ROME (ITALPRESS) – Individuals can also adopt foreign minors in a situation of abandonment. This is what is stated in ruling No. 33, filed today, in which the Constitutional Court declared Article 29-bis, paragraph 1, of Law No. 184 of 1983 constitutionally illegitimate, in the part in which it does not include single persons among those who can adopt a foreign child residing abroad.
The Court, called upon to rule on the discipline of intercountry adoption that does not include single persons among those eligible to adopt, said that this exclusion conflicts with Articles 2 and 117(1) of the Constitution, the latter in relation to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In fact, the regulations declared unlawful disproportionately compressed the would-be parent’s interest in making himself or herself available with respect to an institution, such as adoption, inspired by a principle of social solidarity to protect the child.
“The interest in becoming parents, while not conferring a claim to adopt, is part of a person’s freedom of self-determination and must be taken into account, along with the multiple and primary interests of the child, in judging whether the choices made by the legislature are not unreasonable and not disproportionate,” the Constitutional Court points out.
The Constitutional Court, therefore, noted that “single persons are in the abstract suitable to ensure a stable and harmonious environment for the child in a state of abandonment, it being understood that it is then up to the judge to ascertain concretely the affective suitability of the would-be parent and his or her ability to educate, instruct and maintain the child. This assessment may also take into account the aspiring parent’s family network of reference.”
Highlighting the safeguards put in place to protect the child, the Court also noted that in the current legal and social context characterized by a significant reduction in adoption applications, the absolute ban imposed on single persons risks “negatively reflecting on the very effectiveness of the child’s right to be received in a stable and harmonious family environment.”
– IPA Agency Photos –
(ITALPRESS).
