Adoption and Human Rights

In Re B (Minor: Adoption Order) CA TLR 23 March

A parent who opposed the grant of an adoption order to his child’s foster parents could not be described as unreasonable when both the guardian ad litem and an experienced child psychiatrist both considered it would not be appropriate to make the order. Although the child had thrived in foster care, he had also maintained an excellent relationship with his natural father and his father’s family. An adoption order could not lawfully be made without treating the father’s objections as unreasonable and in making such an order the judge had given insufficient weight to the father’s right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.