Say YES to adoption in Mali by foreigners !

Law n° 2011-087 went into effect in Mali on December 30, 2011. This law consists of a new Persons and Families Code which has shattered the hopes of families who wish to adopt in this country. The consequences for orphanages and children will be catastrophic.

In particular, item 540 of this new law states that only couples or single persons who are Malian citizens, who do not have children or legitimate heirs, and are at least 30 years old, can adopt a Malian child.

Therefore international adoption is limited only to Malian citizens residing abroad.


However, Mali signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was established on January 9, 2006. The Convention declares that the signing states (such as Mali) “…recognize that international adoption can offer the advantage of providing a permanent family to a child, in cases where a suitable family living in the child’s country of origin has not been found…” and item 24 of the Convention states: “Recognition of the adoption can be refused by a contracting country only if it is manifestly contrary to public order, keeping in mind the highest interests of the minor.”


Thus item 540 is in contrast to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed by Mali and which it has never repealed.

In August of 2014 a judgment of the Supreme Court of Mali declared illegitimate the decision to block adoptions to foreigners and so the adoption folders that were in progress, had a chance to be concluded satisfactorily, but after adoptions are not start again, even if this would be possible.

 

Orphanages in difficulty

Mali’s public and private orphanages are too small to care for all the children who are in need. These orphanages have survived thanks to donations made by adoptive families, because the Malian government’s social aid has been so lacking and insufficient, and inexistent for the privates ones.

Children in danger

Adopting a child is an act of love, which allows the child to create a new life within a permanent family, and grow up in an environment filled with love, peace, and security. Before this law, hundreds of abandoned children and their future parents could dream about creating a family. With this law, thousands of children will remain in the orphanages, and since children can be adopted in Mali only up to 5 years of age, there are great concerns about what will happen to them after they reach 5.

With a ban on adoption by non-Malian foreigners, this law will cause the biggest human catastrophe ever in the history of this wonderful country.

 

Together we can save Mali’s orphans and bring hope to adoptive families !

 Please sign this petition; we ask that the Malian Institutions repeals or modifie item 540 of the Family Code and allows that Mali’s orphan children can dream once again of having a family, forever.