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<font size=3>Statement on Haitian Adoptions<br><br>
January 25, 2010<br>
<a href="http://adopteesofcolor.org/?p=6" eudora="autourl">
http://adopteesofcolor.org/?p=6<br><br>
</a>This statement reflects the position of an international community of
adoptees of color who wish to pose a critical intervention in the
discourse and actions affecting the child victims of the recent
earthquake in Haiti. We are domestic and international adoptees with many
years of research and both personal and professional experience in
adoption studies and activism. We are a community of scholars, activists,
professors, artists, lawyers, social workers and health care workers who
speak with the knowledge that North Americans and Europeans are lining up
to adopt the “orphaned children” of the Haitian earthquake, and who feel
compelled to voice our opinion about what it means to be “saved” or
“rescued” through adoption.<br><br>
We understand that in a time of crisis there is a tendency to want to act
quickly to support those considered the most vulnerable and directly
affected, including children. However, we urge caution in determining how
best to help. We have arrived at a time when the licenses of adoption
agencies in various countries are being reviewed for the widespread
practice of misrepresenting the social histories of children. There is
evidence of the production of documents stating that a child is
“available for adoption” based on a legal “paper” and not literal
orphaning as seen in recent cases of intercountry adoption of children
from Malawi, Guatemala, South Korea and China. We bear testimony to the
ways in which the intercountry adoption industry has profited from and
reinforced neo-liberal structural adjustment policies, aid dependency,
population control policies, unsustainable development, corruption, and
child trafficking.<br><br>
For more than fifty years “orphaned children” have been shipped from
areas of war, natural disasters, and poverty to supposedly better lives
in Europe and North America. Our adoptions from Vietnam, South Korea,
Guatemala and many other countries are no different from what is
happening to the children of Haiti today. Like us, these “disaster
orphans” will grow into adulthood and begin to grasp the magnitude of the
abuse, fraud, negligence, suffering, and deprivation of human rights
involved in their displacements.<br><br>
We uphold that Haitian children have a right to a family and a history
that is their own and that Haitians themselves have a right to determine
what happens to their own children. We resist the racist, colonialist
mentality that positions the Western nuclear family as superior to other
conceptions of family, and we seek to challenge those who abuse the
phrase “Every child deserves a family” to rethink how this phrase
is used to justify the removal of children from Haiti for the fulfillment
of their own needs and desires. Western and Northern desire for ownership
of Haitian children directly contributes to the destruction of existing
family and community structures in Haiti. This individualistic desire is
supported by the historical and global anti-African sentiment which
negates the validity of black mothers and fathers and condones the
separation of black children from their families, cultures, and countries
of origin.<br><br>
As adoptees of color many of us have inherited a history of dubious
adoptions. We are dismayed to hear that Haitian adoptions may be
“fast-tracked” due to the massive destruction of buildings in Haiti that
hold important records and documents. We oppose this plan and argue that
the loss of records requires <i>slowing down</i> of the processes of
adoption while important information is gathered and re-documented for
these children. Removing children from Haiti without proper documentation
and without proper reunification efforts is a violation of their basic
human rights and leaves any family members who may be searching for them
with no recourse. We insist on the absolute necessity of taking the time
required to conduct a thorough search, and we support an expanded set of
methods for creating these records, including recording oral
histories.<br><br>
We urge the international community to remember that the children in
question have suffered the overwhelming trauma of the earthquake and
separation from their loved ones. We have learned first-hand that
adoption (domestic or intercountry) itself as a process forces children
to negate their true feelings of grief, anger, pain or loss, and to
assimilate to meet the desires and expectations of strangers. Immediate
removal of traumatized children for adoptionincluding children whose
adoptions were finalized prior to the quake compounds their trauma, and
denies their right to mourn and heal with the support of their
community.<br><br>
We affirm the spirit of Cultural Sovereignty, Sovereignty and
Self-determination embodied as rights for all peoples to determine their
own economic, social and cultural development included in the Convention
on the Rights of the Child; the Charter of the United Nations; the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The mobilization of
European and North American courts, legislative bodies, and social work
practices to implement forced removal through intercountry adoption is a
direct challenge to cultural sovereignty. We support the legal and policy
application of cultural rights such as rights to language, rights to ways
of being/religion, collective existence, and a representation of Haiti’s
histories and existence using Haiti’s own terms.<br><br>
We offer this statement in solidarity with the people of Haiti and with
all those who are seeking ways to intentionally support the long-term
sustainability and self-determination of the Haitian people. As adoptees
of color we bear a unique understanding of the trauma, and the sense of
loss and abandonment that are part of the adoptee experience, and we
demand that our voices be heard. <i>All adoptions from Haiti must be
stopped</i> and all efforts to help children be refocused on giving aid
to organizations working toward family reunification and caring for
children in their own communities. We urge you to join us in supporting
Haitian children’s rights to life, survival, and development within their
own families and communities.<br><br>
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