Can intercountry adoption survive the human rights turn? The legitimisation of intercountry adoption within the human rights framework: a comparative discourse analysis of Sweden and the Netherlands

Abstract

This thesis examines the changing legal and public discourse surrounding intercountry adoption in Sweden and the Netherlands, as both states initiated official inquiries into past adoption practices but ultimately reached different conclusions regarding the future of Intercountry Adoption. The thesis compares how two major receiving states, operating under the same international legal framework, including the 1993 Hague Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), construct and negotiate the legitimacy of intercountry adoption in legal and public discourse, examining the role of the best interests of the child, alongside competing understandings of child protection, family, identity and justice. Through a Comparative Discourse Analysis, the thesis examines how intercountry adoption has historically and politically been legitimised as a humanitarian child-protection measure within international Human Rights law, and how contemporary Human Rights concerns increasingly challenge that legitimacy. The findings demonstrate that both inquiries question whether intercountry adoption can on a systematic level satisfy the best interests of the child, due to recurring structural irregularities, insufficient legal certainty and unequal power relations between sending and receiving states. While both countries conclude that the historical adoption system facilitated serious Human Rights violations, they differ in their assessment of its future. The Netherlands framed these structural deficiencies as incompatible with the best interests of the child and has therefore decided to phase out intercountry adoption. Sweden, by contrast, continues to regard intercountry adoption as a legitimate child-protection measure within exceptional circumstances, if responsibility is transferred from private intermediaries to the State. The thesis thereby contributes to a more differentiated understanding of the best interests of the child within intercountry adoption under International Human Rights Law. Keywords: Intercountry adoption, Hague Adoption Convention, Best interests of the Child, ECHR Right to Family Life, Sweden, Netherlands, Adoption Ethics