Forced adoption

Justices: Endresen, Noer, Bergsjø, Ringnes, Thyness

The County Social Welfare Board had made a care order for a boy, who is now six and half years old, and consented to his foster parents adopting him, see section 4-20 of the Child Welfare Act. During his two first years, the boy had lived partially with his parents under difficult conditions and partly in emergency shelters. After a thorough review of case law from the ECtHR and from the Supreme Court itself, the Supreme Court concluded like the lower courts that it was in the child's best interests to be adopted by his foster parents. The Court stated that adoption would provide considerable advantages to the boy, who was in a good and stable situation in a well-functioning foster family who wanted to adopt him. Because of his difficult background with a violent father and mother who was not able to care for him properly, he was in urgent need of calm and stability. He himself wanted to be adopted. The biological bonds to his parents were of less importance in a case like the one at hand, and for his future connection to the culture of his homeland, it did not matter whether he was adopted or remained a foster child.