As any anthropologist can tell you, introducing a new threat into an information-starved society inevitably results in the adoption of new superstitions as frightened individuals grasp at anything that might offer protection.
Local councils agree that the existing system for assessing would-be parents is slow and bureaucratic - but say it is vital that it remains as rigorous as possible - because the children involved are among the most vulnerable in society and a breakdown in an adoption could be catastrophic for them.
Civil society played an unprecedented role in advocating for the adoption and the ratification of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and now that the Convention has been ratified by 118 Parties, 94 of them are scheduled to submit their first periodic reports in April 2012.