Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Addicted to Orphans: How the Global Orphan Industrial Complex Jeopardizes Local Child Protection Systems

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Conflict, Violence and Peace

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 11))

Abstract

While many scholars and activists from multiple disciplines have reported on various aspects of orphan policy and the international adoption industry, there has been little synthesis of this information and its implications for global child protection. This chapter therefore puts the pieces together to argue that the misidentification of “orphans” as a category for development and humanitarian intervention has subsequently been misappropriated by many Western individuals and charitable organizations. Promoting a discourse of orphan rescue, they foster the growth of an “orphan industrial complex.” In developing countries like Guatemala and Uganda whose children are targeted for “rescue,” the discourse and practice of “orphan rescue” is subsequently jeopardizing child protection and even driving the “production” of orphans as objects for particular kinds of intervention-counter to established international standards of child protection.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agaba, M. (2012, 1 October). This country urgently needs strict guidelines to regulate adoption. Daily Monitor. http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/-/689364/1521464/-/115vwl0z/-/index.html. Accessed 5 July 2014.

  • Bartholet, E., & Smolin, D. (2012). The Debate. In J. Gibbons & K. S. Rotabi (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policies, practices, and outcomes (pp. 233–254). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunkers, K. M., & Groza, V. (2012). Intercountry adoption and child welfare in Guatemala: Lessons learned pre and post ratification of the 1993 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. In J. L. Gibbons & K. S. Rotabi (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policies, practices, and outcomes (pp. 119–131). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunkers, K. M., Rotabi, K. S., & Mezmur, B. D. (2012). Ethiopia at a critical juncture in intercountry adoption and traditional care practices. In J. Gibbons & K. Rotabi Smtih (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policies, practices, and outcomes (pp. 133–142). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casa Alianza, Presidential Commission for Human Rights [COPREDEH], Myrna Mack Foundation, Survivors Foundation, Social Movement for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Human Rights office of the Archbishop of Guatemala, and the Social Welfare Secretariat. (2007). Adoptions in Guatemala: Protection or market? Guatemala City: Casa Alianza Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheney, K. E. (2010). Expanding vulnerability, dwindling resources: Implications for orphaned futures in Uganda. Childhood in Africa, 2(1), 8–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheney, K. E. (2014). Giving children a ‘better life’? Reconsidering social reproduction and humanitarianism in intercountry adoption. European Journal of Development Research, 26(2), 247–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Children in Families First Act of 2013, MDM13D98, US Congress. (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chirwa, W. (2002). Social exclusion and inclusion: Challenges to orphan care in Malawi. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 11(1), 93–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala. (2010). Informe sobre actores involucrados en el proceso de adopciones irregulares en Guatemala a partir de la entrada en vigor de la Ley de Adopciones Decreto 77–2007 [Report on actors involved in the irregular adoption process in Guatemala after the entry into force of the Adoption Law 77–2007]. Guatemala. www.cicig.org/uploads/documents/adopciones_presentacion.pdf. Accessed 1 Jan 2011.

  • Drah, B. (2012). Orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa: The crisis, the interventions, and the anthropologist. Africa Today, 59(2), 2–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, A., & Freidus, A. (2007). Orphan care in Malawi: Examining the transnational images and discourses of humanitarianism. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meetings, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, G., Levine, C., & Williamson, J. (Eds.). (2005). A generation at risk: The global impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidus, A., & Ferguson, A. (2013). Malawi’s orphans: The role of transnational humanitarian organizations. In D. J. Johnson, D. L. Agbényiga, & R. K. Hitchcock (Eds.), Vulnerable children: Global challenges in education, health, well-being, and child rights (pp. 203–215). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Uganda. The Children Act. (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruskin, S., & Tarantola, D. (2005). Human rights and children affected by HIV/AIDS. In G. Foster, C. Levine, & J. Williamson (Eds.), A generation at risk: The global impact of HIV/AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children (pp. 134–158). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Guest, E. (2003). Children of AIDS: Africa’s orphan crisis (2nd ed.). London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, P. C. (2006). South African AIDS orphans: Examining assumptions around vulnerability from the perspective of rural children and youth. Childhood, 13(3), 303–327. doi:10.1177/0907568206066354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hague Conference on International Private Law. (2007). A report of a fact-finding mission ot Guatemala in relation to intercountry adoption, 26 Feb–9 Mar 2007. http://www.hcch.net/upload/wop/mission_gt33e.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2014.

  • Joyce, K. (2013). The child catchers: Rescue, trafficking, and the new gospel of adoption. New York: Public Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, E. (2007, November/December). Did I steal my child? Mother Jones. http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/did-i-steal-my-daughter-tribulations-global-adoption. Accessed 5 July 2014.

