Washington watches adoptions in Romania

Washington watches adoptions in Romania

The US State Department is still expressing concern about the child adoption and child protection systems in Romania. This is the announcement made byMaura Harty, Under Secretary of State in the US, after the Helsinki Commission had questionings on international adoptions in Romania onWednesday. The US Embassy in Bucharest provided the information.

For a long time now the US government has been insisting so that the Romanian government would rapidly elaborate a legal and transparent system to analyze hundreds of solicitations for adoptions sent to Romanian authorities by legal means, before the new adoption law elaborated in 2004 and got to be used starting with January 1st, 2005. The latter law bans international adoptions, except for those by grandparents. Harty opined the new law was so restrictive that it only did harm to children and the families supposed to protect them. Harty outlined that there still were children living in childcare institutions, which was not at all a solution.

Harty also opined: "After much talk and years of consulting, the truth is that no real progress has been made."

The US official concluded that US would continue efforts so that "abandonedand orphaned children in Romania would have the future they deserve."

Copyright C 1998-2005 ZIUA SRL

Comments from American Congressman Christopher Smith

From: Averea Newspaper Sept. 15, 2005.

Author: Lucian Stefanescu, Prague

Adapted from an interview transmitted by Radio Free Europe

American Congressman Christopher Smith, Republican, has criticized the Romanian adoption law and its authors by saying, "The influence of Mrs. Nicholson was ill-devised. Mrs. Nicholson stopped international adoptions by abusing her position."

American Congressman Christopher Smith, co-president of the Helsinki Commission in Washington, D.C., is a vehement critic of the Romanian adoption law and of Europarliamentarian Emma Nicholson. It was Nicholson who arduously militated for the current form of the law. In an interview accorded toRadio Free Europe, the Republican Congressman declared that he was very upset with the fact that, "Mrs. Nicholson was able to exercise an influence which was so damaging to Romania by stopping inter-country adoptions."

"Every year in Romania between 8,000 and 10,000 children are abandoned. The problem of abandonment shappens all over the world, even in the United States. Families or mothers who cannot care for their children give them up for adoption and I consider this an act of altruism," declared Christopher Smith.

Referring to the accusations by Mrs. Nicholson with regard to the trafficking of children from Romania, the American Congressman said that, "The line of demarcation between trafficking of children and inter-country adoptions is quite plain. And personally, I am very disturbed that Mrs.Nicholson slanders these families from all over the world, including from the United States, from Italy and from other countries, who have lovingly adopted children and in good faith desired to rear them as their own children and to give them, in a very practical way, a permanent home."

"Honestly, I believe that Mrs. Nicholson has abused the vulnerable position in which Romania found herself in being preoccupied with entering the European Union. Mrs. Nicholson also abused her position as rapporteur from the European Parliament to Romania. She did this by stopping legitimate inter-country adoptions and by attempting to defame and blacken this process saying that it was the equivalent to child trafficking. Adoptions function well and have functioned for decades on end, whether they were internal or international. I believe that Mrs. Nicholson's prejudices against adoption and her inordinate influence over the Romanian parliament are scandalously disastrous for the children," added Christopher Smith.

When asked his opinion of the current adoption law, Congressman Smith made it clear that this law is not in agreement with the Hague Convention which was signed by Romania. "I don't like the fact that the law excludes a permanent, loving home for some children and forbids them from having a permanent family who loves them, nurtures them, and takes care of them as it should. This is what the Hague Convention, signed on to by a large number of European countries, foresees. The Hague Convention says that a country must act in the best interest of the children by finding them an adequate, permanent home. This is only human and demonstrates compassion for the children. It is totally unbelievable that Romania would turn 180 degrees from this position and adopt a draconian law which is very, very anti-adoption. They felt that they needed to do this because of the pressure that was put upon them. However, I believe that they could have opposed this pressure from Mrs. Nicholson. Our objective, as a commission, is to bring to light once again this grave mistake on Romania's part which negatively affects the children."

When asked if Romania is somehow stuck between the United States and the European Union with regards to international adoptions, Christopher Smith responded categorically,"We are acting in the best interests of the child, while the European Union is simply asking for the stoppage of inter-country adoptions. I hope that the Romanian Parliament and the leadership of Romania will recognize that these children should have first place. I further believe that international adoptions are a legitimate means to help these children to have a permanent, happy home; perhaps not all but some. To forbid this is a grave mistake. We will continue to encourage the Romanian government to stand on its own two feet and not allow her lack of courage to cause her to adopt a policy which is against the children as has happened."

