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UNICEF expresses strong support for the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention (POSITION)

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Title UNICEF expresses strong support for the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention

Year of publication 2010

Description (or download in PDF, if available) The Permanent Bureau welcomes the press release published on 22 July 2010 by UNICEF, in which the United Nations’ Children Fund has given its strong, explicit and unambiguous support to the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, as follows:

Statement

Organizations: The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and International Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, Unicef New York

Russia-U.S. adoption agreement to come into effect by yearend - ministry

Topic: Talks on bilateral child adoption agreement

Talks on child adoption

13:13 21/07/2010

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Most important children’s rights

A Russian-U.S. agreement on child adoption will come into effect by the end of this year, an Education Ministry department head said on Wednesday.

On July 21-23, the fourth round of Russian-U.S. adoption talks will be held in Moscow.

"We hope we will manage to iron out the remaining uncoordinated positions during these three days in order to pass the text of this agreement within the next two weeks for coordination in the U.S. and Russian federal executive bodies," the director of the Department for Education, Additional Education and Social Protection of Children at the Ministry of Education and Science, Alina Levitskaya, said.

She said the agreement would come into effect in November or at the beginning of December.

Russian Child Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov also insists that the bilateral adoption agreement should be signed as soon as possible, the ombudsman's press service said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"...Such a complicated and delicate issue as adopting children and taking them abroad can't be done without a proper legal base which a bilateral agreement should presuppose," the ombudsman said.

Astakhov also said that the number of foreign adoption agencies working in Russia should be reduced.

Russia is one of the largest sources of foreign adoptions for U.S. families, accounting for about 10% of foreign adoptions, but the issue has become controversial in recent years following several incidents involving the mistreatment of Russian children in the United States.

In early April, a 7-year-old boy was put on a plane alone to Moscow with a note from his U.S. adoptive mother, who claimed he was "psychopathic."

At least 15 children have died at the hands of their adoptive parents in the U.S. since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the issue has seen repeated calls for a ban on foreign adoptions of Russian children. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russia could freeze child adoptions by U.S. citizens until the countries sign a formal agreement regulating them.

MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti)

Countries: United States of America, Russia

Social services bosses in Leicestershire defend forced adoption cases

leicester_mercury
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Social services have forcibly adopted more than 200 children in Leicestershire in the past five years.

The figures, requested under the Freedom of Information Act by the Leicester Mercury, show the number of times that Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council have applied to the courts to have children adopted against their parents' will on welfare grounds.

Adoption by another family is the final and most drastic stage of the child protection process, and is only carried out if all other attempts to make a child's family home safe fail.

Cheriel O'Neill, the city council's head of service for children's resources, said: "Whenever a concern is raised about a child's welfare a council's ultimate aim is to keep a child with their parents, provided the environment they live in can be made safe."

Both councils say that alcohol and drug abuse are factors in many of the adoption cases, but physical, sexual or emotional abuse are also triggers for action.

Ms O'Neill said: "If a child is at risk of significant harm in their environment then a child protection conference is called."

This conference brings together agencies from across the city to put a plan in place with a child's parents to improve their welfare.

If this fails, councils can apply to take the children into care. If the council then reaches a stage at which all options for allowing the child to return home are exhausted, adoption is then looked at as a possibility.

Ms O'Neill said: "Local authorities deal with hundreds of cases every year, so it really is a tiny proportion which reach the adoption stage."

This year, 12 adoption orders have been made by the county council and a further 17 so far by the city council.

Ms O'Neill also pointed out that some parents choose to relinquish control of their children at birth. Two women have already chosen to give up their child in 2010 in the city. Parents go through counselling before making the decision, and have a period of several weeks in which to change their mind.

Countries: United Kingdom

Surrogate twins in no-mans land

Surrogate twins in no-mans land

Sumitra Deb Roy, TNN, Jul 21, 2010, 03.43am IST

MUMBAI: Two representatives from the Norwegian embassy in Delhi are making enquiries about Andras Bells surrogacy procedure in a Mumbai clinic.

We provided all the relevant documents and two to three informed consent papers that she had signed, said medical director of Bandras Rotunda Clinic Dr Gautam Allahabadia. He added that the clinic had done nothing illegal or unethical.

