Feature
International adoptions: an update
by Rupert Wolfe-Murray
November 2005
Recent Statements on International Adoptions:
The following statements have not been published, in full, in the Romanian media to date, although extracts of the Helsinki Commission statement was reproduced in the Bucharest based press. The Helsinki Commission is a pro-adoption lobby group in the US Congress and is made up of Congressmen and representatives of various government bodies. In September it invited American parents who want to adopt internationally and together assessed Romania’s position on the issue. They issued the following press release:
HELSINKI COMMISSION MEMBERS BLAST ROMANIA ADOPTION POLICIES, CALL FOR IMMEDIATE REFORM
(Washington DC, 15th September) - Members of the US Helsinki Commission
criticized Romania’s ban on international adoptions in a hearing held
today. Entitled, “In the Best Interests of the Children? Romania’s
Ban on Inter-Country Adoption,” the hearing focused on Romania’s
recent implementation of a law prohibiting inter-country adoptions which
has blocked over 200 Americans from taking custody of children that they
were qualified to adopt.
“The Romanian Government was told by the European Union
to ban inter-country adoptions as the price for membership, and they capitulated.
That the EU should demand such a policy is appalling. That the Romanians
should accept it is equally troubling.” said Commission Chairman Senator
Sam Brownback (R-KS). “Romania has denied thousands of children a
loving home and a caring family, and the EU is at fault for letting politics
get in the way of helping children.”
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the
Helsinki Commission, is a US Government agency that monitors progress in
the implementation of the provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords. The Commission
consists of nine members from the United States Senate, nine from the House
of Representatives, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense
and Commerce.
“The law is based upon the misguided proposition that
an institution, or even a foster family, is preferable to an adoptive family
from outside the child’s country of birth,” said Commission
Co-Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). “Each year, 1,000 children are
adopted domestically while 8,000 children in Romania are being sentenced
to a life without knowing family or a parent’s love. This is undeniably
a human rights abuse.”
Prior to enactment of the 2004 anti-adoption law, approximately 1,700 adoption
cases were pending with the Romanian Government. Of these, 200 children
have been matched with adoptive parents in the United States, and the remainder
with parents in Western Europe. Currently, despite promises from the Romanian
Government, including President Basescu, none of these “pipeline cases”
have been resolved.
“This new Romanian law could very well harm the safety of children. My heart goes out to the children and families who have been caught up in this troubling new law,” said Commission Ranking Member, Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD).
“You can be sympathetic with Romania’s need to join the European Union and still recognize that these adoption laws are deeply damaging to the lives of thousands of children,” added Senator Brownback. “There has to be a better and more humane way to deal with this problem and I urge the EU and Romania to sit down and take seriously the fate of thousands of innocent children and loving families.”
In
response to the press release from the Helsinki Commission, Theodora Bertzi,
(pictured at right) who is Secretary of State at the Romanian Office for
Adoptions, provided Vivid with the following exclusive statement:
ROMANIAN OFFICE FOR ADOPTIONS
(Bucharest) A public declaration was made on the 15th September 2005 by
the US Congress’s Helsinki Commission concerning Romania’s policy
on international adoptions.
In order to clarify Romania’s legislation on international adoptions
and child rights, Theodora Bertzi, Secretary of State at the Romanian Office
for Adoptions made the following declaration:
“We would like to thank the Helsinki Commission for the opportunity of presenting our current policy on international adoptions, as well as our position on child rights. We have the impression that our motives – the best interest of the child and respecting the legal framework – have not been understood by your commission.
We regret the fact that several hundred American families have been unsuccessful in adopting children from Romania, but all of the so called “pipeline cases” in the US were registered after the moratorium on international adoptions came into effect in 2001. In other words, none of these cases were officially approved in Romania. In addition, we consider it an abuse of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child that Romanian children were selected for adoption prior to official approval, on the basis of photographs and videos provided by adoption agencies.
Several of the statements made by the Helsinki Committee are factually incorrect and we would like to clarify the situation with regard to Romanian legislation about child protection and adoption.
It is wrong to say that the EU forced Romania to ban international adoptions as a condition for EU entry. Indeed, neither the EU nor Romania has an „anti-adoption” policy of any description. However, the system of international adoption that was operating in Romania prior to the moratorium in 2001 was widely criticised as being corrupt and against the best interest of the child. We have to admit that our institutions were not strong enough to resist the considerable financial incentives that international adoption agencies can offer.
The Helsinki Commission is misguided in its statement that the new law on child rights ‚is based upon the misguided propostion that an institution, or even a foster family, is preferable to an adoptive family from outside the child’s country of birth’.
Thanks in part to the support received from the US government, as well as the EU, Romania has made considerable progress in de-institutionalising its child care system. The number of children in residential care has fallen from over 100,000 ten years ago to approximately 32,000 today. In addition, it is now illegal to send a child under two into an institution (children at risk must be placed with a foster family or with a relative).
The Commission also states that Romania’s child rights law is an “anti-adoption law”. Nothing could be further from the truth and national adoptions are now unrestricted, and encouraged. Romania’s legislation is, in fact, a reinforcement of the rights and responsibilities of natural parents.
Under the previous legislation it was very easy to break up families, and local officials had every incentive to declare children abandoned and make them available for international adoption.
The current law gives the natural family, as well as the extended family, the opportunity to think twice about their decision to make their child available for adoption. The new law also obliges local authorities to make financial and other resources available to families which struggle to sustain their natural families – thus addressing the principle cause of child abandonment (poverty). Only after it has been established that the natural and extended families are unable to take the child can the adoption procedures start.