Switzerland and irregular adoptions: a second step

“The motivations of Western countries in this approach originally stemmed from a generous desire to help abandoned children in distress. But in our industrialized countries, international adoption has today often become a response to the lack of adoptable children and the infertility of couples (…). A sort of belief in a right to adopt is spreading among public opinion, with, as a result, the creation of a real adoption market.” This extract is taken from the Report “For respect for the rights of the child in international adoption” published by the Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs (Council of Europe) on December 2, 1999.

The 8 December 2023 , the Federal Council presented the results of the second study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences entitled “Indicative elements of illegal adoptions of children from 10 countries of origin in Switzerland, from the 1970s to the 1990s” . We can read there: “The documents consulted in the specialized files reveal a dissonance between the postulate of consideration of the good of the child, on the one hand, and the practice on the other hand, the latter having often been guided by others interests than those of adopted children. This gives children object status. It is not uncommon for them to be spoken of as if they were commodities, for example using the term "child importation" or, more subtly, when adopting parents express wishes as to the characteristics of the child they wanted to welcome.”

What do the 24 years between these two declarations tell us?
First of all, it takes a generation to change a “mentality”. A generation for the passing of time, but also a generation of adoptees now adults and capable of bringing the debate to the public square. 
It would be wrong to say that nothing would have happened during all these years: the entry into force in Switzerland in 2003 of the Hague Convention on international adoption, the establishment of a federal central authority, the strengthening of control over adoption intermediaries, have significantly increased the regulation of international adoptions. These national measures, to which are added those taken by the States of origin and international bodies, have considerably modified the landscape of international adoption, to the point that it now represents only 10% of its historical maximum ( more than 40,000 international adoptions recorded throughout the world in 2004). 

This long time is also symptomatic of the complexity of a fictitious filiation, based on law and not on blood, which summons buried personal and social values, hidden political and geopolitical issues, and elusive fragmented responsibilities. This complexity must lead to nuance and respect for everyone, in particular by avoiding shortcuts. In his report yesterday, the RTS journalist declared “in total, 8,000 children were adopted illegitimately between 1970 and the end of the 90s”. This type of allegation is, on the one hand, unfounded: the study clearly states that “to draw up this inventory, we did not consult individual files, but only specialized files kept in the federal archives”. Talking about system failures does not mean that all files are affected, and even less so that they are affected equally. On the other hand, it is about respecting adopters and adoptees who may not be concerned, who also form families and who do not all feel the need to question their history.

Finally, if the decision of the Federal Council to revise international adoption law must be welcomed, the previous report "Search of origin for adopted persons" published on November 15, highlighted the shortcomings of the current system with regard to means necessary for professional support of original research. It is now necessary to understand the issue of adoption in a global vision that includes past and future, national and international, adoptees and adoptive families.