Embryo adoption is a well-accepted choice, and probably the only option for women who are unable to conceive naturally, said Allahabadia, one of the key members who helped frame the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) draft bill guidelines. But the guidelinesasking fertility clinics to ensure that international clients had the approval of their respective consulates to avoid visa problems for their offspringwere framed only this year, months after Bell commissioned the surrogacy.

When TOI contacted the Norwegian embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday, they refused to comment on the issue. We are working on this case, was all an official was willing to say. Bell, too, who is in Mumbai with the babies refused to talk to TOI. The Norwegian delegates also visited L H Hiranandani Hospital at Powai where the twins were born. The hospital authorities chose not to comment on the issue on the grounds that that their role was restricted to delivering the twins.

Bells children are virtually in no mans land, but the greater ethical debate is why she commissioned surrogacy when she could have just adopted a child. One reason could be that she wanted to avoid the stringent adoption laws and believed that surrogacy was an easier path, said an IVF expert. According to Allahabadia, as far as he can recall, this is the first time a Norwegian citizen has come under her countrys scanner. He said that a friend of Bell had also commissioned a surrogacy in India and returned to her country with the child, without a hitch. I always insist that my clients be updated on their countrys laws, said Allahabadia. While it is not banned in Norway, the laws limit the use of reproductive technologies in connection with surrogacy.

The two Norwegian delegates, who said that the boys may not be given citizenship, mentioned that they were open to the idea of helping Bell adopt the twins provided the surrogate was named as their mother in the birth certificate. They wanted the surrogate to be named so that Bell could adopt them from her. But the ICMR guidelines clearly states that only the clients name be listed as a parent in the birth certificate, said Allahabadia. The Indian surrogate cannot be named on the certificate.

The fate of the two boys is not known: the chances of them being listed for adoption are very high. There is no way the children can be granted citizenship as per the Indian laws. It will be difficult for Bell to prove that she is their mother in any court of law, said legal expert Amit Karkhanis. Worse, the children could end up for adoption.

Last heard, with no alternative in sight, Bell has already begun the adoption procedure.

sumitra.roy@timesgroup.com

Countries: India, Norway

Girl to visit a home she never knew

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

By MIKE BOONE, The Gazette

Some wide-angle lenses are wider than others.

Montreal filmmaker Maureen Marovitch is making a documentary about adoption in China. And she's doing it while waking up every morning in Lachine.

Countries: China, Canada

Romanian NGOs searching for a common vision

Project : Romania 21 Jul 2010

Bucharest, Romania: Romanian and international NGOs in the social sphere are trying to identify ways of collaboration to address the problems of the most vulnerable rural families. Following Terre des hommes’ invitation, specialists from the Roma Agency for Community Development “Impreuna”, AIDRom Foundation, Pestalozzi Children Foundation Switzerland and Romania, World Vision, Ovidiu Rom Association, PACT Foundation and the National Federation of NGOs acting on Child Protection gathered in Bucharest for a one day Round Table (15th of July 2010).

Although not singular, this type of initiative raised interest among the NGOs invited, as it may become an alternative strategy for answering the difficulties created by the decrease of reforming interventions the state should have implemented into the Romanian social protection system.

In spite of the different funding opportunities, the lack of strong coordination and the dissolution of some significant National Authorities (including that on Child Protection) put the Romanian civil society in a challenging position. In this delicate context, Terre des hommes may bring a partial contribution to the improvement of the segmented picture of the interventions in favour of the disadvantaged families and children in the rural areas.

The complementary action carried on at the national level in Bucharest opens a dialogue based on a concrete proposal of Model of action elaborated by Terre des hommes and presented to some significant NGOs to build a cooperative way for its planning and implementation. Its main goals of empowering the existing social system and actors from the rural communities enhanced the importance of the common contribution coming from the NGOs different field experience and competences. The meeting outlined the basis of a future common proposal that should include actions linked to social and child protection policies, risk prevention, education, social inclusion of families (especially of the Roma ones), community development and training of trainers. The researched complementarity of domains becomes therefore not only a strategy of building a significant proposal for accessing future funds, but mostly that of including child protection issues in a holistic vision addressing different problems that lead to child abuse, school abandonment, risky migration or trafficking.