Post from ProChild in Romania

9000 children a year. That is staggering. Think how many could have a good home if those European politicians had an ounce of compassion. Baronness Emma Nicholson's hatred of the U.S. and children in general has stopped all adoptions in Romania. People in Romania are not adopting these children, regardless of the lies that pour out of the EU.

Post from ProChild in Romania:

The rate of abandonment has remained the same over the last 20 years. Annually there are over 9000 children abandoned in Romania. Annually, there are an average of only 700 children adopted in Romania. The phenomenon of street children continues to be very serious. Many local CPS offices no longer have money to pay maternal assistants and so these individuals are laid off and the children returned to institutions. There is still much ethnic discrimination and discrimination against those with physical and mental handicaps. Of the 52,000 children with intellectual disabilities, only 28% receive any kind of education, etc., etc., etc. Again the same aberrations of the baroness of Munchausen appear, i.e., given the above, Romania is a european model of child protection. The lucky thing is that people don't believe it.

Article from Azi Newspaper

Author Roxana Bucata

September 14, 2005

Secretary of state Theodora Bertzi reiterates that, according to the new adoption regulations children from Romania cannot be adopted by foreigners unless they are biological grandparents, and then only if there exists no other solution in the country.

Romanian policy regarding international adoptions will be discussed today, September 14, in Washington, at the meeting of the Helsinki Commission. Romania will be represented by the ambassador to Washington, Sorin Ducaru. He will promote and sustain the point of view formulated by the Romanian office for adoptions, which is: Foreigners may not adopt children from Romania. Theodora Bertzi, head of the Romanian office for adoptions, declared for Azi newspaper that Romanian authorities respect the best interests of the child and apply the adoption legislation after consulting with experts from the European Union. The current legislation absolutely forbids adoption of a Romanian child by a foreign family, and the child can only be adopted by foreigners of those foreigners are the biological grandparents, declared Bertzi. "We are a responsible state", emphasized Bertzi, and declared that Romania "will remain firm in this position". She said that Romania will not accept even one proposal to modify the legislation, even from the Helsinki Commission.

Bertzi said further that the primary role of the commission is one of informing and that the commission is not able to impose anything on Romania. She explained that this meeting is taking place merely because there are a number of families in the United States who have submitted files with respect to adopting a child from Romania. She said that these files which were submitted in the period from October 2001 to February 2004, were not approved. Their cases are, at present, being analyzed by an inter-ministerial group. "It is possible to desire modifications to the law, which would permit families on the other side of the ocean to adopt children from Romania, however, the state of Romania has decided: Only grandparents from abroad may adopt."

According to Bertzi, the policy of Romania, with regard to adoptions, is clear: "Efforts are made so that every child will stay with his biological family. Adoption is the very last solution," declared secretary of state Theodora Bertzi. She told us that every case is analyzed in detail. She said that at the present time a large of number of families from Romania desires to adopt, more precisely 1080. However, the number of children adopted is very small.

The new adoption law which is much more restrictive than the previous one was adopted last year under pressure from the European Union. According to the new regulations, children from Romania can be adopted by foreigners only if those foreigners are biological grandparents and only if another solution within the country cannot be found.

The Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, is a government agency of the United States which supervises the respecting of the provisions of the Helsinki accord of 1975 with regards to human rights.

HELSINKI COMMISSION MEMBERS BLAST ROMANIA ADOPTION POLICIES,CALL FOR IMMEDIATE REFORM

HELSINKI COMMISSION MEMBERS BLAST ROMANIA ADOPTION POLICIES,CALL FOR IMMEDIATE REFORM

(Washington) - Members of the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 ofState, 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."

Russian Adoption Officials: Moratorium Avoided

News about Russian Orphans and Adoption. Note that an estimated 700,000 orphans languish in orphanages across the country. If you read this, please consider adopting a Russian Orphan.

In Moscow, National Council For Adoption Conducts High-Level Meetings with Russian Adoption Officials: Moratorium Avoided

September 12, 2005, Alexandria, VA – On Friday, September 9, the Russian Duma defeated an amendment to impose a moratorium on adoptions of Russian orphans by American parents. The vote was a culmination of months of advocacy by nationalistic opponents of intercountry adoption who exploited the tragic deaths of Russian-born children reportedly at the hands of their adoptive parents. “Russian orphans have won an important vote,” said National Council For Adoption President Thomas Atwood, in Moscow. “The Russian Duma and other Russian adoption leaders have made it clear with this vote that adoptions will move forward and the interests of innocent children should not be made into a political football.”

