International adoptions, foster care, hospitality and the right of citizenship: the challenges that the new government will have to face

MEZZANO DI SAN GIULIANO MILANESE – “In the coming days – reads a document released by Ai.Bi Amici dei Bambini – the President of the Republic will give a mandate to form the new government to Giorgia Meloni. Beyond what each one has expressed with their vote, it will be this government that will have to provide the answers to the many challenges that families find themselves having to face in a very delicate period from many points of view. Ai.Bi. – the note continues – in the last few weeks you have analyzed various issues that are particularly close to your heart, starting, of course, fromInternational adoption. Now, it is time to address these priority points and put them on the next political agenda of the new government. Let’s see them one by one “.

International Adoption. “It is useless to turn around the problem – says the organization’s document – theInternational adoption is going through the hardest time ever. The numbers have been declining for years; the neglet list they are more and more full of children declared adoptable when it is too late; there are no institutional contacts for the issue of adoptions in the various countries; waiting times and costs are at unacceptable levels …

What is needed, according to Ai.Bi. A package of concrete reforms is needed to return to putting the right of all children to be children at the center of the political discourse:

– free adoption;

– remove the competence of suitability from the Juvenile Courts;

– promote joint training of authorized bodies and services from the moment the application is submitted;

– digitize the whole procedure;

– reform the CAI (Commission for International Adoptions) into a leaner, more efficient body, under the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with a representation of the authorized bodies;

– resume doing the Kafala also in Italy … these are just some of the changes that are needed for International Adoption to become the most extraordinary welcoming tool for all abandoned children in the world.

What is Kafala. It is a legal institution provided for among the forms of protection of minors, both by the New York Convention on the rights of the child of 1989 (ratified in Italy in 1991) and by The Hague Convention on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition, enforcement and cooperation in matters of parental responsibility and child protection measures. It is an instrument that performs functions similar to entrustment and is in force in the legal systems inspired by the teachings of the Koran: in those countries, in fact, the vinculum filiationis it cannot arise at the end of an adoptive procedure, nor can positive law go so far as to sever or modify in any way the biological ties of descent. The absence of mechanisms capable of creating an “artificial” filiation does not mean, however, the existence of a regulatory vacuum in the protection of minors since the need to offer adequate protection to abandoned children is, in any case, satisfied. However, it is a homogeneous juridical discipline in the Islamic world, although in the procedures it can vary considerably between state and state.

Reception and citizenship. Closely linked to the issue of adoption is also the urgency to eliminate “once and for all” – he argues Ai.Bi. Children’s friends – that purely bureaucratic hitch that prevents adopted children from acquiring Italian citizenship through adoption.

Adoption in the belly: a concrete possibility. In the face of the emergency of the birth rate, it is necessary to find alternative tools to protect motherhood from every point of view, also by adopting practices in other countries already in place such as “adoption in the belly”.

The Custody. “If you of International adoption politics speaks little – the document still reads – about custody is completely silent. Instead, there is an absolute need to address a fundamental tool to ensure that all children have the full right to development, to their family of origin or to the alternative protection of another family. For this reason – the note continues – family fostering should be a priority over entrusting services, with the introduction of a system to monitor minors outside the family and to legally declare the prolonged absence of the family as an abuse ” .

International Custody. At the same time, it is necessary to fill the legislative vacuum relating to international custody, “by ceasing to deal with the issue only in the face of wars and emergencies”, it is emphasized.

Denatality. Nothing new is discovered: for too many years the birth rate has been falling and almost nothing has been done to try to reverse the trend. Compared toAdoption, almost completely absent in the electoral programs of the parties, almost all the political forces have addressed the issue of the fight against the birth rate. “Now is the time to get serious – we insist – starting with the introduction of that family quotient which, after the meritorious Single Checkcan begin to give an important signal that the future of families is a real political priority “.

Surrogacy. “Also of surrogacy And uterus for rent there was much talk before the elections – the document continues Ai.Bi – so much so as to raise the question of whether or not it was legitimate to make such a delicate subject an electoral campaign tool. Whatever the answer to this first question, now is the time to take concrete action to permanently abolish the practice ofuterus for rent “.

Community and family homes. Another social emergency in recent years has been the increase in requests for insertion into the community and into a family home. “We need to give new answers – concludes the note – to a sector that relies on the strength of the Associations and on the underpaid and little considered work of educators, both with reforms and concrete initiatives, and by working to change the cultural perception related to hospitality and educational work “.