Elizabeth Bartholet Morris Wasserstein Professor of Law Faculty Director, Child Advocacy Program Harvard Law School Katharine T. Bartlett A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law Duke University School of Law Kathryn Bradley Senior Lecturing Fellow Director of Legal Ethics Duke Law School Margaret F. Brinig Fritz Duda Family Professor of Law University of Notre Dame Jessica Budnitz Lecturer on Law, Managing Director Child Advocacy Program Harvard Law School Richard Carlson Professor of Law South Texas College of Law James L. Cavallaro Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Executive Director, Human Rights Program David Chambers Wade H. McCree, Jr., Collegiate Professor, Emeritus Univ. of Michigan Law School Brenda Cossman Professor of Law Univ. of Toronto Law School James Dwyer Professor of Law William & Mary Law School Janet Halley Royall Professor of Law Harvard Law School Joan Heifetz Hollinger Professor, Lecturer-in-Residence School of Law University of California, Berkeley David Kennedy Vice President for International Affairs Interim Director, Watson Institute for International Studies University Professor of Law David and Marianna Fisher Univ. Prof.of International Relations Brown University Director, European Law Research Center Harvard Law School Randall L. Kennedy Michael R. Klein Professor of Law Harvard Law School Michael Meltsner Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law Northeastern Univ. School of Law David D. Meyer Assoc. Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law University of Illinois College of Law Martha Minow Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law Harvard Law School Henry J. Steiner Professor Emeritus Harvard Law School Joseph Vining Hutchins Professor of Law University of Michigan Law School Lynn D. Wardle Bruce C. Hafen Professor of Law Brigham Young University Mary Welstead Visiting Professor in Law, Univ. Buckingham, U.K. Visiting Fellow, Child Advocacy Program Harvard Law School

To endorse this Policy Statement, click HERE.

 

Comments

[Canada Goose Jacket]

a lot of editors have started to understand more about alternate options, they will obtained a little cameras, spend some money to hire nearby residents and individuals across the actors within the facilities

[Arcteryx Jackets]

Boo hoo alright, it was only three who topped themselves. Pity a few more, (particularly Mahommed Daoud) didn't take that option also.