Organizations: Federation of Child Protection NGOs, Romania, Terre des Hommes Romania

Countries: Romania

Fighting for the children

Fighting for the children

Iowa Native leaders protest child welfare practices

By Stephanie Woodard, Today correspondent

Story Published: Jul 20, 2010

Story Updated: Jul 16, 2010

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Native American children swept up in the Iowa child welfare system face perils ranging from loss of culture to death, according to Vicky Apala-Cuevas, Oglala Lakota, a member of the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs.

The commission, a division of the state’s department of human rights, recently met with the state’s attorney general about several issues, including the disproportionately high rate at which Indian children are taken from their parents and doled out to non-Native foster and adoptive families.

The problem occurs throughout Iowa, but the disparities are worst in the county that includes Sioux City, according to another meeting attendee, Frank LaMere, Winnebago, director of the Four Directions Community Center, a local advocacy group.

“In Woodbury County, these policies have ravaged the Native community. Indian families have been torn apart, thanks to collusion among attorneys, adoption agencies, and others. Their actions are sinister at best, criminal at worst.”

LaMere, whose organization holds the annual Memorial March to Honor Our Lost Children, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the reaction of the attorney general, Tom Miller. “We built bridges in the meeting, and the dialogue will continue.”

Apala-Cuevas was less sanguine. “The attorney general said he was on our side but that there was not a great deal he could do at this time. Apparently the Iowa and federal Indian Child Welfare Act laws have no teeth. I was very disappointed. There are penalties for illegal parking, but nothing when it comes to separating Indian children from their families.

“Our children are not up for grabs.”

Several Indian youngsters have died in foster care in recent years, with little notice in the media or among the public at large, said LaMere. In contrast, he said, the state “came unglued” in an equally tragic situation, when a white toddler was killed in a manner that social services agencies should have been able to prevent.

A pattern that an Iowa newspaper, the Quad-City Times, uncovered in a multi-article investigative report – with adoption attorneys shuttling pregnant women and then their newborns among several states to cover unethical and illegal practices – occurs within the state of Iowa as well, said LaMere.

“It appears that Native kids are moved to rural counties, where the federal and state ICWA laws are not understood or perhaps not known. Judges in those places can be persuaded to hand over our children to adoptive or foster parents. That’s not all, though. Unscrupulous attorneys and officials find even more ways to do an end-run around Iowa’s department of human services, which is on our side. We need an investigation of these practices.”

Indian children fall prey to the system for various reasons, according to Apala-Cuevas. For one, non-Native people involved in their cases may not understand the extended family and larger tribal community to which an Indian child belongs, or may choose to ignore these relationships.

Money plays a part as well. Tens of thousands of dollars in fees may be at stake for attorneys and other facilitators when an adoption occurs, according to the Quad-City Times report. Native children appear to be especially prized by prospective parents, increasing the likelihood they’ll be snapped up by a corrupt adoption agency or attorney, said Apala-Cuevas.

Assistant Attorney General Charles Phillips, who works with the state’s social services department and multiple tribes (whether or not they are resident in Iowa), pointed to the need for more Native American families with whom Indian children can be housed.

“It’s essential to place a child quickly if he or she needs to be protected, and that can run up against the need for a culturally appropriate situation. There are parts of the state in which strides have been made toward shifting children to tribal courts and tribal placements more efficiently.”

Four Directions Community Center has held gatherings for survivors, including hours of testimony from children who had been reunited with their birth families, said Apala-Cuevas. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”

On Aug. 16 and 17, the organization will hold public hearings on the issue. “We’ll talk about ICWA and the way it’s ignored in Iowa, we’ll discuss the possibility of strengthening our state law legislatively, and much more,” LaMere said. “Attorneys general in other states also need to know this is a problem. We have to protect our children, here and across the country.”

On Nov. 24, the center will hold its eighth memorial march to bring attention to the issue

Countries: United States of America

Gordon Supports Bill to Aid Adopting Families

July 20, 2010, WASHINGTON. – Today, Congressman Bart Gordon voted to simplify procedures for American families interested in adopting children from overseas.

“Many deserving American parents want to welcome an adopted child into their family but are held up by high costs and red tape,” Gordon said. “Bureaucratic headaches should never stand in the way of giving a child a loving home.”

The International Adoption Harmonization Act of 2010 would simplify the admissions vaccination documentation requirements for certain countries. The bill would also allow an adopted child to legally immigrate so long as the adoption is completed and the petition is filed before the child turns 18, rather than the current age limit of 16. Adoptions of international teenagers are not as common as adoptions of young children, but equally important, often arising from special circumstances such as when a family wishes to reunite a group of siblings.

