The Hague Convention

Whereas the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the “Hague Convention” or the “Convention”) endeavours to establish a global procedural and regulatory framework for the inter-country adoption of minor children amongst the member states of The Hague Conference on Private International Law;

Whereas Articles 16(1)(a), 16(2),30 and 31 of the Hague Convention set forth minimum and binding procedures for the gathering, transmission, preservation and use of personal data on a child adopted under the provisions of the Convention (the “Adoptee”), such data concerning the Adoptee’s origin and identity, the identity of his or her parents, his medical history and other background information (collectively, the “Information”);

Whereas Bastard Nation (“BN”) is a non-governmental organisation incorporated under the laws of the United States of America for the purpose of securing through world-wide public advocacy the opening to adoptees, upon request at age of majority, of those government documents which pertain to the adoptee’s historical, genetic, and legal identity (including the unaltered original birth certificate and adoption decree) as a fundamental civil and political right of adult adoptees (such purpose being referred to hereinafter as the “BN Mission” or the “Mission”);

Whereas BN is committed to review of and commentary on public legislation germane to its Mission, including, specifically, legislation which relates to the civil and political right of adult adoptees to access personal information;

The Executive Committee of Bastard Nation,

Decries the continuing violation of the fundamental civil and political rights of millions of adoptees around the world who are: (i) deprived by law, policy and custom of information about their identities, (ii) forced to rely solely upon incomplete or intentionally falsified birth and adoption records, (iii) denied access to their original birth certificates and vital medical records, and (iv) otherwise subjected to humiliating, demeaning and otherwise harmful practices related to their personal information;

Applauds the inclusion of provisions in the Convention which set forth minimal standards for the gathering, transmission, preservation and use of Information, including, specifically, Article 16(1)(a) which directs the originating country to prepare a report including information about the identity of the Adoptee, the background, social environment and family history of the Adoptee, the medical history of the Adoptee and that of his or her biological family, and any special needs of the Adoptee, and Article 30(1) which calls for the preservation of Information, with special intention to the need to preserve information on the identity of the biological parents as well as medical information;

Expresses Concern that the minimal standards for Information contained in the Convention are inadequate to assure protection of the rights of Adoptees in the following respects:

1. the Convention does not contain any provisions for the preservation, transmission from originating to receiving countries or, access of the Adoptee to, or the non-alteration and non-falsification of information on the original birth certificate,
2. the Convention contains inadequate provisions for the transmission of the report of Information specified in Article 16(1)(a) from the originating country to the receiving country,
3. Article 16(2) of the Convention explicitly calls for the non-transmission of identifying information relating to biological parents if, in the originating country, these identities may not be disclosed, in apparent contravention of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
4. Article 30(2) provides for access by the Adoptee to Information but permits states parties which wish to withhold such access to do so, apparently with complete discretion, and
5. Article 31 appears to have the effect of further limiting access by the Adoptee to Information required to be gathered under Article 16(1)(a) by overriding Article 30(2) with respect to this Information and limiting the use of this Information to purposes of completing the adoption process;

Requests clarification of the intent of Article 31 of the Convention and the impact of this article on Information access by Adoptees;

Expresses Further Concern that no provisions in the Convention provide for mitigation to inter-country adoptees who continue to suffer the consequences of the deprivation of Information due to past practices;

Recommends amendment of the provisions concerning Information in the Convention to provide adult Adoptees with unconditional access to Information gathered and preserved under the provisions of the Convention, including transmission from the originating country to the receiving country of a certified transcript of the original birth certificate if such a certificate exists, preservation of this transcript and the original birth certificate in perpetuity and preservation of access for the adult Adoptees to both the transcript and the original birth certificate free from amendment or alteration;

Further Recommends that states parties to the Convention make specific undertakings to provide adult Adoptees with unconditional access to Information gathered and preserved under the provisions of the Convention through implementation legislation;

Recognises that information on children made available for inter-country adoption as a result of abandonment by biological parents in the originating country may be limited and that, as a practical matter, in such cases, the Information provisions of the Convention may not apply in full;

Deplores the decision of the Department of State of the United States of America, the largest receiving nation of adoptees in inter-country adoptions, to solicit the participation in its Study Group on Inter-country Adoption (the non-governmental group which provided feed-back on the Convention) of only adoption agencies and private adoption industry interests, while appearing to exclude non-governmental organisations representing adoptees, biological parents and adoptive parents as well as individual interested parties from these groups;

Urges legislative bodies of states contemplating accession to the Convention to solicit public comment from non-governmental organisations representing adult adoptees as part of the process for ratification and drafting of implementation legislation;

Resolves to continue to monitor the ratification and implementation progress of the Convention and, where appropriate, to publicly comment upon this progress, in accordance with the BN Mission;

Expresses Hope that states parties to the Convention will give due consideration to the civil and political rights of adoptees in the creation and implementation of adoption-related legislation;

Enacts this Resolution in accordance with the Bylaws of Bastard Nation, this 28th day of December, 1998.