Kathmandu, March 12:

Speakers at the first international conference on inter-country adoption today stressed the need for a separate act on inter-country adoption to ensure a better future for those children deprived of family, love and affection.

Binod Kumar Adhikari, a member of the Adoption Recommendation Committee (ARC) under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, said: “We don’t have a separate act for inter-country adoption and there is no provision about the adoption of disabled children. So the existing Children’s Act needs to be amended to meet the demands of the 21st century.”

Child rights activist Prachanda Raj Pradhan said: “Adoption is an alternative way of providing children their right to love and be loved.”

He said the country’s adoption law is 150 years old and it only deals domestic adoption. “We have been practicing inter-country adoption for the last 30 years but we don’t have any specific law to guide the procedures. We need to do a lot to set up provisions in the law of adoption since Nepal has very short experience on the inter-country adoption,” he added.

Shiva Prasad Poudel, team leader of the Central Child Welfare Board, said that the present adoption rules have not addressed pragmatic issues. “Therefore, it is necessary to enact a new legislation addressing specific issues of independent authority, transparency, effective complaint handling process, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms,” he added.

Sandra Scarth highlighted on the positive outcomes of adoption based on the study done in Canada and other countries. He said: “Though there is discussion worldwide on ethical dilemmas posed by the conflicting opinions about inter-country adoption, very few would disagree on the improvement of children’s life from inter-country adoption.”