High Court to give clearance before child adoption – Minister

Persons seeking to adopt children in Ghana will soon be required resort to the High Courts for clearance.

This is because the Children’s Amendment Bill currently before Parliament makes the clearance mandatory.

The Bill, which aims to protect adopted children both home and abroad, spells out conditions under which the adoption process can be reversed.

The new amendment will also see the introduction of age limits as well as in-country adoption and foster care to prevent children from being put in foster homes, which affect them negatively.

Deputy Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Della Sowah told Citi News, the amendments are meant to protect the interest of children in the country.

“The amendments are aimed to make us compliant so that we seek in everything the best interest of the Children. Sometimes Children adopted and trafficked and other things and so we have to protect their interest and make sure that if somebody comes to adopt a child, he or she is adopting the child for the purpose that they intended to adopt the Children.”

She lamented that there has been instances where persons who adopt children are unable to take proper care of them due to financial constraints and ultimately not giving the children the best of care.

She said with the amendment completed, adopted children can be guaranteed proper care.

She noted that “We want to ensure that those coming for adoption are capable of looking after the children hitherto, any district court can grant the adoption of a child but now it has to be by a high court.”

She also revealed that “there will be the creation of a central adoption authority and they will review all adoptions and will operate at the district, regional and national level” to ensure this.

’85 orphanages closed down’

Government last year closed down some eighty-five orphanages in parts of the country over their inability to meet the standards of the Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The affected homes were operating under poor conditions, having a high number of children per care-giver, operating below standards and offering poor nutrition and health care.

 

By: Duke Mensah Opoku & Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana