ISS-USA’s 6th Annual Conference, The Ties That Bind: Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Children Separated From Their Families Across International Borders, will focus on the legal and human rights of children separated from their biological families across international borders. From long-standing methods including international adoption and international parental abduction, to emerging issues like international surrogacy and the movement of unaccompanied minors, the impact of denying children access to their biological families will be examined within the context of an increasingly global world. More importantly, the conference will concentrate on how legal, judicial and social service stakeholders can provide appropriate resources and share best practices to protect the safety, permanency and well-being of children.

The broader question underlying this conference is: how do we ensure that all discussions about family rights focus primarily on the rights of children? The dialogue surrounding laws, policies and case practice in the legal, judicial and social work arenas would look quite different if the central focus was placed on the rights of the child. Arguments about rights in these cases are often presented as competing interests between the biological parent’s right to privacy and the child’s right to his or her family. This conference will begin with the premise that the child’s rights are paramount.

The 6th Annual Conference will bring together experts in the fields of law, child protection, and human rights, as well as family members who have been successfully reunited.

Where:

University of Maryland
SMC Campus Center
621 West Lombard St.
Baltimore, MD 21201

When:

October 13, 2016
8:30AM-5:00PM