3. Where no parents, legal guardians or close relatives can be found, the child shall be
accorded the same protection as any other child permanently or temporarily deprived of
his family environment for any reason.
4. The provisions of this Article apply mutatis mutandis to internally displaced children whether
through natural disaster, internal armed conflicts, civil strife, breakdown of economic and
social order or howsoever caused.
ARTICLE 24: ADOPTION
States Parties which recognize the system of adoption shall ensure that the best interest of
the child shall be the paramount consideration and they shall:
(a) establish competent authorities to determine matters of adoption and ensure that the
adoption is carried out in conformity with applicable laws and procedures and on the
basis of all relevant and reliable information, that the adoption is permissible in view of
the child’s status concerning parents, relatives and guardians and that, if necessary, the
appropriate persons concerned have given their informed consent to the adoption on the
basis of appropriate counselling;
(b) recognize that inter-country adoption in those States who have ratified or adhered to
the International Convention on the Rights of the Child or this Charter, may, as the last
resort, be considered as an alternative means of a child’s care, if the child cannot be
placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in
the child’s country of origin;
(c) ensure that the child affected by inter-country adoption enjoys safeguards and standards
equivalent to those existing in the case of national adoption;
(d) take all appropriate measures to ensure that in inter-country adoption, the placement
does not result in trafficking or improper financial gain for those who try to adopt a child;
(e) promote, where appropriate, the objectives of this Article by concluding bilateral or
multilateral arrangements or agreements, and endeavour, within this framework to
ensure that the placement of the child in another country is carried out by competent
authorities or organs;