- 88 - (ii) The use of the financial situation of the Ramírez family as justification to remove the children from their biological family The CICIG underscored that, even though international protection standards concerning the rights of the child indicate that “the lack of financial resources should not be the principal reason for giving up a child in adoption,” “most of the socioeconomic studies examined based their favorable opinion on the fact that the mother ‘did not have sufficient financial resources.’” CICIG, Report on irregular adoptions in Guatemala, p. 41 (evidence file, folio 3038). Similarly, expert witness Jaime Tecú pointed out that, “in several cases, the studies prepared by the Attorney General’s Office did not promote the defense of the children; rather they examined the families’ lack of resources and, on that basis, issued a favorable opinion for many of the adoptions because the studies conducted were socioeconomic studies that underlined the families’ poverty, and their inability to cope with maternity or paternity, and this authorized the judicial rulings on abandonment.” Expert opinion provided by Jaime Tecú during the public hearing held before this Court. 474 Cf. IACHR, Fifth Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala, April 6, 2001, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.111, Doc. 21 rev., chap. XII, para. 40. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children noted that “[i]gnorant of the law, these fearful mothers often painfully give up the fight and assume that nothing can be done to help them because they are poor.” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on her July 1999 visit to Guatemala, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2000/73/Add.2, para. 35 (evidence file, folio 2734). 475 476 50). Social study of Flor Escobar Carrera prepared by the Attorney General’s Office on May 7, 1997 (evidence file, folio Social study prepared by the Niños de Guatemala social worker on May 4, 1997 (evidence file, folios 4316 and 4317). 477