Human trafficking in the framework of the international adoption system: An (un)solvable problem?

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between human trafficking and international adoption from the perspective of international (criminal) law. The article aims to indicate the specific position of international adoptions in relation to human traffic-king. To accomplish this goal, the article provides a review of relevant literature on this subject matter, including the views of authors who examined this relationship, with specific reference to current international documents in the field of human trafficking and international adoptions. The inadequate international documents on this matter and the authors' insufficent commitment to exploring this issue more thoroughly have generated different and often contradictory standpoints, and ultimately resulted in diverse and fairly liberal interpretation of certain international law provisions. The literature review allows us to observe the diversity of those views and the lack of common agreement among the authors, particularly on the basic concepts, which is one of the major hindrances in exploring this relationship. In the end, the author of this article suggest that an adequate solution may be the re-examination and reform of international law in the area of human trafficking and international adoptions, which would entail amending and supplementing the existing provisions or regulating illicit intercountry adoptions in a separate international document.

Keywords

• human trafficking
• intercountry adoption
• children
• international law
• reform
• disagreement