Amendmends to adoption law
Amendmends to adoption law
23 April 2014 08:24
Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou is promoting amendments to a bill modernising the adoption law so as to also promote private placement adoptions. This will mean children are placed in families not just by the state.
The new law will also aim to effectively respond to children’s rights and be designed in such a way so that the state will be in a position to implement it.
Speaking at a public consultation on changes to the adoption law, Emilianidou said that the issue of adoption was extremely sensitive and needed effective legislation.
The minister made four proposals for changes to include promoting private placement adoptions, establishing an age limit for candidate adoptive parents, the provision of counselling services before, during and after the completion of the adoption process, towards the child, the candidate adoptive parents and the parents/guardians of the child for adoption.
She also proposed the establishiment of accreditation criteria for NGOs involved in the process of inter-country adoptions.
“Questions need to be answered today, and the state needs to move on to the amendment of the existing legislation in order for adoption to not just be a state issue with the placement of a child in a family only by the state,” said Emilianidou.
She also said that the state needs to find ways so that on the one hand, the state controls the process efficiently and on the other hand, that children find foster families so that they do not stay in institutions until the age of 18.
This is why the right of the initiative for adoption by interested parents should be maintained and encouraged, as currently legislation for adoption is concerned just about the rights of the child and is monitored just by the state.
The minister added that any decisions taken about the child and its rights should be taken by a committee with many members who have expertise.
Emilianidou said that she believed in the rights of children and those of adoptive parents.
One of the problems of existing legislation is the fact that adoption only takes place if it is to the benefit of the child and the process is that experts investigate whether an individual or a family are eligible to become adoptive parents.
This is because in Cyprus adoption is established by certain legal provisions covering the protection of the child and the safeguarding of the rights of the child.
She also mentioned that adoptions take place based on the Adoption Law of 1995 and the inter-country adoption law of 1994 for inter-country adoptions.
Emilianidou said that this is something that needs to change by modernising the adoption law of 2013.
A Social Welfare Services official told The Cyprus Daily that in 2013 there were 85 adoptions, 11 out of which concerned inter-country adoptions.
http://incyprus.philenews.com/en-gb/Cyprus/4170/41266/amendmends-to-adoption-law