Ethica Statement on Guatemalan Adoption Changes
On September 25, 2007 the U.S. Department of State issued an advisory urging American citizens not to begin Guatemalan adoptions at this time. Guatemala has stated that it will become compliant to the standards of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption on January 1, 2008 and does not plan on processing adoption cases for any country that is not a Hague country on that date. While the Convention does not require any such action, countries are free to implement the Convention as they choose. The U.S. will not be a Hague country until the Convention enters into force in late spring, 2008. Currently there are over 3,000 adoptions in process which might not be completed by the end of the year. Guatemala has indicated it will not complete these adoptions.
Ethica strongly supports the processing of pending cases to completion, where the Guatemalan and U.S. governments have considered all relevant facts and have approved the cases as being in conformance with currently existing adoption law. Failure to do so could result in thousands of children being caught in legal limbo; relinquished for adoption but unable to join adoptive families. Consigning these children to institutions would result in harming them while trying to protect them. This is a nonsensical result that Ethica believes is contrary to existing best practice. Read More Here