SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2012

PEAR Ethics Alert and Cautionary Statement on Adoptions from Democratic Republic of Congo

PEAR Ethics Alert and Cautionary Statement on Adoptions from Democratic Republic of Congo

PEAR has received a number of reports from adopting families and NGOs on the ground in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) regarding unethical conduct by adoption agencies, adopting families, local facilitators/attorneys, orphanage personnel, and officials in the DRC. These reports have come to us over the past year via informal notifications (individual emails, adoption chats, facebook postings), agency website information, blogs, media, NGO reports, US Department of State and Embassy communications, and direct communications with adopting parents and NGOs working with families and children on the ground in the DRC.

Due to the seriousness of these reports, the rapidly increasing interest in adoption from this country, and the continuing abuses of the process in the DRC, it is PEAR’s recommendation that families do not initiate new adoption applications at this time. We also recommend that those families currently in process either switch to another program, consider sponsoring a child, or, at a minimum, exercise extreme caution in pursuing adoption from DRC. We encourage families who have recently completed or are currently in process to:

Russian Deputy Proposes Amendment To Adoption Ban Law

Topic: US Adoption Ban

Robert Shlegel

© RIA Novosti. Vladimir Fedorenko

04:18 29/12/2012

Tags: Magnitsky Act, adoption ban, US State Department, Public Opinion Foundation, Russian Federation Council, State Duma, United Russia, Dima Yakovlev, Robert Shlegel, Barack Obama, Sergei Lavrov, Vladimir Putin, Russia

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• Adoption Ban Denies Disabled Kids a New Start: US Families
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• Majority of Russians Back US Adoption Ban - Poll

MOSCOW, December 29 (RIA Novosti) - A deputy from Russia’s ruling United Russia party, Robert Shlegel, has submitted to the State Duma an amendment to a controversial law banning adoption of Russian children by American families to try to make exceptions for disabled children, Shlegel wrote on his Twitter microblog on Friday.

Shlegel said he decided to submit the amendment to the lower house of parliament because a total adoption ban would mean some disabled children might be unable to find their family.

Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the adoption ban law on Friday, the US State Department called the measure “politically motivated.”

“We deeply regret Russia’s passage of a law ending inter-country adoptions between the United States and Russia,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Friday. “The Russian government’s politically motivated decision will reduce adoption possibilities for children who are now under institutional care.”

The adoption ban is part of Russia’s response to the US Magnitsky Act, which was signed into law by US President Barack Obama earlier this month. The Russian public has been largely supportive of the bill, with 56 percent of respondents in an opinion poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) saying they backed a ban on US nationals adopting Russian children.

The Magnitsky Act calls for US travel and financial sanctions against Russian citizens deemed by the American government to have violated human rights. It is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblowing Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow pre-trial detention center in 2009 after accusing officials of being involved in a multi-million dollar tax fraud scheme.

Critics of the adoption ban said it would keep tens of thousands of children, especially those with disabilities, in Russia’s orphanage system. Figures from the US State Department show more than 60,000 Russian children adopted by American families in the last 20 years, including 962 last year.

Russian officials blame US adoptive parents for the deaths of at least 19 of those children. The adoption ban is named for Dima Yakovlev (Chase Harrison), a Russian toddler who died of heatstroke in 2008 after his American adoptive father left him in an overheated car for hours.

The ban goes into effect on January 1, halting the adoption of 46 Russian children by US families whose cases are currently being processed.

A number of Russian ministers, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have criticized the bill, which was approved by the State Duma - the lower house of parliament - on December 21 and by the Federation Council - the upper house - on Wednesday.

While the adoption ban is the most controversial aspect of the proposed legislation, the bill puts forward other retaliatory measures as well, such as banning alleged US abusers of Russian citizens’ rights from entering Russia and freezing any assets they may have there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signs bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children

Putin inks controversial bill less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament. Critics wail that the measure turns innocent children into victims for the sole purpose of making a political point. Roughly 740,000 children await adoption in Russia.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012, 5:55 AM

The law Russian President Vladimir Putin signed also blocks dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country.

China: Child Trafficking Sweep Rescues 89

13:06, December 28, 2012

Police in China broke up nine child trafficking rings this week in a sting operation, rescuing 89 children and arresting 355 suspects, the Ministry of Public Security announced Monday.

In the past two and a half years, some 54,000 children have been rescued from traffickers in China, according to government statistics. The children are usually boys, who are sold on the black market and then purchased domestically by families desperate for a male heir.

