Formal monitoring of the operation of the HC is entrusted to a “Special

Commission” which comprises of all Contracting States. It has so far met three
times, in 2000, 2005 and most recently in June 2010. The recommendations it
makes are advisory in nature.
There are various other regional instruments as well that protect and promote
children’s rights, particularly in matters of adoption, these are European
Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights (ECECR), European Convention
on the Adoption of Children 1967 and Inter-American Convention on Conflict of
Laws Concerning the Adoption of Minors 1984.
Adoptions from non-Hague countries
Despite the ever-growing number of countries that have ratified it, the majority of
inter-country adoptions still take place outside this framework.
Non-Hague countries whose adoption procedures continue to be subject to less
stringent conditions may well be more open to allowing growing numbers of their
children to be adopted abroad: for example, ICAs from Ethiopia continued to grow
substantially throughout the past decade, from a few hundred per year at the start to
over 4,000 in 2009.
Non-Hague countries therefore tend to be relatively attractive partners for inter-
country adoption. If this turns out to result in ever-increasing pressure on those
countries to institute or further develop inter-country adoption to “compensate”
for