Madonna 'ecstatic' as Malawi court gives all-clear for second adoption

Published on Friday 12 June 2009 22:13

MADONNA said she was "ecstatic" after a court approved her controversial bid to adopt a second child from Malawi.

The pop star appealed after a lower court rejected her application to adopt Chifundo "Mercy" James, a four-year-old girl, in April.

The country's highest court yesterday announced its decision to allow the adoption, saying that the lower court had failed to take modern realities into account.

A statement was later released from the United States by Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's spokeswoman. It said: "I am extremely grateful for the Supreme Court's ruling on my application to adopt Mercy James. I am ecstatic... My family and I look forward to sharing our lives with her."

Welfare groups have voiced concerns over the plans. Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of international development charity EveryChild, said the latest decision was "disappointing and worrying on a number of levels".

She said: "High-profile adoptions such as this send out the wrong message.

" It is a shame that so much emphasis has been placed on a celebrity, rather than the real issue of the work being done in Malawi to support vulnerable families to stay together.

"In Malawi there is a tradition of extended families caring for children who have been orphaned and the Malawian government, with the support of international donors, must invest more in family social support and even cash benefits to help families stay together."

Development agency Plan said previously that it could not condone "whisking a single child off to a fairytale lifestyle in Hollywood".

The 50-year-old singer's lawyer, Alan Chinula, said he was arranging a passport for Mercy and was waiting to hear from Madonna about travel plans for the child.

"As her lawyer, I am happy that this has settled this contentious issue," he said.

Previously, a judge and a lawyer told reporters that Madonna did not meet a requirement that prospective parents must be resident in the country for 18 to 24 months. Her lawyers had argued that not being a resident of Malawi should not prevent her adopting a girl from the country.

Heading the pop star's legal team, Modechai Msiska said that although residence was usually a factor in adoptions of Malawian children by foreigners, it was not a requirement.

The barrister said the residence issue should be read with the country's bill of rights and international conventions on the rights of children.

The residency rule was waived in 2006 when the star was allowed to take her adopted son, David, to London before his adoption was finalised in 2008.

The Supreme Court of Appeal said yesterday that the lower court failed to take modern realities into account in initially rejecting Madonna's application to adopt the little girl.

Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo also said that her commitment to the welfare of disadvantaged children should have been taken into account.

Madonna has two biological children, Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, aged eight.

She has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, which helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's more than one million orphans, many of whom have lost their parents to Aids.