Uganda: Adoption - State Owes Duty to Most Vulnerable Ugandans
Uganda: Adoption - State Owes Duty to Most Vulnerable Ugandans
EDITORIAL
Parliament last week resolved to bar foreigners from acquiring guardianship of Ugandan children and taking them out of the country enroute to adopting them.
The amendment was the brainchild of Serere Woman MP Alice Alaso, who argued that human traffickers were finding it extremely easy to take children out of Uganda for selfish commercial gain.
Under the Children's Act, foreigners can adopt Ugandan children if they have lived in Uganda for three years, fostered the child for three years under the supervision of a probation and social welfare officer, and met several other requirements.
However, legal guardianship had provided a loophole where judges sometimes misused their discretion and landed children in harm's way. We would like to commend the position taken by the MPs, coming at a time when human trafficking is becoming an ever-bigger global problem - with Uganda as a notorious hub largely because of our lax laws.
Obviously, the decision of the MPs was not unanimous . Some argued - rightly so - that the amendment would disadvantage some poor children who would have otherwise found well-meaning foreign guardians. Others suggested that because Uganda has so many poor children, whom even the MPs are not helping, legal guardianship should be allowed to stay.
The latter diagnosis is right, but the prescription is wrong. It is admirable that our legislators are concerned about orphans and other vulnerable children. But it can't
be that because they are vulnerable, these children lose the protection that citizens of a country should enjoy from the state.
In such matters - as with such issues as workers' rights or minimum wage - our parliament should be legislating for more protection to the vulnerable, rather than removing any remaining legal restrictions and push helpless Ugandan children into the jaws of predators.
Needless to say, there are many children who have been adopted and they have lived happily ever after. That should not blind us to the many cases of those who lose out for landing in wrong hands.
It should also be noted that as other countries plug their holes, Uganda as a country was bound to become ever more vulnerable.
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