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This report seeks to examine Uganda’s legal and policy framework to identify the relevant offences and mechanisms that could contribute towards the development of a prosecutorial strategy for orphanage trafficking in Uganda. The report includes a brief analysis of the Ugandan legal system, incorporation of international norms and criminal justice system as a means of understanding the operational framework for human rights and criminal law and in the country. This is followed by a deeper analysis of child protection and human trafficking laws, as the legal nexus where orphanage trafficking…
Orphanage trafficking involves the recruitment and/or transfer of children to residential care institutions for a purpose of exploitation and profit. It typically takes place in lower- and middle-income countries where child protection services systems are highly privatised, under-regulated, and primarily funded by overseas sources. In such circumstances, residential care is used prolifically and inappropriately as a response to child vulnerability, including a lack of access to education.
This study assesses and maps the legal, policy and procedural frameworks in both domestic and…
Uganda Care Leavers/Association of Care Leavers Uganda released this statement in response to the appearance of Ugandan children on an April 15, 2023, episode of Britain's Got Talent. These care leavers who have spent part or all of their lives in residential care expressed concern about the institutionalisation of children and the need to instead promote family care for all children.
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In this video, Kate van Doore, founder of Forget Me Not and lecturer at Griffith University Law School, describes the process of 'paper orphaning,' a term coined to characterize how children are recruited and trafficked into orphanages to gain profits through international funding and orphanage tourism. The video was created for the 21-22 June 2017 Africa Expert Consultation for Violence Against…
Stuart, then five, and his cousin Juliet Tendo, seven, were taken to the US by a caring Baptist family who had been given a legal guardianship order in June 2009 after arriving in Uganda. The children were later adopted through a US court. They were given what were said to be legal death certificates for Juliet’s mother and Stuart’s father. It was only in summer 2011 that the Hodges learned that both were, in fact, still alive.
Article available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/06/uganda-child-adoption-market-confusion
Executive Summary
This report presents findings of a baseline study for the Strong Beginnings -- A Family for all Children project. The study sought to gather comprehensive data on Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in the three project districts (Kampala, Jinja and Wakiso) and assess the wellbeing of children living in those institutions. The results were expected to inform the interventions aimed at improving CCIs’ gate-keeping, improving the quality of care in CCIs, resettlement of children, and working towards promoting and strengthening family based alternative care. In addition, the…
This study on legal guardianship and adoption practices in Uganda was designed to explore and get insight into current care practices. The study includes both a desk review and a research component, consisting of interviews with key informants (including law firms, birth parents and family members, probation and social welfare officers, child care institutions, adoptive parents, judges, and local council chairs at the village level).
The study found that, while laws on adoption are clear, there are few legal procedures and protocols to govern the use of legal guardianship, in particular…
This presentation on the "Orphan Industrial Complex" was given at the Young Lives and Globalization in Africa workshop, University of Liège, Belgium, 21st February 2014. The presentation, by Kristen E. Cheney of the International Institute of Social Studies at the Hague, discusses the global shift in the definition of ‘orphans’ to include children with a living parent or parents. This misrepresentation has promoted a rhetoric of ‘orphan rescue’ in many Western countries and organizations, which has fostered the growth of an "orphan industrial complex," according to Cheney. In many developing…
The Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (2004) underline the importance of identifying, registering and documenting unaccompanied and separated children as quickly as possible in an emergency context, whether a natural disaster or an armed conflict. Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) has traditionally relied on outdated methods of registration, with data being recorded on paper and later entered into a database system. This results in precious hours and days being lost in efforts to reunite children with their…
Charts that accompany the Mother Jones article Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession by Kathryn Joyce, illustrating the trends in international adoptions from Liberia, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Haiti to families in the United States.