11/25/2025
My adoption was all about being sold into human and sexual trafficking for adults' benefit. At the time of my adoption Jamaica was not part of the Hague Convention Act where children were protected from adoptions leading to human and sexual trafficking.
"The Hague law concerning child adoption refers to the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of inter-country Adoption, an international treaty that sets standards for inter-country adoptions to ensure children's best interests are prioritized and to prevent child abduction, sale, and trafficking.
The Convention provides a legal framework and safeguards for children, birth parents, and prospective adoptive parents in adoptions between countries that are parties to the treaty. "
Since my adoption Jamaica has changed their laws drastically to protect children adopted internationally.
Information on the specific measures Jamaica had in place in 1970 to prevent children from being adopted into human trafficking is limited, primarily because dedicated anti-trafficking legislation and international protocols did not exist until decades later.
Child protection efforts in 1970 largely relied on general welfare laws of the era. Modern anti-trafficking laws, such as the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention Suppression and Punishment) Act, were not introduced in Jamaica until 2007, a date much later than the 1970s. Similarly, Jamaica only signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which became a catalyst for major modern child protection reforms, including the comprehensive Child Care and Protection Act of 2004.
In the 1970s, child welfare and adoption processes would have been governed by earlier legislation like the Children (Guardian and Custody) Act of 1957, which established legal frameworks for the custody and guardianship of children but did not contain the specific, robust anti-trafficking safeguards found in modern legislation.
The historical context suggests that the primary safeguards were general legal requirements for adoption that centered on:
Ensuring the suitability and capacity of prospective adoptive parents through government authorities or social services (the predecessor to the modern Child Protection and Family Services Agency).
Legal oversight through court processes to ensure proper consent and legal capacity of the parties involved in the adoption.
Basic checks to ensure the child's general welfare within Jamaica.
Without specific anti-trafficking laws or an explicit focus on "human trafficking" as a defined crime at the time, these measures would have provided a general level of scrutiny, but not the targeted protections against sophisticated trafficking schemes that exist today. Abuse of the legal or illegal adoption process could sometimes result in cases of child exploitation even with these general safeguards in place.