Chinese media have reported regularly on break up of child-trafficking rings for at least ten years, but the overall numbers are an area of dispute. Security officials tend to report abductions in the range of 30,000 to 60,000, while non-governmental advocates claim the numbers are much greater, as high as 200,000 annually.

Russian President outlined the priorities of state policy for the protection of orphans and children without parental care

Presidential Decree of 28.12.2012 N 1688 "On some measures to implement the state policy in the sphere of protection of orphans and children left without parental care"

With the entry into force on 1 January 2013 of the Federal Law "On Measures against persons involved in violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation", as well as to improve public policy to protect the rights of children, the Government RF is required before February 15, 2013 to take decisions to ensure, in particular:

create mechanisms to support Russian citizens intending to adopt (adopt), take care (guardianship, patronage) orphans and children without parental care and families caring for foster children;

simplification of procedures for the transfer to the adoption (adoption), custody (guardianship, patronage), providing in particular, reduction of requirements to the standard in the area of ??the dwelling unit for children in foster care, reducing the list submitted by the citizens of the Russian Federation to the authorities the documents and longer their actions;

Civil activists urge President not to sign “corrupt” draft resolution on accreditation of international adoption agencies

27/12-2012 09:14, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency , by Anastasia BENGARD

Civil activists urge the President of Kyrgyzstan not to sign “corrupt” resolution” on accreditation of international adoption agencies, League of Child Rights Defenders non-governmental organization reported.

According to the foundation, the Ministry of Social Development of Kyrgyzstan ignores request of the civil society to eliminate possibility of corruption in accreditation. “The department is sheltering itself behind NGOs and their formal invitation. At that, officials are triggering conflict of interests by inviting representatives of foreign organizations, accreditation claimants, for discussion of that document,” the report said.

The Coalition of Civil Initiatives for reform of social security and the Anti-corruption Business Council call on the President and the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan to “protect children, eliminate possibility of child trafficking by stopping promotion of the corrupt resolution and not signing the document”.

Pavel Astakhov - "KP", "Dima Yakovlev was not an orphan, but it has already been shown to Americans!" Comments: 148

Our reporter got through to the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights

An audit of how the adoption process came Dima Yakovlev, whose name is informally called scandalous law, suddenly it turned out that the signature home grandmother in a document on its rejection of custody Dima - a fake! And on the basis of a "document" and the child was sent in the American family, which eventually killed him, "forgetting" the boy in the heat in a closed car.

Who exactly has falsified signatures, and how many of these cases we have - we asked the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Pavel Astakhov.

- What will happen to these officials that go to this kind of fraud, and that you are therefore going to do?

Pavel Astakhov - "KP": "Dima Yakovlev yet wasn't an orphan, and him already showed to Americans!"
2012-12-27 03:40 PM

Our correspondent phoned to the Comissioner for the President of the Russian Federation by the rights of the child

During check of that, how there was a process of adoption of Dima Yakovlev which name informally called the scandalous law, unexpectedly it became clear: the signature of the native grandmother in the document on her refusal of guardianship over Dima, - And on the basis of this “document” the child also was sent to the American family which finally and ruined it, “having forgotten” the boy on a heat in the closed car.

Who exactly went on signature falsification, and how many we asked the Comissioner for the President of the Russian Federation us similar cases - by the rights of child Pavel Astakhov.

- What will be to these officials what go on such frauds, and what you in this regard intend to undertake?

- First, in the Pskov area the crew of Investigative committee already left. I sent the address to Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin with a request to make pre-investigation inspection, and in the presence of the basis to bring criminal case against these unfair officials, I don’t know, what they level - municipal or regional.

-  Concrete surnames aren’t present?

- It is a consequence question who knows - who forged this signature… The second: one more circumstance was investigated during our investigation. Our representative found out that Dima Yakovlev acquainted with Americans, Harison’s family, at the beginning of November, 2007. And he received the status of the orphan only on December 18, 2007! That is it started showing for one and a half month before he became an orphan! You imagine: the boy at mother, her yet didn’t deprive of the parental rights, and business already went!

The third circumstance - that his sister is in Russia under guardianship. This worst violation, at us it is impossible to separate brothers and sisters. They are very serious bases for criminal case.

-  With the sister living in the Russian family, anything bad didn’t occur?

- Data on such cases weren’t and isn’t present…-  Much at us such cases it is revealed?