  • Meintjes, H., & Giese, S. (2006). Spinning the epidemic: The making of mythologies of orphanhood in the context of AIDS. Childhood, 13(3), 407–430. doi:10.1177/0907568206066359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Namubiru, S. (2013). Applying the principle of the best interests of the child in inter-country legal guardianship and adoption matters: Experiences of the family court in Uganda. Master of Arts in Development Studies. Erasmus University Rotterdam, International Institute of Social Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, M. K., & Rotabi, K. S. (2012). Perspectives on child welfare: Ways of understanding roles and actions of current USA adoption agencies involved in intercountry adoptions. In J. L. Gibbons & K. S. Rotabi (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policies, practices, and outcomes (pp. 77–88). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennell, J., & Anderson, G. (Eds.). (2005). Widening the circle: The practice and evaluation of family group conferencing with child, youths and their families. Washington, DC: NASW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richter, L. M., & Norman, A. (2010). AIDS orphan tourism: A threat to young children in residential care. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 5(3), 217–229. doi:10.1080/17450128.2010.487124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley, M. (2012). Baseline study: The state of institutional care in Uganda. Kampala: Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robson, E., & Ansell, N. (2000). Young carers in Southern Africa: Exploring stories from Zimbabwean secondary school students. In S. Holloway & G. Valentine (Eds.), Children’s geographies (pp. 174–193). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roby, J. L., & Shaw, S. A. (2006). The African orphan crisis and international adoption. Social Work, 51(3), 199–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roby, J. L., Pennell, J., Rotabi, K. S., Bunkers, K. M., & Ucles, S. (2014). Pilot training and contextual adaptation of the family group conferencing model: Early evidence from Guatemala. British Journal of Social Work. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcu053.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotabi, K. S. (2012a). El uso de la fuerza, el fraude y la coerción en algunas adopciones en Guatemala: Los casos graves de secuestros que cuestionan el principio del “interés superior del menor” [Force, fraud, and coercion in some Guatemalan adoptions: High-profile abduction cases challenge the ‘best interests of the child’]. Scripta Nova, XVII(395). http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-395/sn-395-24.htm. Accessed 5 July 2014.

  • Rotabi, K. S. (2012b). Fraud in intercountry adoption: Child sales and abduction in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Guatemala. In J. L. Gibbons & K. S. Rotabi (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policies, practices, and outcomes (pp. 67–76). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotabi, K. S., Pennell, J., Roby, J. L., & Bunkers, K. M. (2012). Family group conferencing as a culturally adaptable intervention: Reforming intercountry adoption in Guatemala. International Social Work, 55(3), 402–416. doi: 10.1177/0020872812437229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rotabi, K. S., Bunkers, K. M., Roby, J., & Osborn, S. (2010, October). Panel presentation on social work discipline and intercountry adoption. Intercountry Adoption Summit. University of Waterloo, Waterloo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selman, P. (2012). The rise and fall of intercountry adoption in the 21st century: Global trends from 2001 to 2010. In J. L. Gibbons & K. S. Rotabi (Eds.), Intercountry adoption: Policy, practice, and outcomes (pp. 7–28). Surrey: Ashgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selman, P. (2013). One million children moving: The demography of intercountry adoption. Paper presented at the 4th international conference on adoption research (ICAR4), Bilbao.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherr, L., Varrall, R., Mueller, J., Richter, L., Wakhweya, A., Adato, M., & Desmond, C. (2008). A systematic review on the meaning of the concept ‘AIDS Orphan’: Confusion over definitions and implications for care. AIDS Care, 20(5), 527–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siegal, E. (2011). Finding Fernanda: Two mothers, one child, and a cross-border search for truth. Boston: Beacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smolin, D. (2010). Child laundering and the hague convention on intercountry adoption: The future and past of intercountry adoption. University of Louisville Law Review, 48(3), 441–498.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS. (2009). Home truths: Facing the facts on children, AIDS, and poverty (p. 8). Geneva: Association François-Xavier Bagnoud – FXB International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uganda Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development. (2011). National strategic programme plan of interventions for orphans and other vulnerable children 2011/12-2015/6. Kampala: MGLSD.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF. (2006). Africa’s orphaned and vulnerable generations: Children affected by AIDS. New York: UNICEF, UNAIDS and PEPFAR.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF. (2007, 4 October). UNICEF’s position on Inter-country adoption. http://www.unicef.org/media/media_41118.html. Accessed 18 Dec 2013.

  • Voelkl, H. T. (2012). Developing an understanding of the experience of children with international short-term volunteer tourists – A case study of an orphanage project in Ghana. Masters thesis. http://www.bettercarenetwork.nl/content/17382/download/clnt/42992_Dissertation-Voluntourism-Ghana.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2014.

  • Williamson, J., & Greenberg, A. (2010). Families, not orphanages (Better care network working paper). New York: Better Care Network.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Kortenaerkade 12, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Kristen E. Cheney

  2. United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

    Karen Smith Rotabi

Authors
  1. Kristen E. Cheney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karen Smith Rotabi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristen E. Cheney .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

    Christopher Harker

  2. Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig, Germany

    Kathrin Hörschelmann

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry

Cheney, K.E., Rotabi, K.S. (2017). Addicted to Orphans: How the Global Orphan Industrial Complex Jeopardizes Local Child Protection Systems. In: Harker, C., Hörschelmann, K. (eds) Conflict, Violence and Peace. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 11. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-038-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation