The global conversation on human rights has become a fight over children in Russia.
Earlier this month, Congress passed the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights act, legislation that aims to hold Russian officials accountable for human rights violations in U.S. Courts. The passage of that law this month has produced a counterstrike in Russia. Now Russian president Vladimir Putin says he will sign into a law a bill that would ban the American adoptions of Russian children.
What are the concerns — both legitimate and not — that led to this proposed ban? Is it a human rights ban? Or is it political? And if it’s signed into law, what will happen to Russia’s waiting children?
Alexander D’Jamoos was born in Penza, Russia and grew up in an orphanage for children with disabilities. At age 16, he was adopted by an American family and moved from Russia to Texas. Now, he works actively to help other Russian children with disabilities get adopted. David Smolin is Director of the Center for Children, Law and Ethics at Samford University in Birmingham Alabama; a law professor at Cumberland Law School; and the father of two children, both adopted from India.