“I’ve heard from so many Middle Tennessee families over the years who have provided loving homes to adopted children, both international and American-born,” Gordon said. “The least we can do for these families is ensure detrimental adoption policies don’t stand in their way.”
A member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, Gordon has worked throughout his time in Congress to make the adoption process easier for deserving parents. In 1994, Gordon travelled to Romania, where he visited children the country’s orphanages and met with Romanian officials in the wake of reports of inhumane conditions and restrictive regulations that prevented children from being adopted.
“In my travels in Romania, I saw haunting images of physical and emotional neglect in the country’s orphanages. Many international families wanted to adopt these children, but cumbersome adoption laws stood in the way,” Gordon said.
Gordon’s visits ultimately led Romania to ease restrictions on Americans wanting to adopt Romanian children. In 1997, Gordon also co-sponsored legislation to help foster children find their way into permanent adoption, which led to a steep increase in the number of adoptions from foster care, with 55,000 adopted in 2008 alone. Last year, Gordon sponsored the Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act to make permanent a $10,000 tax credit for expenses related to adoptions.

Countries: United States of America, Romania

Persons: Bart Gordon

O ?ANS? COPIILOR NEDORI?I, Azota POPESCU -

http://www.brasovultau.ro/

Persons: Azota Popescu

Countries: Romania

CIA to UNICEF, big aid has a very dirty secret

CIA to UNICEF, big aid has a very dirty secret
By Thomas C. Mountain
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Jul 20, 2010, 00:21

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ASMARA, Eritrea -- Former national security advisor in the Clinton White House and failed nominee to head the CIA, Anthony “Tony” Lake is now executive director of the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF.

Having a background in Western intelligence is a requirement to run a Big Aid “familia.” Every head of any of the major international aid agencies comes vetted by years of loyal service up to and including being a “made man” (or woman in today’s equal opportunity offender circles) like Tony Lake.

What are Tony Lake’s qualifications to run the number one children’s relief works in the world? Maybe his silence during the Rwandan genocide, when as national security advisor to President Clinton he admitted knowing about and “regretted” not doing something when hundreds of thousands of women and children were hacked to death in central Africa. Then there were the million and a half women and children in Eritrea who had to flee for their lives in the face of the Ethiopian invasion in 2000, something Tony Lake was intimately involved in helping instigate and direct.

Tony Lake was nominated to be the director of the CIA as a parting gift for his loyal role as consigliere in the Clinton White House, a gift taken from him when reports of corruption derailed his nomination.

War crimes, crimes against humanity and, least of all, just plain corruption, Tony Lake has done it all, even admitting to going on the payroll after leaving the White House as an agent for the Ethiopian government, they of ethnic cleansing and genocide infamy.

Tony Lake was an officer of the Obama for President campaign and resumed his role as consigliere pre-election to the president to be. He was listed as senior foreign policy advisor to Obama and was one of the last of the inner circle to be rewarded for his foresight.

From CIA to UNICEF? The charge that every person who has headed a major Western aid agency has an intelligence background has been proven time and time again. It may have taken some serious digging, some dogged investigation, but the fact remains that everyone of those supposed humanitarians that has been investigated has turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

BIg Aid was created as a nefarious tool for dirty doings in the Third World by the powers that be in the West and only trusted capos from the inner circle are allowed to plan and implement their crimes. Of course, some good works have to be done or no one would allow them into their countries. It’s only from the inside that they can be really effective in buying off or if that doesn’t work, “neutralizing” those in power.

Whether it’s the World Health Organization suppressing news of the breakthrough in malaria mortality prevention, to the World Food Program trying to destroy food security/self-sufficiency, to Tony Lake taking over UNICEF, the word to the wise is beware enemies bearing gifts. Big Aid has a very dirty secret and the whole world needs to know about it.

Stay tuned to the Online Journal for more news that the so-called free press in the West refused to cover.

Thomas C. Mountain was, in a former life, an educator, activist and alternative medicine practitioner in the USA. Email thomascmountain at yahoo.com.

Organizations: CIA Central Intelligence Agency, Unicef New York, REPORTS AND QUOTES

Persons: Anthony Lake

Topic: Talks on bilateral child adoption agreement

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