By Anna Maitland

Separation from the parent is identified by UNICEF as the primary danger faced by children without caregivers. A 2004 report set the global number of children without a guardian at 143 million, with 13 million bereft of all family and the majority facing institutionalization. In 1993, the Hague Adoption Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption sought to address what was recognized as a growing global issue; yet recent international trends have limited or prohibited international adoption. A heated and often emotionally charged global debate regarding how best to address the needs of orphans, especially when confronting international, interracial adoption, poses a current challenge to former adoption models. The debate centers on the removal of children from their birth countries and cultures to place them with families in which they may not be able to form healthy concepts of racial identity and culture. The other side of the debate presents the adverse effects on children raised in institutions as a reason to prioritize placing a child with a family, regardless of nationality and ethnicity.