The government has been urged by the Opposition to amend the law regulating adoptions in view of a recent court judgement. Justyne Caruana, the Opposition spokesman on family affairs, said the Constitutional Court judgement finding discrimination against married couples who wished to adopt should spur the government to amend the law.

The court found that married couples were discriminated against because they had to be married for a number of years before they could adopt.

Dr Caruana said that while this discrimination should be removed, the governemnt needed to stock take the state of play following the amendments to the law made last year. For example, the Central Authority had not been created yet, and nothing had been heard of accreditation of adoption agencies.

Furthermore, problems faced by couples who wished to adopt children from abroad needed to be addressed.

She said these couples found problems to take leave for the trips abroad which they were required to make. Support services were too limited and needed to be strengthened. Even the section on adoptions on the Appoġġ website had been down for weeks.

The right to family life was a fundamental right and childless couples should be given every opportunity to adopt, should they wish, Dr Caruana said. Children who came from families which could not support them also had a right to live in a family and adoption could fulfil this right.