Latest on foreign adoptions
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Latest on foreign adoptions
13:00 Thu 22 Jan 2004 - Velina Nacheva
THE latest report by Save The Children UK says the numbers of children leaving Bulgaria annually to be adopted overseas is extremely high in comparison with other countries, including countries that are experiencing the effects of transition.
"Save The Children believes that no child should be considered for international adoption until all alternative measures have been considered, explored and discounted. "Furthermore, any decision to ultimately place the child for International adoption must be because it is demonstrably in the child's best interests to do so," the organisation said.
Robert Mangham, Country Programme Director of Save The Children in Bulgaria, said that the fact that 90 per cent of all children adopted internationally are from ethnic minorities is of great concern and the reasons behind this are far from clear.
Mangham said that of the 1119 children who were offered for adoption to families outside Bulgaria in 2002, 1 004 (90 per cent) were from ethnic minorities and most of them were Roma.
"Save the Children's main concern is that international adoption is a legitimate child welfare measure but it has got to be implemented in Bulgaria in line with the international conventions," Mangham told The Echo.
The 2002 figure of 1119 was the highest number ever, and the culmination of an overall trend of steady growth since the early 1990s. For 2003 - based on figures to August - it is expected that the number of children sent from Bulgaria will set a new record. While the increase is worrying in itself, the ethnic profile of international adoption from Bulgaria is positively alarming, the organisation said.
Despite the fact that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child and the Hague Convention both imply that international adoption should be a measure of last resort, it would appear that international adoption is not being handled in this way by Child Welfare agencies in Bulgaria. Save the Children considers that international adoption may be an appropriate child welfare measure for a small number of children if all possible in-country alternative solutions have been investigated and discounted, and if it is proven that international adoption is the only alternative to unavoidable long-term institutionalisation and its associated detrimental effects.
Save the Children said that adoption should never be used opportunistically to reduce the large number of children residing in state institutional care in Bulgaria, or resorted to as a measure to avoid addressing the underlying causes of the high rate of child
institutionalisation. The answer to reducing the institution child population can only be achieved via proper "gate keeping" and community based prevention measures, the organisation said.
"The opaque nature of the system currently governing international adoption provides opportunities for malpractice and exploitation of birth families, children and parents seeking to adopt," the report said.
There is an urgent need for harmonisation between the Child Protection Act and the Family Code to facilitate the drafting of adequate secondary legislation to guide the implementation of adoption processes. The weaknesses of the judicial system, and particularly the absence of child and family-friendly court processes, contribute to a system whereby the views and wishes of children are not fully taken into account. Furthermore, these same factors hinder legal challenges to international adoption decisions by interested parties such as parents, siblings and other relations.
Save The Children has been working in Bulgaria for seven years with the aim of ensuring that the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by the government in 1991, and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (Hague Convention) ratified in January 2002 are upheld, and that safeguards are in place to guarantee the protection of children.
"Save The Children believes that no child should be considered for international adoption until all alternative measures have been considered, explored and discounted. "Furthermore, any decision to ultimately place the child for International adoption must be because it is demonstrably in the child's best interests to do so," the organisation said.
Robert Mangham, Country Programme Director of Save The Children in Bulgaria, said that the fact that 90 per cent of all children adopted internationally are from ethnic minorities is of great concern and the reasons behind this are far from clear.
Mangham said that of the 1119 children who were offered for adoption to families outside Bulgaria in 2002, 1 004 (90 per cent) were from ethnic minorities and most of them were Roma.
"Save the Children's main concern is that international adoption is a legitimate child welfare measure but it has got to be implemented in Bulgaria in line with the international conventions," Mangham told The Echo.
The 2002 figure of 1119 was the highest number ever, and the culmination of an overall trend of steady growth since the early 1990s. For 2003 - based on figures to August - it is expected that the number of children sent from Bulgaria will set a new record. While the increase is worrying in itself, the ethnic profile of international adoption from Bulgaria is positively alarming, the organisation said.
Despite the fact that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child and the Hague Convention both imply that international adoption should be a measure of last resort, it would appear that international adoption is not being handled in this way by Child Welfare agencies in Bulgaria. Save the Children considers that international adoption may be an appropriate child welfare measure for a small number of children if all possible in-country alternative solutions have been investigated and discounted, and if it is proven that international adoption is the only alternative to unavoidable long-term institutionalisation and its associated detrimental effects.
Save the Children said that adoption should never be used opportunistically to reduce the large number of children residing in state institutional care in Bulgaria, or resorted to as a measure to avoid addressing the underlying causes of the high rate of child
institutionalisation. The answer to reducing the institution child population can only be achieved via proper "gate keeping" and community based prevention measures, the organisation said.
"The opaque nature of the system currently governing international adoption provides opportunities for malpractice and exploitation of birth families, children and parents seeking to adopt," the report said.
There is an urgent need for harmonisation between the Child Protection Act and the Family Code to facilitate the drafting of adequate secondary legislation to guide the implementation of adoption processes. The weaknesses of the judicial system, and particularly the absence of child and family-friendly court processes, contribute to a system whereby the views and wishes of children are not fully taken into account. Furthermore, these same factors hinder legal challenges to international adoption decisions by interested parties such as parents, siblings and other relations.
Save The Children has been working in Bulgaria for seven years with the aim of ensuring that the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by the government in 1991, and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (Hague Convention) ratified in January 2002 are upheld, and that safeguards are in place to guarantee the protection of children.
2004 Jan 22