Against Child Trafficking

ACT promotes the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that first and foremost gives children the right to be cared for by their parents. It is the responsibility of the State to support families and communities in the upbringing of their children. Intercountry adoption may only be considered if there is no way at all to bring up a child in-country.

The last fifty years an adoption industry has been developping that serves the growing demand for children in the Western world. An industry in which huge sums of money are involved.

 

Children are obtained for adoption through coercion, fraud and kidnapping, but also through too permissive laws on child relinquishment and/or too rapid termination of parental rights. In many cases unscrupulous go-betweens have found that large profits can be made by arranging the transfer of children from poverty-stricken homes to people with means.

 

Many such children are sold for money (disguised as adoption fees) either through independent adoptions or through licensed and accredited adoption agencies and regulated by adoption laws.

 

ACT considers this a demand-driven market in children, which should be labeled as child trafficking and stopped.

http://www.againstchildtrafficking.org/