Original EU-CoE adoption Conference opens Debates to Witnesses: Children's Rights the hottest issue?

 

What's a "hotter" issue at stake, than Social clashes, Conflicts for Energy sources, Torturers/Murderers' Impunity covered up by a State, even International Wars, etc. ?  - "Human Children", is the astonishingly unexpected reply emerging from recent European events in Strasbourg !..

An EU-CoE sponsored Conference in Strasbourg on Childrens' Human Rights and Adoption proved, above all, that a Child can be the "hottest" issue of all, both in Individual, Family, Social and Political life :

In more than 15 Years of Press work for European and PanEuropean News, never before had "EuroFora" seen a CoE's Secretary General denounce aggressions against her person ; Experts lose their temper and yell one against the other ; Participants in a Colloquy applauding passionately in favor of one or another side among opposite views in a Public Debate ; interested People pile up in endless but patient queues to enter the CoE and massively stay to follow events for 2 whole Days up to the end of a Conference, (contrary to the usual phenomenon of "Desertification" after a mid-term reception) ; cold-blooded Officials or Diplomats betray their feelings by saying that they "don't want even to see them, because of what they've done to" X or Z, in an exceptionally emotive reaction against this or that side among those involved in Children adoption issues ; a CoE technician risk his physical integrity to repair alone an inaccessible ventilation machine that someone had blocked depriving people from Oxygen to breath until they almost faint in a confined room with blocked windows (as it sometimes occurs when someone attempts to undermine an event) ; and, finally, a Journalist specialized in Foreign Policy issues be more interested in debates about ..adoption, than to follow what was going on, at the other side of CoE's central Palace building, in its top Political body, the Committee of Ministers !...

 

Not even the Russia - Georgia 2008 War, nor the Greco-Turkish tensions or Cyprus' issue, the Balkan dramas of the 1990ies, or big Economic, Oil-Gaz conflicts of interests, attempts of a recalcitrant State to hide grave Crimes including persisting Torture, Murders, Enforced Disappearances, illegal destructions/usurpations of Family Homes, etc, and other normally "hot" Political and/or Human Rights core issues, hadn't ever attracted such an obvious attention, with so much interest and so passionately..

Is it because the symbolic image of a Child can speak both for our own private life, our family and friends, and for a whole Society, a Social group or class, a People, a Nation, a Country, an Historic period, as also of the whole World (as, fex. in the famous image of a Human Embryo in Arthur Clark/Stanley Kubrick's "2001, Space Odyssey," Science-Fiction film), perhaps of all Humankind ?

This augmented the echoe of a British Expert's strange wording, Robert Wintemute, who holds a chair at London's Kings Kollege, complaining about what he called : - "a limited Supply (sic !) of Children" worldwide...

But his loud plaidoyerie for Homosexual couples (Gays or Lesbians) to be allowed to "adopt Children" from anywhere in the world, without any specific condition or limit, under pretext that, otherwise, they would face "unacceptabe Discrimination" (the homosexuals, not the children),

provoked a strong emotional reaction by a Young Girl of Asian origin, Dutch Citizen, who had herself been adopted and had a personal experience (apparently Ms Eun-Shil Boots and/or Rani Wielda from Amsterdam, ONG "Terre des Hommes")  :

- "What about the interests of the Child ?", she asked. We are concerned by the fact that adopted Children often HAVE Parents. And how can a Baby "consent" to be given to any among 50 homosexual couples who are searching to get 1 available child ?
We should better think what is the best interest of a Child. It's an hypocrisy to skip that by simply claiming that, otherwise, homosexuals would be "discriminated", she criticized. - "Why place a poor Child in such a double difficulty, when adoption itself is often a drama, to have to face also another heavy problem, risking to handicap his/her life before even it has a chance to start ?", she questioned, (warmly applauded by a large part of the participants).

In fact, what wasn't explicitly said this time, but has already been denouced by other researchers and International Human Rights' NGOs, is that if adoptions of Children by Homosexual couples are allowed, this inevitably risks to provoke, worldwide, a Massive "demand" of Children, since this category of the population is the only one to be entirely unable to give birth to its own babies, and, given the "Limited Supply (sic !) of Children", as that British Expert characteristically said (See supra). Then, this growing contradiction worldwide, would inevitably provoke a Pressure to start massively abusing of thousands of "Spare" Embryos, recently stocked via "Fertility Treatments" in controversial circumstances, and/or to start massively "creating" and giving birth to thousands of Human Embyos by paid "subrogate Mothers" (a practice generally criticized for Health and/or Social abuse risks), or even by exclusively "Artificial" means : In all these cases, by exploiting Homosexuals' demands, this obviously threatens to lead towards a non-democratically controlled Technocratic apparatus taking power over a Massive Artificial reproduction of Human Life, with evident risks for all Humankind...

