The Foreign Service Journal, September 2017

52 SEPTEMBER 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the welfare of children. An estimated 8 percent of all Ugandan children are orphans, but authorities have little capacity to deal effectively with the problems and needs of this vulnerable popu- lation. As a result, Uganda’s adoption system is prone to abuse. As I continued to gather evidence and make the case for a review of the adoption process, stress built up—both in my life and in the lives of my consular staff. Working on this issue was all-consuming, exhausting and deeply frustrating, leading to ten- sions at home with my Foreign Service spouse. One of my local staff members involved in these cases contemplated quitting because of the stress. As a manager, I sometimes lost sight of other important aspects of my consular responsibilities because of the time and energy I was devoting to adoptions. I remained convinced, however, that the work we were doing—and the atten- tion we were bringing to the issue—was vitally important and could not be ignored. As consular officers, we are obligated to uphold and implement the law; and as far as we could tell, many adoptions being sought in Uganda were not entirely legal or ethical. So we had an obligation to keep pursu- ing this path, regardless of the pressure on us. A Turning Point One incident, in particular, convinced me that working “inside the system” was no longer a viable option. In late 2016, two U.S.-citizen families made the difficult decision to return the Ugandan children they had adopted. These families had made significant emotional and financial investments, trav- eled to Uganda multiple times to meet the children, and raised funds in their local communities to support their applications and meet the substantial costs of the adoption process. But the joys they had experienced on returning to the United States with their adoptive children quickly turned sour, when they discov- ered there were loving families in Uganda eagerly seeking the children’s return. The agencies involved in the adoption had purportedly falsi- fied the paperwork to make it appear the children had no family to care for them. The adoptive families were unaware of this fact, and the children themselves were too young to understand that their move to the United States was permanent. The decision to return the children was emotionally devas- One incident, in particular, convincedme that working “inside the system”was no longer a viable option. tating for the adoptive parents. After meeting with one of the parents, I knew that the intercountry adoption system in Uganda was fundamentally broken, and our system to safeguard the process was not working. The only solution I saw that could prevent similar tragedies from occurring to other families was to suspend intercountry adoptions—a position the department simply did not support. To save these families, I would have to dissent, formally. Fortunately, I found much-needed support for the recom- mendation to suspend intercountry adoption in my own front office. At the ambassador’s request, I documented our findings as thoroughly and dispassionately as possible. Ultimately, we dispatched nearly two dozen cables back to Washington laying out our arguments with clear evidence. Because I could express my dissent through regular channels, in particular the comment portions of the cable, I did not have to use the Dissent Channel. And while the department has not yet fully accepted our recommendations, they have taken steps in the right direction. I am com- forted by the fact that I stood on principle and made these issues known more widely. What gives me hope is the fact that the State Department has taken some meaningful actions to correct these problems. Earlier this year, State took the unprecedented step of debarring an American adoption agency, one that had been facilitating adoptions worldwide for many years, including in Uganda. This was a true watershed moment in our efforts to eliminate the system’s abuses. Moreover, thanks to stronger fraud warnings, families are more willing to wait out the process as we conduct thorough investigations of each case. Indeed, some families have even withdrawn their adoption petitions after our investigators discovered evidence of fraud. The Emotional Aspect of Dissent On reflection, what strikes me most about this entire dissent experience is the emotional aspect of the process. As Foreign Service officers, we care deeply about the work we do—whether it is promoting human rights, advocating for environmental pro- tections, or protecting refugees and vulnerable populations. And with such work come strong emotions—especially in the case of adoptions, where you can immediately see the benefits of your