Meeting of the Working Group on Preventing and Addressing Illicit Practices in Intercountry Adoption

From 21 to 23 May 2019, the Working Group on Preventing and Addressing Illicit Practices in Intercountry Adoption met at the offices of the Permanent Bureau (PB) of the HCCH in The Hague. The meeting was attended by 31 experts and members of the PB. The experts represented 18 States, both from States of origin and receiving States, as well as three international organisations. 

The mandate of the Working Group is to consider the development of more effective and practical forms of cooperation between States to prevent and address specific instances of abuse. At its 2017 meeting, the HCCH’s Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) endorsed the proposal of the Group to develop a toolkit for preventing and addressing illicit practices. The 2019 meeting of the Group focused on revision of the draft toolkit. Based on the discussions during the meeting, the PB will update the draft Toolkit and draft additional parts, with a view to sending it to all HCCH Members, States Parties to the 1993 Intercountry Adoption Convention, and relevant international organisations for comment before the next meeting of the Special Commission tentatively scheduled for 2021. 

The Conclusions & Recommendations of the Working Group are available here. They will be submitted for approval to the 2020 meeting of CGAP.