Hague Evaluation

In General...

It should be noted that African nations have not joined the Hague Convention. However, they do have their own international policies which greatly impact adoption as well as serious issues related to a "culture of corruption." While the corruption factor will not be true in all cases, experts agree that it is an absolute risk especially in societies that have a history of human sales. It should also be noted that one of the characteristics of African adoptions, with some country exceptions, is a residency requirement with variation in length of time. For example, Kenya has a rather lengthy requirement and Madonna's adoption from Malwai has undergone scruitany because she avoided the residency requirement of the nation. On the other hand, Ethiopia does not have such stringent requirements and we will begin with this nation. Additionally, we'll look at Liberia because it may be an up-and-coming adoption nation.

ETHIOPIA is not a Hague-signatory nation and there is significant growth in intercountry adoptions. This is best illustrated with US orphan visa data, beginning in 2000.

Fiscal Year 2000:     95

Fiscal Year 2001:     158

Fiscal Year 2002:     105

Fiscal Year 2003:    135

Fiscal Year 2004:    289

Fiscal Year 2005:     441

Fiscal Year 2006:    730

  Fiscal Year 2007:    1,255

Because Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of institutionalized children in the world, this emergence of intercountry adoption is not entirely surprising. At this time, we do not know of any alarming reports of adoption fraud in the nation. However, given some of the market shift towards Ethiopia, there is reason to be concerned.

LIBERIA

Very little is known about Liberia at the moment. It appears that they are in early stages of a potential adoption boom. The concerns are similar to issues in Ethiopia and the nation is not Hague-signatory and thus the Convention does not apply to them, even when the prospective family holds US citizenship. Liberia is particularly complicated in terms of its history. They will forever be tied to the US due to our enslavement of Liberians early in our nation's history. Then, some Liberians were repatriated back to Africa. More recently, warring tribal factions have been a real source of stress and strain on the nation's families. We will wait and watch Liberia as it potentially becomes a source of children. As we said, much is unknown, and inevitably more lessons will be learned.

Would you like to contribute to a particular country report? We're currently working on this section we could use some help--especially if you have some insight into an emerging nation. Upon approval, we'll post your report and give you credit.  Just email us with your idea. If we agree upon the approach, then you can email your summary and we'll work from there.