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25 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 1 (2012)
Owning Laura Silsby's Shame: How the Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies the Western Disregard for the Integrity of Poor Families

handle is hein.journals/hhrj25 and id is 3 raw text is: Owning Laura Silsby's Shame: How the Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies the Western Disregard for the Integrity of Poor Families Shani M. King* INTRODUCTION In January 2010, an earthquake in Haiti left hundreds of thousands of people dead, injured, and displaced, and over a million homeless.' Three weeks after the earthquake, Haitian authorities arrested a group of Idaho missionaries for attempting to cross the border into the Dominican Repub- lic with 33 children, without papers or proper authorization.2 The mission- aries claimed they had the good intentions to set up an orphanage,3 but investigations showed that none of the children were orphans and that the missionaries may have been attempting to smuggle the children out of Ha- iti to be adopted internationally.4 Despite evidence of association with child * Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center on Children and Families, University of Florida Levin College of Law; J.D., Harvard Law School (1999); B.A., Brown University (1995); Mst., University of Oxford (2012). I would like to thank Adriana Camarena and Laquesha Sanders for out- standing research assistance. I would also like to thank the AALS Children and the Law Section Execu- tive Committee for choosing this Article to be presented at the 2011 AALS Annual Meeting and the International Society of Family Law for accepting this Article for presentation. I continue to be grateful to Martha Minow for her kindness and unwavering support and to Elizabeth Rowe, Dorothy Roberts, Barbara Woodhouse, Nancy Dowd, Claudia Fonseca and Gabriela Ruiz for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank Benadieu Augustin, a National Human Rights Officer at the UN Mission in Haiti, for his valuable insights. 1. RtPUBLIQUE D'HAITI, StisME 2010, BULLETIN D INFORMATION DU GOUVERNEMENT HAYTIEN 2 (2010), http://haiti.org/files/BULLETIN%2Odu%2021%20au%2023.pdf (noting the devastating im- pact of the earthquake on the Haitian population). 2. Anthony L. Hall, Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping Haitian Babies, CARIBBEAN NET NEWS, Feb. 5, 2010; Ten U.S. Missionaries Charged oer Attempt to Kidnap and Smuggle Haiti 'Orphans', MAI. ONLINE (U.K.) (Feb. 5, 2010), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248671/Ten-U-S- missionaries-charged-attempt-kidnap-smuggle-Haiti-orphans.html [hereinafter Ten U.S. Missionaries Charged). 3. NEw LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE, HAITIAN ORPHAN RESCUE MISSION, http://www.esbctwinfalls. com/clientimages/24453/pdffiles/haiti/nlcrhaitianorphanrescuemission.pdf; see also Ysabel Bilbao, Mis- sionaries' Planfor Rescued Haitian Children, IDAHO'S NEWSCHANNEL 7 (Feb. 4, 2010), http://www.ktvb. com/news/Missionaries-plan-for-orphanage-for-Haitian-children-83600197.html. 4. See Bilbao, supra note 3 (stating that the children found with the missionaries were handed over by parents who wanted them to have a better life); see also Haitian judge Weighs New Charge for Silsby, BAPTIST PRESS (Mar. 15, 2010), htrp://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32497 [hereinafter judge

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