Almost five years after the completion of the revision of the 1949 Adoption Law, government is yet to take the revised law to Parliament.
This is however happening at a time revelations of eyebrow-raising adoptions are being made.
This week a British national, Roy Michael Robson, was found with seven children in Lilongwe’s Area 24, who are said to have been trafficked from Mzuzu.
In September 2011, a Special Law Commission on the review of the country’s adoption law finished its work.
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs was expected to handle other stages of the review before the amendments were taken to Parliament.
One type of adoption, which the revised law tried to control, is inter-country adoption.
Coordinator of Malawi Network Against Trafficking in Persons, Maxwell Matewere, has faulted government, arguing that the delay is putting Malawi’s children at risk.
“The delay in having an updated adoption law is putting the lives of children at risk. The revised law has put in place measures that will control the types of adoption taking place. The longer it takes to have the law, the longer people will be involved in underhand activities on adoption. Currently adoption is fuelling corruption. The updated law must be taken to Parliament,” Matewere said.
Following the arrest of Robson, and his 20-year old accomplice Rabson Mwale over the suspected trafficking of seven Malawian children, the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare wrote Lilongwe Police appealing for investigations in the matter.
“Whilst inter-country adoption is accepted, according to both national and international norms, the manner in which the adoption of these seven children was handled leaves a lot to be desired. Rather, this may seem to be a well-coordinated syndicate of trafficking our children in Malawi,” reads a letter signed by a Mrs R. Makhumula on behalf of Secretary for Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare.
It adds:
“As a Ministry responsible for welfare of children, we are of the opinion that the petitioner and all his accomplices be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of Malawi.”
Malawi has been using Adoption of Children Act which was enacted in 1949.
The law came under scrutiny in 2006 when American pop star, Madonna, adopted a Malawian child, David Banda, in controversial circumstances.
The review of the Act started in September 2009. A Special Law Commission instituted to revise Malawi’s 67-year old adoption law finished its review in 2011 and made a number of recommendations.
The revised legislation, which some quarters may argue is gathering dust, created a new regime of regulating inter-country adoption.
Among others, it proposed the establishment of a central office that will oversee inter-country adoption.
The proposed legislation also said the High Court shall have jurisdiction of all matters of inter-country adoptions.
The Special Law Commission stressed the significance of putting the best interest of the child at the centre of the proposed amendments to the Adoption Law.
The Commission also proposed qualifications for prospective adoptive parent whose minimum age was proposed to be 25 while the maximum was to be 65.
“Unless there are special circumstances, a sole male applicant cannot adopt a female child. [Similarly] a sole female applicant cannot adopt a male child,” reads part of the revised legislation, as presented five years ago.
Then, it was said that the proposed legislation was to be sent to the Ministry of Justice before it was taken to cabinet and eventually to Parliament for final approval.
In an interview soon after this week’s incident, Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability said the revised law will be taken to Parliament.
“The Ministry is working on submitting the recommendations to cabinet. The recommendations are trying to align the law with the Hague Convention on the adoption of children. The recommendations are also aimed at strengthening the protection of Malawian children,” said the ministry’s spokesperson, Lucy Bandazi.
The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation is an international agreement to safeguard inter-country adoptions which was concluded on May 29, 1993 in The Hague, the Netherlands.
It establishes international standards of practices for inter-country adoptions.
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