As the EU Commission's acting Director on Justice, Freedom and Security, Alain Brun, said to "EuroFora", currently, "the EU hasn't any foreseable project to act specifically on Adoptions as such, since they are not included in the "Stockholm Program" prepared by the Swedish EU Presidency, but this is a Cross-roads where meet many other, various issues on which we are working, as fex. the fight against Human Trafficking".

This leaves the area with only Hague's International Treaty on adoptions, mainly a tool for cooperation between Countries of Origin and Host Countries, and CoE's Convention on Childrens' Rights, which has only been signed by the UK and several other Countries, including this week by the Netherlands and Spain, but not yet ratified. Inevitably, loopholes are looming on various concrete issues, often addressed just through ECHR's case-law.

It became obvious also at another interesting Testimony of an Austrian Citizen, Fritz Froehlich, now aged more than 30, who discovered, many years after the events, that he was an adopted child with living Parents, brothers and sisters, from a Family of ex-Yugoslavian origin, whose Identity had been hidden to him. - "I struggled for years, traveling all over Europe and even in Canada, to try to find my real origins, initial identity, who was my father, my mother and all my original family, and I succeeded, finally, to learn at least a part of the truth, but too late : My original father, who had died meanwhile, had worked as a lawyer and a judge, before being obliged to flee, apparently by politically motivated harassment. My family had been obliged to emigrate, and faced hard moments. Finally I found one of my brothers living in Canada, and we re-started to have some personal relations. But all this was a very tiring, time consuming and an expensive query that I had to do alone, he described.

- According to the European Court of Human Rights' case-law, "every Child has a Right to know the Truth about his/her real parents" on such issues, stressed EuroJudge Dragolub Popovic from Serbia. Inter alia, he cited also the case of "a Child abandoned by his Mother", in the Finikaridou affair "from Cyprus".

Speaking afterwards to "EuroFora", EuroJudge Popovic acknowledged that this is an additional reason for which f.ex. the Turkish Government has to seriously investigate the famous case of Greek Cypriot "Missing" Child Christakis Georgiou, that some believe he might be still alive after being eventually adopted by a childless Turk, following his transfert to mainland Turkey reportedly in order to be treated for a wound inflicted during the 1974 Turkish Millitary Invasion of Cyprus, when he was aged only 4,

Christakis' Mother recently received even Phone calls from Turkey by youngsters claiming that they thought that they might be her "Missing" Child. By an astonishing coincidence, If Christakis had survived his wounds and was still allive, he would have today the same age as the ..Austrian Citizen who discovered, many Decades later, that he was, in fact, an adopted kid from ex-Yugoslavia, and that the truth about his Identity and original Family had been hidden to him for half of his life..

Speaking from the "other side", a Married Couple who had adopted a small girl from Romania proudly showed her Photo, saying that they were "grateful for having been given an opportunity to create a Family with a wonderful Child", as they said, applauded by a part of the audience.

But reports about Thousands of Poor, abandoned and/or familyless Children living in collective groups, among difficult material and affective conditions, at various Public and/or Caritative Institutions, in Romania and other Countries in Europe and elsewhere, originating particularly among Poor People, provoked mixed reactions :

- "It's too easy to try to evacuate such problems by allowing to separate these children from their poor families and to give them to be adopted by rich people in foreign countries", protested a young lady, herself a former adoptee. - "Instead of separating them, why not help these Families to have the elementary material means to raise their own Children ?", questioned critically a young lady, applauded. 

                                                                                                                                                         The issue is far from being theoretical or limited to Romania only : On the contrary, a Decision voted by CoE's Committee of Ministers, this same week in Strasbourg, while supervising how ECHR's judgeements are applied, brought to the surface a series of judgements which have already condemned repeatedly  the Czech Authorities for practicing a controversial "Placement" of "Children in Public care, motivated only by material and Economic grounds", i.e. obliging Poor Families to be separated from their Children, only because they are poor !..

