[Tawnya]

Are there any lobbying groups or other political groups associated with the rights of children who might be able to help us in our quest to adopt Sri Lankan children from Sri Lanka, Canada, or other countries world-wide? The reason is it is very difficult for people to adopt from one country to another is because of the Hague Convention, which was developed and implemented to protect children from exploitation and abuse. It is a much needed convention on the protection of children's rights.
The Hague Convention was initially ratified/accepted by three countries with Sri Lanka being one of the first three countries. Other countries world-wide have accepted/ratified this convention including Canada, thus making it virtually impossible for children to be adopted outside their country of origin to people of citizenship of countries that are not the child's country of origin. Unfortunately, for children of Sri Lankan ancestry and/or citizenship who reside world-wide, not just in Sri Lanka, children who are up for adoption may not have a chance to be adopted. It is particularly sad given that there are Sri Lankan families of citizenship of various countries world-wide prevented from adopting these children for fear that these children would be exploited and ironically thinking that Sri Lankan families world-wide might not be knowledgeable and not practicing of the children's cultural background. Given that Sri Lanka has multiple ethnic groups, languages, and religions, it is very likely that even in Sri Lanka that many children put up for adoption would not be educated and raised according to their biological family's ethnic, cultural, or religioius background. I think that inadvertently through the Hague Convention that there is an injustice done to the children of Sri Lankan ancestry and heritage given the wide-spread diaspora of Sri Lankans world-wide. Many of us want to adopt children from Sri Lanka or of Sri Lankan ancestry, yet must do so in our current country of citizenship, which may be difficult given that Sri Lankan ancestry is not always recognized by other countries as an ethnic group and given that the Sri Lankan group might be very small and thus the number of children up for adoption might be also very small. It is also ironic that if a family member like my husband's brother wanted to put his child up for adoption that we would not be eligible given that my husband and his brother are of two different citizenship countries. If my husband's cousins in countries such as Canada and the U.K. wanted us to adopt their children, it would again be difficult given the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention did not take into consideration the fact that for some countries that there is a large migration world-wide, which necessitates changing the language of the convention by stating that a child preference for adoption is to country of origin AND to persons of ancestry or prior citizenship of the country of origin AND to immediate and extended family members regardless of citizenship. Any suggestions on lobbying groups?