Il/legal Inter-country Adoption between Sri Lanka and Switzerland: An Analysis of the International Human Rights and Politics of Colonialism

Il/legal Inter-country Adoption between Sri Lanka and Switzerland: An Analysis of the International Human Rights and Politics of Colonialism K.L.Surangika Jayarathne University of Bern,Institute of Geography, Switzerland surangika.karandanalekamlage@students.unibe.ch Abstract During the 1980s, 11,000 infants were adopted from Sri Lanka by European couples – 750 alone by Swiss couples(Langley, 2019). Poverty, the force of colonialism, lacking knowledge about and limited access to contraceptives, and strict national abortion laws in Sri Lanka had turned the country into a hotspot for inter-country adoption (ICA). In 2018, the government of Sri Lanka acknowledged that some babies adopted by foreigners in the 1980s were likely either bought or stolen from their biological parents (BBC Asia, 2018). Due to the high number of intercountry adoption, in 1993 a new legal regime on intercountry adoption was formed.1993 Hague Convention on Protection and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption was introduced to design an international framework for intercountry adoption and safeguard children in the intercountry adoption. However, the discussion on intercountry adoption within the international human rights agenda has been very limited. In light of the importance of international mechanisms in ensuring, promoting the human rights of internationally adopted children, this research aims to critically evaluate the loopholes in international human rights on inter-country adoption and try to understand how colonialism has shaped human rights in this regard. The archival-based methodology will be used and the theoretical framework will be based on post-colonial understanding which will be used in tandem with specific case studies to answer the research questions.