Below is a clear, concise breakdown of how adoptee rights are handled across key countries, and why Scotland’s position must change:

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✅ United Kingdom (incl. Scotland)

• ✔️ Signatory to ICCPR and ECHR

• ❌ UNCRC not yet fully incorporated (Scotland attempted but amendments required)

Relevant Rights:

• Article 16 – Recognition before the law

• Article 17 – Protection from interference with identity

• Article 24 – Children’s rights to identity

🔎 These rights are enforceable in the UK. SAAM’s legal action is grounded in them.

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United Kingdom – Broken Down by Nation

Scotland

• ✔️ Signatory to ICCPR and ECHR

• ⚠️ Adoption law devolved since 1997

• ❌ UNCRC not yet fully incorporated (2021 legislation passed, amendments required)

• ✔️ Short form birth certificates issued, drawn from the Adopted Children Register

• ❌ No legal requirement to inform adoptees of their adopted status

Implications:
Scotland’s continued use of undisclosed short form certificates undermines the right to identity under the ICCPR and ECHR. Although adoption law is devolved, these practices originated under UK jurisdiction and remain subject to UK-wide human rights obligations.

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England & Wales

• ✔️ Signatories to ICCPR and ECHR

• ❌ UNCRC not fully incorporated

• ✔️ Adoption law is not devolved (remains under Westminster control)

• ⚠️ Short form certificates and similar undisclosed adoption documents appear to be in use

• ❌ No legal requirement to inform adoptees of their adopted status

Implications:
There is growing concern that identity substitution through short form or amended certificates mirrors Scotland’s practices. As adoption remains a Westminster responsibility for England & Wales, the UK Government holds direct responsibility for any breaches of international human rights.

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Northern Ireland

• ✔️ Signatory to ICCPR and ECHR

• ❌ UNCRC not fully incorporated

• ✔️ Adoption law is partially devolved but remains tightly aligned with Westminster legislation

• ⚠️ Document practices require further investigation — concerns have been raised about undisclosed identity substitution similar to other UK nations

• ❌ No clear legal requirement to inform adoptees of their adopted status

Implications:
As part of the UK, Northern Ireland falls under the same international obligations. Document manipulation or concealment in adoption practices may constitute a breach of the ICCPR and ECHR, regardless of devolved policy nuances.

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🌍 Other Key Countries (Selected Summary)

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🇮🇪 Ireland

• ✔️ Full access to birth records since 2022 reform

• ✔️ Adoptees entitled to original birth certificate

• ❌ No formal duty to inform of adoption status

• ✔️ Bound by ICCPR, UNCRC, and ECHR

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🇪🇺 European Union & Council of Europe States

• ✔️ Most are signatories to UNCRC and ICCPR

• ✔️ Bound by ECHR (access to European Court of Human Rights)

Key Grounds for Action:

• Article 8 ECHR – Right to private and family life (includes identity)

• Articles 16 & 17 ICCPR – Recognition and identity protection

🔎 SAAM is building a country-by-country comparison to support future legal escalation through European courts.

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🇦🇺 Australia

• ✔️ Ratified UNCRC and ICCPR

• ❌ Not fully incorporated domestically

• ⚠️ Amended birth certificates in use, state-by-state reform varies

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🇸🇪 Sweden

• ✔️ Preserves original birth certificates

• ✔️ Legal duty to inform adoptees

• ✔️ Strong transparency and access rights

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🇺🇸 United States – A Unique but Isolated Legal Position

The United States has a long and complex history of closed adoption systems, with most states still issuing sealed, amended birth certificates to adopted individuals. In these states, the original birth record is replaced, access to identity information is restricted, and adoptees often grow up without knowledge of their origins.

However, it is important to understand that:

✔️ The United States has signed but not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) — making it the only UN member to hold back.
✔️ While the U.S. has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), it has placed significant legal reservations on enforcement. U.S. courts do not treat UN treaties as directly enforceable without specific domestic legislation.
✔️ Adoption law in the U.S. is state-based, with wide variation and no consistent, nationwide right to identity or access to original records.
✔️ There is no binding international legal mechanism that allows U.S. adoptees to challenge these practices through the United Nations or the European Court of Human Rights.

What This Means in Practice:

• American adoptee advocacy often focuses on state law reform, personal storytelling, and policy change, rather than international legal action.

• Many American adoptees are unaware that, in other countries, international human rights frameworks create stronger legal pathways to challenge sealed records and identity falsification.

• While the U.S. experience shares similarities with the UK in terms of sealed records and identity suppression, the legal tools and routes for challenging these practices are fundamentally different.

At SAAM, we recognise the shared struggles faced by adoptees across the U.S., the UK, and globally. But our campaign is rooted in the legal mechanisms available to us in Scotland, the UK, and Europe, where:

✔️ The UK is fully bound by the ICCPR,
✔️ The UK and Ireland are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights,
✔️ Legal action can be pursued through domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.

We stand with adoptees in the U.S. calling for truth, access, and identity rights — while also working within the legal frameworks that apply to Scotland and the UK.

 

​​🌏 Asia (Brief Overview)

• Wide legal variation

• Many countries are not full participants in UN human rights treaties

• Low transparency in adoption systems

Starting points for future study:

• South Korea, India, Philippines – known for international adoption scrutiny