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Madonna's Anti-Adoption Hearing on Hold
Madonna may have been aiming to take a cue from Angelina Jolie. Instead, the Material Girl has touched off an international incident.
Critics of Madonna's adoption were in court in Malawi on Friday to attempt to overturn her custody of a 13-month-old boy. But the case was put on hold for a week to give government officials additional time to prepare.
Judge Andrew Nyirenda rescheduled Friday's planned hearing so the nation's attorney general, Jane Ansah, could confer with Malawi's Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, the government body that oversees adoption proceedings.
Madonna's camp, meanwhile, claims to be all set for the courtroom showdown and is standing by the party line that the "Hung Up" singer and husband Guy Ritchie were held to the same standards as any prospective parents.
"We are ready for the case, but the attorney general wants to consult with the Ministry of Gender on the whole adoption process," the couple's local lawyer, Alan Chinula, told the Associated Press. "Our position is all legal aspects were followed."
The Human Rights Consultative Committee, or HRCC, a coalition of 67 Malawi-based human rights organizations that have collectively filed the suit, stresses that it's not the pop star's decision to adopt that the group takes issue with, but the apparent rule-bending by local officials allegedly giving the Ritchies preferential treatment.
"Current law bars international adoption, adoptive parents must be resident in Malawi and have to be assessed for between 18 and 24 months before the judge completes the process," HRCC lawyer Titus Mvalo told Reuters.
"We also asked the court to be part of the adoption process so that HRCC checks that no laws are flouted in the process."
The HRCC maintains that acording to Malawi law, in addition to the residency requirement, prospective parents must be monitored by social workers before they can be granted full adoption rights of a child. As it stands, the Ritchies were in and out of the country with the boy, David Banda, in just eight days.
Malawi officials, however, assert that residency is not specified in Malawi laws. The officials add that social workers abroad will continue to monitor the Ritchies for an 18-month period.
The government also suggests the challenge to Madonna's adoption is moot because the couple has not officially been granted custody of David. Malawi courts have simply approved an interim order allowing the Ritchies to bring the boy back to their London home. The actual process won't be complete until the end of the 18-month probation.
For her part, Madonna also denies that she skirted the law, issuing an open letter this week addressing the growing outcry over the adoption.
"This was not a decision or commitment that my family or I take lightly," she wrote. "My husband and I began the adoption process many months prior to our trip to Malawi.
"We have gone about the adoption procedure according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child. Reports to the contrary are totally inaccurate."
David's birth father, Yohane Banda, also blasted the HRCC's challenge. "Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage?
"These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone," the elder Banda, whose wife died shortly after giving birth to David, told the Associated Press. "As father, I have okayed this, I have no problem. The village has no problem. Who are they to cause trouble? Please let them stop."
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