Seventeen International adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador
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Esben Leifsen
Abstract
This chapter examines international adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador. International adoption involves a number of policy, service, and legal actors operating within a policy and legal framework. Where officials are corrupt (even if, in their defence, they are driven to be so by their own poverty) or do not fully understand the niceties of that framework, agencies and individuals can manipulate the system to their own advantage. What can be presented by clever operators as an adoption process is, in reality, child trafficking, involving children who have been stolen or removed from parents by a combination of threats and promises. The issue is, in reality, not about a series of ‘irregular acts’ by criminals acting alone. A serious adoption scandal in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, in 1989, had a major impact on policy formulation and public administration in a crucial moment in the history of child-rights implementation.
Abstract
This chapter examines international adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador. International adoption involves a number of policy, service, and legal actors operating within a policy and legal framework. Where officials are corrupt (even if, in their defence, they are driven to be so by their own poverty) or do not fully understand the niceties of that framework, agencies and individuals can manipulate the system to their own advantage. What can be presented by clever operators as an adoption process is, in reality, child trafficking, involving children who have been stolen or removed from parents by a combination of threats and promises. The issue is, in reality, not about a series of ‘irregular acts’ by criminals acting alone. A serious adoption scandal in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, in 1989, had a major impact on policy formulation and public administration in a crucial moment in the history of child-rights implementation.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements and dedication vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xiii
- List of boxes, figures, tables and photos xv
- Introduction: Child slavery worldwide 1
-
Strategic overviews
- Child slavery today 21
- Constructing the international legal framework 43
- Just out of reach: the challenges of ending the worst forms of child labour 61
- Child domestic labour: a global concern 81
- Child trafficking: a modern form of slavery 99
- Clarity and consistency in understanding child exploitation: a UK perspective 117
- A human rights approach to preventing child sex trafficking 133
- Child rights, culture and exploitation: UK experiences of child trafficking 145
-
Themes, issues and case studies
- Preventing child trafficking in India: the role of education 163
- Birth registration: a tool for prevention, protection and prosecution 175
- ‘Bienvenue chez les grands!’: young migrant cigarette vendors in Marseille 189
- Child domestic labour: fostering in transition? 203
- Extreme forms of child labour in Turkey 215
- Haliya and kamaiya bonded child labourers in Nepal 227
- Sex trafficking in Nepal 243
- The role of the arts in resisting recruitment as child soldiers and ‘wives’: experience from Uganda and Nepal 257
- International adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador 271
- Child slavery in South and South East Asia 285
- Routes to child slavery in Central America 297
- Resources 307
- The end of child slavery? 317
- Index 327
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements and dedication vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- List of abbreviations xiii
- List of boxes, figures, tables and photos xv
- Introduction: Child slavery worldwide 1
-
Strategic overviews
- Child slavery today 21
- Constructing the international legal framework 43
- Just out of reach: the challenges of ending the worst forms of child labour 61
- Child domestic labour: a global concern 81
- Child trafficking: a modern form of slavery 99
- Clarity and consistency in understanding child exploitation: a UK perspective 117
- A human rights approach to preventing child sex trafficking 133
- Child rights, culture and exploitation: UK experiences of child trafficking 145
-
Themes, issues and case studies
- Preventing child trafficking in India: the role of education 163
- Birth registration: a tool for prevention, protection and prosecution 175
- ‘Bienvenue chez les grands!’: young migrant cigarette vendors in Marseille 189
- Child domestic labour: fostering in transition? 203
- Extreme forms of child labour in Turkey 215
- Haliya and kamaiya bonded child labourers in Nepal 227
- Sex trafficking in Nepal 243
- The role of the arts in resisting recruitment as child soldiers and ‘wives’: experience from Uganda and Nepal 257
- International adoption and child trafficking in Ecuador 271
- Child slavery in South and South East Asia 285
- Routes to child slavery in Central America 297
- Resources 307
- The end of child slavery? 317
- Index 327
