THE country’s outdated adoption laws and the devastating effects on the lives of children in need of stable homes have resurfaced, with members of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of the House of Representatives raising concerns about the bureaucracy that continues to thwart the efforts of people outside of the island who want to give needy Jamaican minors a better life.

Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison, who appeared before the committee on Wednesday, noted that there is an impression being given by the authorities that there is a preference for Jamaican parents. “That is wrong. The guiding principle has to be what will benefit this child,” she stressed.

“Our children can be adopted by persons who live in other jurisdictions, but there is almost an unwritten rule and a bar within the adoption process that is frustrating these individuals who are well-thinking and causing them to think twice about whether or not they should even be interested in children locally to adopt,” the Children’s Advocate stated. She noted that, while the adoption process must be made more efficient, the authorities had to remain mindful of the threat of human trafficking,

St Andrew East Rural member of parliament (MP), Juliet Holness, also pointed to other barriers in the system, such as children remaining in state care until they are adults even though viable opportunities were presented for them to be adopted.

“I’ve visited several children’s homes and when I talk to the caretakers, they will say to you that this child is here for a protracted period because once the parents visit at least once per year then it’s an indication that they are interested in the child and the child cannot therefore be adopted,” she said.

Holness argued that these children are then housed until they reach the age of 18 after which they are thrust out into the society as adults. “It’s a serious concern for me, and it pains my heart. I know many persons who would love to adopt, and it is such a challenge,” she remarked,

Her colleague, who represents Trelawny Southern, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, also spoke of two cases where she said the biological parents had consented to the adoption and the matter had gone through the local courts, but the adoption process had not advanced.

“The child is still in deplorable conditions… I’ve taken it to every level that I can, and the child is just sitting there… the children are left behind in deplorable conditions because there is nobody to champion their rights for the adoption to go through,” Dalrymple -Philibert lamented.

At the same time the Trelawny Southern MP expressed strong scepticism about the benefits of Jamaica’s multi-agency approach to child care and protection.

“It seems that as we have advanced and created more agencies and commissions… when you have all these different agencies and you sectionalise them, really at the end of the day, what are the results that we are getting? Are we, as we spend more and create more, getting less for what we are doing?” she asked.

Gordon Harrison, meanwhile, sought to impress upon the committee that the OCA and the Child Development Agency (CDA) perform two distinctly different functions and that it is in the best interest of Jamaican children that the agencies remain separated.

“The CDA deals with daily operational investigations and the provision of day-to-day care (for children)… our investigations are to ground the carrying on of legal proceedings based on what we find as a result of what our investigators do — is there anybody who is culpable or whom we should be seeking to institute civil proceedings against to recover something because of the bridging of this particular child’s right,” Gordon Harrison explained.