Leading up to the vote, a National Council For Adoption delegation was in Moscow appealing directly to leaders at the highest levels of the Russian child welfare system. In an unprecedented atmosphere of cooperation, Russian and American adoption leaders agreed on many areas of reform, discussed positive alternatives to a shutdown of adoptions, and expressed a bilateral commitment to serving the needs of the estimated 700,000 children currently languishing in orphanages across the vast country.

“The adoption communities of both countries and all who are sincerely concerned about the future of Russian orphans should be very encouraged by what we have accomplished here,” commented Atwood following the talks. “Now that the Duma has rejected a shutdown, we can work together to achieve positive changes. We don’t need to shut down all adoptions in order to protect children better.”

The most critical, and possibly most productive, meeting was with Sergey Fridinsky, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. Mr. Fridinsky communicated frankly with the NCFA delegation in addressing the serious concerns of the Russian people regarding the tragic deaths and current adoption processes. This meeting received extensive coverage in the broadcast and print Russian media. The NCFA delegation met with officials at the Ministry of Education, the arm of Russian government charged with administering adoption procedures. NCFA briefed Ambassador William Burns and Consul General James Pettit at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. In all meetings, NCFA advocated strategic ideas developed with the assistance of leaders within the American adoption community.

NCFA and adoption leaders in America are deeply concerned about the tragic deaths of these children, and have offered four specific reform ideas: timely implementation of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption by both countries, ending the unregulated practice of “independent” adoption in Russia, accelerating post-placement reporting, and strengthening the screening and training of prospective adoptive parents. These targeted reforms would improve child protection for Russian orphans, while preserving the opportunity for thousands of others to find loving, permanent families of their own through adoption in the future.

Atwood continued, “We could not be more encouraged by the responses our reform ideas have received from Russian leaders, and by their commitments to ongoing dialogue. Together, we have created a tremendous opportunity for policy improvements. Now we must work together to achieve them.”

The impact of the adoption laws on the Romanian children

This article is from "Adevarul", one of the main national newspapers.

The impact of the adoption laws on the Romanian children

The "Helsinki Commission" (for Security and Cooperation in Europe of the US Government) is meeting today in Washington to discuss the issue of adoptions from Romania. Sorin Ducaru, our country's ambassador in Washington, will attend the discussions. The Commission will hear Elliot Forsyth, an American citizen who wanted and wants to adopt a child from Romania. Hundreds of legal actions for the adoption of Romanian children have been initiated in the USA, and some of the cases have been blocked once the new Law 273/2004 was enacted. Art. 39 of the law forbids international adoptions for all applicants who are not grandparents of the adopted child. The idea of international adoptions is also supported by the Romanian World Wide Group (RWW), a non-governmental, apolitical, non-afiliated, democratic and progressive association which aims at lobbying for our country. Romania, a signatory of the Hague Convention, is the only country which has changed its legislation to forbid international adoptions, thus breaching both the spirit and the letter of a document it sealed.

"Do Romanians Love Their Children?"

"Do Romanians Love Their Children?"

by Ralu Filip

Copyright 2005 Editura Intact

Oh that you'd not be a child in Romania. If much of the world here in Romania, as well as numerous institutions are concerned about adults, among which are the media and others, it is with great difficulty that children manage to come to the attention of anyone. It seems that even criminals and other law breakers are better off. And much more. They have many more rights which are respected by institutions and NGOs.

Annually in Romania, thousands of children die who are just a few days old. Many of them would still be living today if 1.) They would not have been burned alive because they were locked in the house alone, 2.) They would not have drowned in the ditch in front of the house or in holes that were in the village. 3.) If they would not have been killed by the beating they received from their parents. 4.) If they had been taken to the doctor in time. 5.) If they hadn't been killed by incompetent doctors. 6.) If they hadn't been run over by a car whose driver was drunk or because of negligent parents who didn't supervise their children. 7.) If they hadn't been killed by the idiots who were allowed to roam free by prosecutors and police.

If somebody would have cared and would have removed the shards of glass from a broken window, a little girl would not have slit her throat while playing, and this happened at a camp for children. The waste of lives is frightening. Just as frightening is the uncaring attitude on the part of adults and particularly on the part of the government and those in it. In this context, the fact that basically all mass media continually follow Mutu, Becali, etc., is indecent.

Annually, hundreds of children disappear. Some of these prefer to be vagabonds and to live in the sewers of major cities. Others are forced to beg or to steal or to be prostitutes in other countries. If they don't die or don't flee from their homes, they are beaten and otherwise abused. The percentages are shocking.