 - "This Problem seems to be of Systematic character in the Czech Republic", stressed CoE, officially "inviting the Czech Authorities .. to avoid placing Children in Public Institutions on Economic grounds".            

Indeed, the fact that the concerned ECHR's judgements concerned 2 cases involving numerous applicants (the "Wallova and Walla", and the "Havelka and Others" cases, on applications submitted in 2004 and 2006, resulting to ECHR judgements published in 2007), clearly indicates that the problem rather concerns many people.                                                                                     

That's why CoE "took note with interest of the information submitted  recently by the Czech Authorities concerning .. in particular ...the .. July 2009 National Action Plan for Transformation of the Care System for Children at risk", while also asking for a full and concrete implementation of ECHR's judgements before "September 2010".

CoE's Director of Human Rights and Legal Standards, the experienced Jan Kleijssen, concluding this original Conference, by endorsing its quasi-unanimous call for more protection to Childrens' Rights, quite rightly explained that they had tried, together with the EU, to organise a "Multi-level, multi-faceted, Pluralist structure, going from Officials and Experts, of various relevant International or National Organisations, until NGOs, Journalists and People who had interesting Personal Experiences on the issues.

Thus, fex., witnesses related to "EuroFora", how a loving Family, who really cares for its Children, to the point to make even hard sacrifices for their welfare, can often succeed to make them feel happy and flourish, even in the hardest material circumstances, even deprived of elementary facilities, condemned to extreme poverty by various events :

F.ex., a Young, Middle-class Married Couple's Socio-Professional Life suddenly faced a Brutal Shock, when a caring Father was unexpectedly killed, in suspicious circumstances in the middle of a Conflict, only weeks before they had their own Baby born, while all their personal private Properties and Economies were illegally blocked at the country where their dead parents lived, by sly abusers who explolited the tragedy. At the same time, others harassed the victims : F.ex. (according to their sayings and some proof), after a Criminal attempt by a thug to stage an "Accident" against the Mother at the 9th Month of her pregnacy, (by pushing an "Alarm" to suddenly stop a huge mecanically moving staircase, when the victim was standing alone 15 meters over the ground, brutally pushed to fall and be killed or wounded with the Baby), a strange Hate apparently went as far as to provoke even an abnormal but dangerous Infection, via an unscrupulous agent, to both the Mother and her Baby at Birth, which left the poor Woman bleeding for Months, and the Child threatened by atrocious Health risks until it becomes 10 or 12 years old. Excluding to abandon his Wife or Child, but without anyone to help, the young Father was obliged to stop brillant University Research, just a few Months before final achievement, and urgently start to do any Job, even Humiliating, Dirty, exceptionaly Hard or Risky, without any relation to his University studies and capacities, which destinated him to become soon a Professor or a Senior Judge. (Fex. Serve to Restaurants, Wash dirty dishes, treat hasardous Waste in a far away Factory from 5 o'clock in the morning, type silly copies for others among humiliations for years, etc). Facing frequent harassment by thugs whose impunity had made them shameless, the suddenly and brutally impoverished young Family, among various incidents, had to leave their Home and seek refuge to a far away, impoverished suburb, where their child was initially targetted by Discrimination at School, regardless of his capacities, and even their only means of transport : 2 old bicycles, were destroyed by sly vandalism.

Thus, during a suffocating Summer heatwave, they had nothing else to offer to their small Child, (while others were spending Sea or Mountain Hollidays, or swimming to Lakes and Pools, etc), than .. to desperately try to walk a long way on foot, exhausted, facing the Heatwave, Noise and Pollution by passing Cars, until they crossed long, Dusty fields desertified by Drought, and managed to find, at last, a few square meters of Shade under 2 or 3 Trees, in the middle of a huge no-mans-land..

But, there, right in the middle of nowhere, a "Miracle" happened : The young Father saw a beautiful giant Butterfly, approach the poor Family, and, at his astonishement, she "accepted" to get gold of her, with silent but swift moves. His first thought was to ask the Mother to bring their Child closer, carefully, without making any noise or move which might frighten the Butterfly. He softlly passed the Butterfly's wings accross the tiny fingers of their small Child, who looked amazed, with a Divine Smile, the beautiful Butterfly surprisingly staying quiet at his soft baby-hands. Then, the poor Child, lifted his head and returned to his loving Father and Mother what they felt as the Brightest Smiling Eyes on Earth : Fragile but beautiful as the Butterfly, for unforgettable moments, before it flies away with the Wind.