Contents

1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 90

2 Defining “Orphans”.........................................................................................................................

3 The Construction of a Crisis............................................................................................................ 92

4 Guatemala: A Look Back at a Past “Orphan” Disaster................................................................... 94

5 Uganda: The Next Destination for Orphan Addicts....................................................................... 96

5.1 Abandonment, Institutionalization, and Adoption: The Ugandan Case................................ 96

5.2 Addicted to Orphans: Building the Orphan Industrial Complex.......................................... 97

6 “The Rescuers”: Cogs in the Wheel of Child Protection.............................................................. 100

7 Distortions of Truth and Practice: Child Protection System Development Thwarted.... 101

8 Another Look at Guatemala and Child Protection System Subversion.................................. 102

9 Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 103

References............................................................................................................................................ 104

Abstract

While many scholars and activists from multiple disciplines have reported on various aspects of orphan policy and the international adoption industry, there has been little synthesis of this information and its implications for global child protection. This chapter therefore puts the pieces together to argue that the misidentification of “orphans” as a category for development and humanitarian intervention has subsequently been misappropriated by many Western indi­viduals and charitable organizations.

K.E. Cheney (*)

International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands

e-mail: cheney@iss.nl

K.S. Rotabi

United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates e-mail: ksrotabi@yahoo.com

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017

C. Harker et al. (eds.), Conflict, Violence and Peace, Geographies of Children and

YoungPeople 11, DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-038-4_3 they foster the growth of an “orphan industrial complex.” In developing countries like Guatemala and Uganda whose children are targeted for “rescue,” the discourse and practice of “orphan rescue” is subsequently jeopardizing child protection and even driving the “production” of orphans as objects for particular kinds of intervention-counter to established international standards of child protection.

Keywords

International adoption • Child protection • Orphans • Humanitarian intervention • Orphan rescue • Orphan industrial complex • Guatemala • Uganda

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