European parliamentarians break the Nicholson monopoly on international adoptions

Bucharest Daily News - 8 March 2006

In spite of the general belief among Romanians that the European Union fully supports the law banning international adoptions, Bucharest Daily News found out a significant number of EU lawmakers fight a tough battle to persuade both the European Commission and the Romanian government that such adoptions are a viable alternative for orphaned children.

Among those fighting the battle is the EP's rapporteur on Romania, Pierre Moscovici. Still, their voices remain unheard in Romania. Why there's only one voice speaking on the subject on behalf of the entire European Union, no one knows But some of the MEPs accuse Baroness Emma Nicholson, the driving force behind the ban, of carrying a personal crusade against international adoptions, following the experience she had with an Iraqi boy she took care of for years.

If one would stop every meter on the most crowded street in Bucharest to ask random people if they think Romanian orphans should be up for adoption by foreign parents, the answer they would invariably receive would be "Yes," "Why not?" and "They should be that lucky!"

¶6. (SBU) (21A continued) The assessment report of the

Ukrainian Adoption System by the International Reference

Center for the Rights of Children Deprived of their Family

and International Social Service did not find any evidence

to suggest that trafficking of children through adoption

: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:08:52 +0100 From: "Jean-Pierre CLEMENT"

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Kevin teams up with JK to Help

Children in Eastern Europe

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News

A quick word

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

John Mulligan Comments on Irish Radio Program

John Mulligan, Chairman, Focus on Romania, comments to Pat Kenny of the Irish Radio RTE Radio 1 "Today with Pat Kenny" concerning adoption in Romania. This concerns Friday's program of 2/24/06.

Dear Pat,

Your programme is usually interesting, thoughtful and balanced, but sometimes it manages not to deliver to its usually high standards. These occasional lapses are forgivable when no injustice is done to anyone, or when the victims of such unfairness have easy access to your airwaves in order to rebalance the equation. In the case of last Friday’s show however, the people who suffer most from such blatantly incorrect and unjust reporting tend to be those with no voice, hence the need to set the matter straight, if you will allow that.

Head of adoption agency knows what she's talking about Sun, Feb. 26, 2006

BY MAUREEN HOUSTON

News-Democrat

Brenda Henn didn't set out to run an adoption agency. "I was a speech therapist from the Midwest. I went to Hungary to get my child (in July 1993)." When Russian doctors (Slava Platonov and Yelena Kogan) who had emigrated to St. Louis read her adoption story in a newspaper, they wanted to do something for the orphans of Russia. The result is Small World Adoption Foundation of Missouri Inc., based in Ballwin, Mo. "When people come in our little office, they say, 'Do you have any other offices?' 'No, this is world headquarters,'" said Brenda 49, director of operations. "I have the best job in the whole world. It's the most fabulous experience. I feel like I have 1,500 to 1,600 children floating around the United States." [More...]

]

. no reference to Independent Panel

PE SANTIERELE A DOUA CASE PENTRU COPII CU HANDICAP,

Sera Romania si Gemenii din Campulung - tun de miliarde in bugetul statului

de Ionut PARVULESCU | 21 feb 2006

foto(1)

Sera Romania si Gemenii din Campulung - tun de miliarde in bugetul statului

JK Rowling backs expert in fight for Romanian children Feb 20, 2006 00:00 By Birmingham Post A Birmingham academic has teamed up with Harry Potter author JK Rowling to launch a charity improving the lives of children in care. 334 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email A Birmingham academic has teamed up with Harry Potter author JK Rowling to launch a charity improving the lives of children in care. Professor Kevin Browne, an expert on childcare and protection at the University of Birmingham, is among a team of four working for the charity Children's High Level Group. The others include Rowling, MEP Baroness Emma Nicholson and education expert Muir-John Potter. The charity was launched on the back of work Prof Browne and Baroness Nicholson have done in Romania. The two have already worked closely with the Romanian Prime Minister to reduce the number of young children in care. About 22,000 children have been put back into family-based care over the past four years, with half of them returned to their parents or relatives. Also, due to a change in the law, it is no longer possible to institutionalise children under two years old. Instead of working from the grass roots, the charity aims to continue its work with high-level officials and government representatives. The charity has received funding from the EU to repeat its work in the eight EU countries with the highest number of children under the age of five in care. These are the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Hungary. "With the celebrity status of JK Rowling and the political talent of Baroness Nicholson, I hope we will be able to target leaders of government and solve this problem," Prof Browne said. "There are many negative psychological and develop-mental effects from taking young children away from their families and not providing adequate foster care for them where they can receive one-to-one interaction. "These countries have all signed the UN Convention on the right of the child, and the Children's High Level Group hopes to help them meet their targets as part of it." The charity will also work with other countries inside and outside Europe and is already in discussions with the Prime Minister of Moldavia. Prof Browne, based at the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology, said JK Rowling "is aware of the publicity that she can attract to the charity". He added: "I am convinced that she will soon become an expert on childcare issues in her own right."

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