The Hague Convention states that "appropriate measures must be taken to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin" and that all possible alternatives must be explored before a child is removed from his/her country of origin. Intercountry adoption is far too often seen as a seemingly ideal and immediate solution to poverty. However, the implications for the children are far reaching and do little to address the real problems faced by the so-called "sending countries".

In Tristan's case, this means his natural mother must be found so that her views can be ascertained. It is as yet unknown why Tristan's mother had to give him up for adoption. If poverty is one of the deciding factors, then this is not a valid reason to prevent Tristan from being raised in his natural family. AdoptionIreland have already called on the Irish Adoption Authority to set up a child sponsorship programme for Tristan.

[For more information on Tristan Dowse's case, visit our News sections]

The Board have, quite rightly, informed those making enquiries that this is not a possibility.

While everyone has been struck and effected by the images of disaster and loss of life displayed on our TV sceens and newspapers, AdoptionIreland: The Adopted People's Association is firmly of the opinion that offers to adopt children in the immediate aftermath of the disaster are misguided and inappropriate.

There are many valid reasons for this opinion, including:

• Many of the children have surviving parents who are still looking for them.
• Many of the children have extended family — siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, who are more than willing to take care of them.
• Adoption must always be in the best interests of the child; taking a child who has suffered huge trauma, and moving him or her to a country on the far side of the world, to a completely different culture, language and religion — completely separating him or her from familiar faces and surroundings — is clearly not in the child's best interests.
• A hurried response to this disaster in the form of adoptions will inevitably — indeed, already has - resulted in exploitation, in the form of kidnapping for the purposes of adoption. Sri Lanka and India have already put in place a temporary ban on foreign adoption in order to prevent this, and Indonesia has also closed it's borders to the movement of children as a preventative measure. Other effected countries will hopefully follow suit.
• The effective loss of a generation of children through adoption will devastate societies and undermine efforts to rebuild communities.

Rather than thinking of adoption, AdoptionIreland is urging the public to help in the best way possible for now — continued fundraising and donations to help the aid effort.

Donations can be made to:

• The Irish Red Cross — http://www.redcross.ie/
• UNICEF — http://www.unicef.ie/
• GOAL — http://www.goal.ie/

News reports — too soon for adoption:

• http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/06/tsunami.adoption/
• http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/notices/notices_2017.html
• http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11865386%5e1702,00.html
• http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=%2Btsunami+%2Badoption&meta=

• http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050107/wl_nm/quake_indonesia_children_dc
• http://breaking.tcm.ie/2005/01/04/story183213.html
• http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5034232.html
• http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=1380
• http://www.google.ie/search?q=%2Btsunami+%2Badoption+%2Bkidnap&hl=en&lr=&start=0&sa=N

The child in question was first brought to the attention of the APA last year, when they received reports that he had been abandoned. It has emerged that the child is of Indonesian origin and was adopted by an Irish man and his wife.

The APA established that the child had been adopted under Indonesian law and that the adoption had subsequently been recognised by the Irish Adoption Board. He is therefore an Irish citizen and the APA understands that he was issued with an Irish passport.

Some time after the adoption, his parents apparently returned to Europe after abandoning him to the care of an Indonesian woman, who, unable to afford his continued care, placed him in an orphanage outside Jakarta.

The APA were pursuing this matter with the Irish Adoption Board, but following the tsunami, they have been unable to contact the woman in Indonesia who first alerted them to the case. Given the lack of information available and following media reports on the abduction of Indonesian children for adoption after the tsunami, they have thus requested the Department of Foreign Affairs to intervene.

HCCH has developed several important tools to protect children against risks involved in their cross-border movements. International child abduction and intercountry adoption, in particular, are the objects of two specific multilateral instruments.

The 1980 Convention on International Child Abduction

Children and their families are protected against the risks of wrongful removal across international borders by the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In the region affected by the disaster, both Sri Lanka and Thailand are parties to this Convention, which is in force for more than 70 other countries. This Convention is based on a system of cooperation through national Central Authorities and reinforces the principle that all States should take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad (Articles 11 and 35 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

The 1993 Convention on Intercountry Adoption

Children and their families are protected against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad by the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. In the affected areas, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand are parties to this Convention, to which more than 60 other States are also parties. This Convention, which also operates through a system of national Central Authorities, reinforces the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 21). The Convention seeks to ensure that intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights, and to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children. In 2000, HCCH adopted a Recommendation to the effect that States parties should, as far as practicable, also apply the standards and safeguards of the Convention to the arrangements for intercountry adoption which they make in respect of States that have not yet joined the Convention.

