Statement by Hans van Loon, Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, on the occasion of the deposit of the instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, by the United States of America, 12 December 2007


 

 

Mr Ambassador Arnall,
Mrs Ambassador Harty,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,


This is a day of great joy, for all of us, and of great significance to children and families in the US and in many other countries on our planet. For the second time in a few weeks, the United States has manifested its commitment to Hague standards for a just and stable legal order in our globalizing world. On November 23rd, the US was the first country to sign the new Hague Convention on child support and other forms of family maintenance, thereby demonstrating its firm intention to make this new, potentially forceful treaty a living reality. Today, the US joins 74 States by ratifying another vital instrument relating to personal security: the Hague Adoption Convention. Of course, the US has been a party for many years already to another Hague Convention in this area: the Hague Child Abduction Convention.

What connects and inspires all these Hague instruments is the awareness that cross-border activity and cross-border relationships need the guidance and protection of the law, not just in the abstract but through effective cooperative legal machinery: to serve the real interests of people, families, and children in the face of the legal complexity that arises when multiple countries and legal systems are involved.

The idea for the Adoption Convention began over twenty years ago, when we noticed that an older Convention on adoption had not met with great success. The 1965 Hague Convention had been ratified by the UK, Switzerland and Austria, and so it covered one or two inter-country adoptions per year only. It was not a bad treaty, but it had been negotiated by too small a circle of States and did not provide the necessary mechanism for transnational cooperation.

The 1993 Convention was negotiated by almost 70 States, and it is aimed at ensuring cooperation among the countries of origin and the countries receiving children. In fact, at about the time work on the new Convention started, inter-country adoption itself was at risk, with countries closing borders or otherwise rendering adoption impossible. The Convention has created a global framework that provides stability by giving countries the control they need to trust their partners. It shifts procedures to an early stage of the process, with the emphasis on careful preparation and matching. This makes it possible to avoid the traditional two-step process, where one procedure in the country of origin is practically replicated in the receiving country. Under the Convention, once the country of origin has given the green light, in cooperation with the receiving country: the child is free to enter and reside permanently in the receiving country, the adoption made in the country of origin will be recognized and, as a further bonus, the child may automatically receive the citizenship of the new country – which is what US legislation provides.

An enormous amount of work has been done by and in the US to make this ratification possible. It started with the negotiations in The Hague. Peter Pfund, like a master conductor, orchestrated the US delegation such that all of the many interested groups felt represented and a part of the process. And it was, to quite some extent, a learning process. I remember for example that the idea of subsidiarity was not immediately welcomed by some members of the US delegation, but it was nevertheless accepted in the end. We at the PB knew how serious Peter and his delegation were about the treaty, and that is why we were prepared to accept certain rules that other States would have preferred to have seen omitted, in particular the role of non-accredited bodies. We found a compromise that enabled the US to sign – as early as 1994. Then began a labor that one could almost describe as Sisyphean and that lasted more than a decade. After retiring from L/PIL, Peter accepted to push the boulder up the mountain, but at times it seemed to become heavier and heavier. Others took over and, when all were in despair, Maura Harty, with the help of Catherine Barry and many others, put all her energy into the effort and made the impossible happen.  

The Convention will be important to the US, but also to many other countries. One striking effect is that, yesterday, the Parliament of Guatemala adopted a law that will bring the Convention into force for that country. Hence this ratification is of great importance, and a blessing to the world.

The PB will do whatever it can to make the Convention work. Earlier this year, we set up a Centre for Judicial Studies and Technical Assistance that has already helped Guatemala establish the legislation and infrastructure necessary to implement the Convention, in close cooperation with the State Department. We look forward to close cooperation with the US in making the Convention a blessing to children and families all over the world.