Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Foreign Conflicts

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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1129. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth given that Ireland currently does not have an agreement to internationally adopt children from Palestine, if he has any plans to change that; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1972/25]

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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At this time, there are no plans to establish an agreement for intercountry adoptions from Palestine. Intercountry adoption should not be considered in the first instance as a solution/humanitarian response to emergency situations such as war, civil unrest, natural disasters or the displacement of people due to these events.

Ireland is a signatory to the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which it ratified through the enactment of the Adoption Act 2010. Intercountry adoption to Ireland therefore operates on the basis of the principles established by the Convention, the primary objectives of which are to provide safeguards to prevent the abduction, sale and traffic of children, and to establish a system of co-operation amongst countries in order to ensure that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the children concerned.

It has been highlighted, particularly by UNICEF and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (the HCCH) that, in emergency situations, there is an increased risk that international standards and essential safeguards for child protection are not respected. Adoption procedures should not take place during emergency situations, and those situations should not be used as justification for intercountry adoptions. Rather, in such situations, the focus should be on child protection and welfare measures, other than adoption, in line with the 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children.

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