School doesn't offer them much either. There they meet up with professors who aren't paid much, or who aren't prepared, or who are bored. Thousands of schools are substandard and are in fact in danger of falling down. Many have started the school year without hygienic authorization. Hygiene in the schools are a disaster, diseases are more and more frequent and especially hepatitis. How our children learn in such conditions is hard to understand. Perhaps for this reason hundreds of children quit school and others finish school but can barely read. And even here we are uncaring. Some newspapers have many Social Democrats (PSD) in positions of power and will have them there until Nicolae Vacaroiu and Adrian Nastase will be replaced as presidents of the Senate and House of Deputies respectively. Who will think about the children who have disappeared in recent years or about those who live in the sewers? Who cares about abandoned children, abused children, and those forced to beg? The recent scandal involving the secret recordings of PSD sessions are much more attractive than students quitting school or hepatitis.

For more than 15 years now, not one president of Romania has actively or seriously involved himself in the problem of the children. Not one government has had even one program which actually secured or helped protect the children. I have been involved as a consultant in the area of child protection. Consequently, I know somewhat the system. I know how it thinks and how it acts. I know what has been done. But more importantly, I know what needs to be done and has not been done. Under pressure from Baroness Nicholson, and later from the European Commission, Adrian Nastase and his government stopped international adoptions and attempted to intensify the removal of abandoned children from institutions. European officials were convinced that Romanian children were bought and sold. Without fully investigating the situation, they asked for the stoppage of international adoptions. I was among the few who drew attention to the negative effects which would come from this mistaken solution. I foresaw, as well, that this problem would come to the attention of the Helsinki Commission. The number of abandonments have not fallen. National adoption is, practically speaking, a very weak solution and has not absorbed even half of the children abandoned by their parents. Even more grave, these children have lost their fundamental right to have a family, that is to be adoptedby a foreign family. At the suggestion of some European big shots, some of these children were given, along with money, to the care of retirees and unemployed people in various villages in Romania. So, instead of going to school in New York, Madrid or Paris, they are required to care for the cows or in other actual situations abused or killed by these so called "maternal assistants".

It is interesting that the Ministry of Health knows and has announced that for years more and more children have been born with problems, with low birth weights, and generally smaller, much smaller than normal. He also knows how many children who are just a few days old, die every year. Even though this institution seems to know a lot, it doesn't accord the children any special attention. One of the best proofs of this is the lack of a national program for the maternity hospitals, the exact place where more and more children die.

The Ministry of Education is in the same situation. And what about the mayors? Many kindergartens, schools and hospitals are a disaster and substandard. Pollution as well as water from the tap seriously affect people's health. Parks are full of garbage and the children's playgrounds which are full of metal re-bar (the swings are made of it), put the children's lives in peril.

In fact, how much do we really love our children? What can we say about a country in which the true protection of children is cared about by very few, including by many parents? I say this, and I am aware that not a few people will become furious and indignant, it's because our problem is our heart. It's because we care so little.

American support for areas affected by floods

American support for areas affected by floods

published in issue 3513 page 3 at 2005-09-13

Bucharest - The United States will assign Romania a supplementary financial support worth USD 1.5 M, with a view to carrying out reconstruction works in the areas affected by this year's floods, Mark Taplin, the charge d'affaires of the US Embassy to Bucharest, announced yesterday during his meeting with the Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu. According to the American diplomat, the aid is mainly aimed at the reconstruction of homes from the affected areas, but also at schools, clinics and other social objectives rehabilitation works. At the same time, Taplin mentioned that the funds and their assigning will be managed by the United States' Agency for International Development(USAID) in collaboration with organisations such as Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF), Habitat for Humanity, International Organisation of Christian Charities (IOCC) and the Romanian Orthodox Church for rebuilding the damaged homes and providing shelter for floods' victims before the start of the cold season.

From this spring, since the first floods took place, and until now, USA has assigned a financial aid worth USD 3.5 M to the floods victims. After thanking USA for the constant support granted to Romania, the Prime Minister said the new American offer "is another proof that the United States comprehends our need to ensure as soon as possible the reconstruction of affected areas." In response, Mark Taplin thanked Romania on behalf of USA for our country's support in limiting the effects of the Hurricane Katrina, through the offer to send a team of seven doctors to the affected areas from the South of the United States, as well as for the way in which the Romanian authorities collaborated with the American ones through this crisis. "This help represents our solidarity with the victims of the Hurricane Katrina and with the efforts of the American administration to help the affected population," Tariceanu said. He also stated his compassion for the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks.

by Ana Cosma

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