International Adoptions: UNICEF urges Ghana to the ratification of the Hague Convention by June 2013
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Date: 03/11/13
International Adoptions: UNICEF urges Ghana to the ratification of the Hague Convention by June 2013
According to the latest report by UNICEF Ghana, and the Report on the workshop "Guidelines for International Adoptions in Ghana" held in September 2012, urge the formulation of a law regulating international adoptions in the country, so that the process can be adopted regulated and supervised.
And it is for this reason that in the next two years UNICEF will be engaged in an intense work of reform to ensure the protection of children in the African country . The NGO delll'ONU has already met with the local Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, which seems to have shown interest because the legislative process goes forward and implement as soon as possible.
From the workshop it was decided to get to the ratification of the Hague Convention for the middle of 2013 , important step to prevent traffic problems, sale and / or abduction of minors, for which the local law now provides a minimum of 5 years in prison.
It is hoped that the system of international adoptions is not only cleaner, but also other family-type solutions for abandoned children (custody / domestic adoption) are put into practice.
Since Ghana is one of the African countries where international adoption is fairly widespread, the Department of Social Affairs (DSW) is planning to create a central authority that can configure itself within the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare and should be operational before the ratification of
To achieve this objective, the Programme Director of Child Protection UNICEF Ghana, Johanna Eriksson said needed a strong synergy by all leforze involved: Ministries, Departments, Regional Police Forces and especially the three accredited bodies involved - Ai . Bi., the American Bethany Christian Agency, and the Swedish AdoptionCentrum. They must work together and share information necessary to expedite the adoption process more effectively.
Even the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) of I, with its newly elected Regional Director Tackie, proved to be highly interested in working , as if this were the only viable road, though long, to improve the situation of adoptions in Ghana and help orphans.
One of the most interesting is to involve the embassies in the simplification of the procedures for adoption, because the documents must necessarily go from there. The U.S. embassy has now been willing to monitor, and you can see why, given that 'America is the country that receives the majority of Ghanaians children : 99 adoptions in 2010, 117 adoptions in 2011.
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