Dublin mother to appeal French adoption ruling

A Dublin mother seeking to reclaim a baby girl she gave up for adoption in France two years ago has pledged to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights after a French court rejected her custody attempt.

The 37-year-old woman had been granted a court order in Lille last year to retract her written abandonment of the girl in February 2002, and take custody of the child from the family in which it had been placed.

However, the Cour de Cassation - France's highest appeals court - has overturned the ruling, it was revealed yesterday.

The court adjudicated that the legal limit of two months for revoking an adoption decision had passed.

Describing the verdict yesterday as "abominable" and "without legal basis", the woman vowed to take her fight for custody to Europe.

Her Paris-based lawyer, Mr Thomas Haas, said his client had grounds for arguing that she did not receive a fair hearing and that her case was handled "very curiously" by French officials.

"Essentially, this is about working out whether the French system of births under 'X' is compatible with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, such as the right to family life and the right of a child to know where it came from."

He said his client "feels like she has been the victim of institutionalised kidnapping".

The baby was born in France on February 18th, 2002, with a birth certificate designating her parents as 'X' - a French legal term for persons unknown. The baby was the result of an extramarital affair the woman had.

Her decision to travel to France was based on the understanding that legislation there allowed her to reclaim the child up to six months after giving her up for adoption.

However, when she returned to the country to seek to be reunited with the child, she was told the deadline for such an application was just two months after her initial decision.

A provincial court ruled last September that the woman's consent to making the child a ward of court had been undermined by "ambiguous information" and a lack of knowledge of French.

The court awarded the woman a custody order. But a regional officer subsequently lodged an appeal against this decision because he believed removing the child from the French family which had adopted it was "an extremely delicate matter".

The foster family had given the child "all the care and benefits that were necessary", he added.

The appeal court's ruling, which cannot be further appealed in France, was communicated to the woman last week but was only made public yesterday.