Child protection takes priority – Jamaica Observer

INTERNATIONAL legal cooperation and child welfare expert Ignacio Goicoechea has expressed optimism that Thursday’s high-level plenary convened by the United States Embassy in Jamaica will help crystallise the island’s position on The Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption.

Delivering remarks during the opening session of the event Goicoechea, who serves as the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean for The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), said the timing of the discussions was right, given the fact that Jamaica is this year in the process of reviewing key legislation supporting its child protection framework.

“We have already heard the will of the Jamaican Government to join an international convention; we have already heard that. Incidentally, this is the year where the child protection system and the adoption law are being reviewed, discussed. So this international dimension of child protection should only feed in this exercise, and not be seen as isolated. That’s why I’m so happy and looking forward for these discussions we will have today, and hopefully we can finalise this exercise with some concrete ideas, ways forward, so everyone can put its part to make a difference for many, many children that are really in need to have this right of a family secured,” Goicoechea said.

He noted that while the HCCH develops international conventions, it differed from other organisations in that it ensures that states are guided and supported in their implementation in order to ensure that “these rules touch people”.

“No one has the full knowledge of how these mechanisms should be improved. We need all the views, both at the international level and at the national level. So this opportunity of having in this room ministers, judges, child protection officers — key partners in the child protection team within Jamaica and international organisations — all learning together and discussing how we can improve these mechanisms, I think is an incredible opportunity, and it’s the only way that we can do things better,” he said.

“We are here to protect children. We are here to make sure that the best interest of the child is the guiding principle in any protection procedure, and we are here today to learn from each other,” Goicoechea stated.

Chargé d’affaires at the United States Embassy in Kingston Scott Renner, while noting that he had worked with Jamaica during its adoption of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in 2017, said he was optimistic that cooperation could be reached on the adoption mechanism as well.

“We’re not here to talk about this convention. Children: That’s my priority. That’s really why we’re here, [it’s] about safeguarding children. I think that brings a sense of urgency to all these discussions,” Renner said, while pointing out that discussions about different treaties such as a third-century national agreement or a strategic SOFA (Status of Forces Agreements — bilateral or multilateral treaties that establish the legal framework under which foreign military personnel operate within a host country) carry a different flavour.

“Those don’t involve a child sitting in a home somewhere in State care, hoping to have a permanent loving family, which is the ultimate goal in every adoption. Whether that family is in Jamaica, in the United States, whether it’s a relative, whether it’s in Europe, wherever that child finds that safe and loving family, that’s the goal,” the chargé d’affaires contended.

“I honestly, in my own view, feel like we fail to do if we spend three years, four years — which happens in my country and other countries and in Jamaica as well — waiting for the case workers to decide what to do with the child because that child’s sitting there every day waiting, essentially in limbo status,” Renner added.

He said Goicoechea’s input and expertise would prove invaluable to the exercise.

“He’s going to help us connect with experts in the region. There’s countries in the region that are… farther along that have gone through this process. He’s going to help us tie in that as well as resources in the last Hague conference. So, besides his expertise, he comes with some tools that we’re going to use as we’re doing on this,” Renner said.

“The Hague Convention, at the end of the day, does give a really good framework for adoption. It builds in a lot of protections… it almost automatically strengthens their domestic adoption and child protection system. So those same protections that the Hague Convention internationally has, applies,” Renner added.

Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, in her remarks, said Jamaica embraces “the opportunity to examine our engagement with the convention, learn from international standards and best practices, and consider requirements for effective implementation”.

“What we’re discussing today means the world for many families in Jamaica, and no matter what, at the centre of every discussion about adoption is the overriding principle that we’re focused on the best interest, the safety and well-being of our children. The adoption process in Jamaica is far too cumbersome and for many it is clear that the process does not meet the needs of stakeholders,” Morris Dixon said.

The education minister, who has previously expressed that she is particularly keen on working to improve Jamaica’s adoption framework and laws to encourage people to foster and increase the availability of programmes for special needs children, said the ministry has already been taking steps in that regard.

“So I’m very happy today that we’re having this conversation, it can’t just be a conversation. It needs to feed into what is currently happening. Currently, we are reviewing the Child Care and Protection Act. We’re also reviewing the Adoption Act, and very importantly, there is a bit of a lacuna in the law, vis-a-vis fostering and foster care, which is an important element of this entire framework, and we have to codify it, and we have to be a lot more definitive in terms of the fostering engagement in this country,” Morris Dixon said.

The high-level meeting included officials from the ministries of education, and foreign affairs, the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, the Office of the Children’s Advocate, other child welfare groups, the judiciary and civil society organisations.

The HCCH is a global intergovernmental organisation that establishes multilateral legal frameworks, including the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption. This international treaty creates binding safeguards and standardises cooperation among national central authorities to ensure inter-country adoptions prioritise the best interests and fundamental rights of the child. By enforcing rigorous legal security and ethical standards, the convention works to prevent the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children while protecting birth families and prospective adoptive parents alike.