Intercountry Adoption of Displaced Children

HCCH, in consultation with UNHCR, in 1994 adopted a specific Recommendation urging all States — whether or not parties to the 1993 Convention — to observe particular caution in order to prevent irregularities in respect of any cross-border adoptions of refugee children and children who are, as a result of disturbances in their countries, internationally displaced. The Recommendation inter alia provides that States to which a child has been displaced "before any intercountry adoption procedure is initiated shall take particular care to ensure that:

• all reasonable measures have been taken in order to trace and reunite the child with his or her parents or family members where the child is separated from them; and
• the repatriation of the child to his or her country, for purposes of such reunion, would not be feasible or desirable, because of the fact that the child cannot receive appropriate care, or benefit from satisfactory protection, in that country."

The Permanent Bureau of HCCH is prepared to give whatever assistance or advice it can to authorities in the countries affected in relation to these matters. Please contact the Deputy Secretary General, Mr William Duncan.

For more detailed information on the aforementioned instruments please see HCCH website at: www.hcch.net, and then choose:

• Hague Convention on International Child Abduction (Convention #28): http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.text&cid=24
• Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (Convention #33): http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.text&cid=69
• Recommendation on Displaced Children: http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=publications.details&pid=934&dtid=2

Legislation has been drawn up to ratify the Hague Convention, pending the outcome of the recent Adoption Legislation Consultation. However, AdoptionIreland says it is extremely concerned, regarding a recent newspaper report stating that the adoption authorities in Belarus say that prospective Irish adoptive parents are "picky" and the Department of Health and Children's announcement of the finalisation of a bilateral agreement with Vietnam. AdoptionIreland, which is the representative organisation of adopted people with an Irish connection, states that Ireland cannot further delay the ratification of Hague if the best interests of the children involved are to be served.

AdoptionIreland PRO, Claire McGettrick says: "Romania has set an excellent example by banning inter-country adoption. Ireland has an obligation to prove that it is serious about ensuring that children are properly protected from exploitation by abolishing all bilateral agreements and ratifying The Hague Convention."

The Department of Health says the agreement with Vietnam has been drawn up in the spirit of the Hague Convention. Claire McGettrick says, "Anybody who genuinely has the best interests of the child at heart will not object to the ratification of The Hague Convention, so it should not have to wait until the Adoption Legislation Consultation is completed. Children's rights are not protected by signing agreements that are not ratified into law, are easily broken and merely aspire to live up to Hague. The corruption exposed in Romania highlights the importance of the need for the highest possible protections."

Mari Steed, AdoptionIreland's US Co-ordinator, has lived through the experience of Inter-Country adoption. Ms. Steed, who has been happily reunited with her natural mother, says, "I was one of the 2,000 exported from Ireland for adoption and I cannot tell you what the loss of my country of birth has meant to me growing up. I was raised by an Irish-American family and it was a wonderful life, but it's hardly the same as growing up in Ireland under my mother's care."

"The notion that Inter-Country adoption is a completely humanitarian act is a myth" says Claire McGettrick, "We are sympathetic to people who find themselves infertile, but we are extremely concerned that Ireland has forgotten that adoption is supposed to be there to help children, not childless couples. The Irish foster care system is in a huge crisis at the moment and there are children who genuinely need homes, so why are so many couples seeking to adopt from abroad?"

AdoptionIreland wishes to extinguish any fears that children will be left homeless resulting from a possible decrease in inter-country adoptions. Mari Steed says "We have members living in Romania who have witnessed first hand the corruption in inter-country adoption. The portrayal of thousands of children languishing in orphanages does not depict reality. Most children in "orphanages" are not orphans, nor are they abandoned, they have parents who want to raise them but poverty prevents them from doing so. Adoption should not be offered as a solution to socio-economic problems."

AdoptionIreland says that by immediately ratifying the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children in Inter-Country Adoption, Ireland will send out a clear message that it does not want to play any part in the exploitation of children.