Edinburgh Napier University

  Nepal has experienced an increase in intercountry adoption in recent years. Following the opening up of authorisation to arrange adoptions, the number of child centres offering children for adoption significantly increased after 2000. The emergence in the 1990s of new ‘sender’ countries, such as India and, more recently, Nepal and the troubling absence of well-implemented and enforced regulations on intercountry adoptions in and by sending countries is the focus of this chapter. It examines how India and Nepal interpret and apply Article 3. India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in December 1992 and has experienced significant political and economic changes, including its population exceeding one billion. After ratifying the UNCRC, Nepal experienced a debilitating civil war between 1996 and 2006 and continues to suffer from political instability. Underpinning this chapter is discussion of the extent to which the state can regulate intercountry adoption effectively. It is important to note that the chapter does not focus on the highly contentious issue of whether intercountry adoption contributes to the welfare of the child or increases their suffering. In looking at intercountry adoption from Nepal and India domestic adoption will be discussed for it is the preferred approach under the UNCRC and the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption 1993.