SOCIAL/ CHILD ADOPTION

The EU got their way and no adoptions. So much for child welfare. Once again the EU by their actions proves that they do not care about orphaned children. Untold numbers of children are and will be denied a loving, caring home. The main issue is the EU and Romanian Goverment state the children are being taken care of but evidence from Romania is showing the exact opposite to be true.

EUROPEAN UNION

Delegation of the European Commission in Romania

SOCIAL/ CHILD ADOPTION

Bucharest, 29 November 2005

European Union supports Romania's legislation on adoptions

Following recent statements urging Romania to amend its child protection andadoption laws, the European Commission would like to reiterate that, as mentioned in its Monitoring Report on Romania published in October, 2005, the new legislation on childrens rights and adoption, which entered into force in January, 2005, is fully in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights and completes the reform of child protection. Similar to the practice in EU Member States, intercountry adoption is no longer foreseen as a child protection measure. The European Commission sees no need for change to the legislation.

According to the Romanian Office for Adoptions, there are 1355 Romanian families registered to adopt one of the 393 children available for adoption. Thus there is little scope, if any, for international adoptions.

The European Commission understands the disappointment of those foreignfamilies hoping to adopt a child from Romania. However, it will not encouragelegal steps that could lead to a situation in breach of international human rights conventions as well as the Romanian legislation.

The European Commission will continue to support the Government of Romania in developing its administrative capacity to implement the new legislation.

Background The European Union has been monitoring Romania during its pre-accession phase, with respect to the implementation of the Copenhagen political criteria, which include the UN Convention on the Rights of theChild (UNCRC), as well as the European Human Rights Convention (EHRC) to which Romania is bound.

The new legal provisions governing child protection and adoption in Romania are based on the provisions and the spirit of these Conventions, in particularArticles 5, 7, 8, 20, 21 and 35 of the UNCRC and Art. 8 of the EHRC. The UNCRC deliberately left inter-country adoption as a choice and not an obligation for signatory states, because of cases of abuse of inter-country adoptions practices. Such abuses occurred in Romania as well. As a result of international criticism by both the European Union and the USA, the Governmentof Romania decided in October 2001 to place a moratorium on inter-country adoptions until new legislation could come into force.

Since the mid 1990s, Romania has undertaken a profound reform in child protection, by developing services for child care; as a result, children at risk of abandonment are now being taken care of in the country.

The EU has supported and continues to support this reform process. Out of the total of over 100 million financial assistance provided to Romania since 1990, 47 million were used to support the reform of the child protection system.

Progress in this field has been recently noted in both the Country Monitoring Report of the European Commission released on 25 October 2005 and the draft Report of the European Parliament discussed on 23 November 2005, as well as in the report of the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee of 22-23 November 2005.

Contact: Angela FILOTE, Press and Communication Officer, tel. 4021 203 54 30

The Delegation of the European Commission is the diplomatic representation of the European Commission in Romania. Its mission is to mobilise political will, expertise and financial resources from the European Union in order to support Romania's accession in 2007. In doing so, the Delegation cooperates with the Romanian Government and the civil society, both at central and local level.

http://www.infoeuropa.ro/docs/Children%20%20adoptions%20RO%2029%20Nov.pdf

U.S. congressman asks EU to stay out of Romania's adoption policies

U.S. congressman asks EU to stay out of Romania's adoption policies

Alecs Iancu

Romania was asked by the Helsinki Commission to reform adoption policies, which currently prevent thousands of children from finding homes with families from the U.S and Western Europe."

The current Romanian law is based on the foolish belief that a state institution or a temporary family is preferable to an adoptive family outside of the child's native country," said the Helsinki Commission's co-president, Congressman Chris Smith, who filed the project asking Romania to change the legislation.

The current laws came in effect following criticism from the European Union, which said previous laws were too permissive of inter-country adoptions, which favored child-trafficking networks.

New laws banned inter-country adoptions unless the adopting couple is related to the child they want to adopt. The applying of the new laws put the breaks on several inter-country adoption procedures that had been initiated by foreign couples.

The new legislation was criticized by several countries and mostly by the U.S.

A press release from the Helsinki Commission shows that over 200 American citizens had filed inter-country adoption requests when new adoption legislation came in effect.

At the time, Smith led a hearing to establish the effects of the new laws and the "terrible" situation of abandoned children in Romania.

According to the Commission, an UNICEF study shows that over 9,000 children are abandoned in pediatric hospitals and maternity wards in Romania every year.

Also, 37,000 children remain institutionalized as they cannot find a new home, whereas 49,000 others have temporary homes with families of distant relatives.

An unknown number of children live on the street, the study shows.

"In all the thousands of cases in which Romania rejects a child's access to a loving home and a caring family, it commits a new abuse against human rights," Smith said.

After the fall of communism in 1989, it was found that over 100,000 children were living neglected and malnourished in child institutions all across the country. Smith, who visited Romania a month and a half after the fall of communism, witnessed the poor inhuman conditions these children were living in.

"For years, Americans opened their hearts and checkbooks and worked to help Romania improve the conditions for these children," he said.

Thus, over 8,000 children found permanent families in the U.S. between 1990 and 2004 and several other thousands were adopted by families in Western Europe.

After the new laws came in effect, approximately 1,700 adoption requests were blocked, of which 200 were from American couples.

Last week, the U.S. State Department received a list of final decisions on 101 cases from the Romanian government, the commission's press release states.

Smith's project acknowledges the government's wish to improve child welfare and care system, but asks for amendments regarding adoption policies to facilitate national and inter-country adoptions.

Furthermore, the congressman asks the European Union to no longer intervene in Romania's efforts to find homes for abandoned or orphan children.

"We can't just sit and allow petty policies to ruin the lives of thousands of children who need a loving home," Smith said.

This was not the first time the issue of adoptions in Romania was discussed by the Helsinki Commission. In September, they resumed criticism of inter-country adoption policies and accused Romanian authorities of "giving in" to the European Union and of paying "the price for integration" by suspending international adoptions.

Recently, the Romanian Office for Adoptions announced that inter-country adoption procedures had been resumed, in line with the new legislation.

http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=19375

Lack of cuddles in infancy may affect development of brain

Lack of cuddles in infancy may affect development of brain

Kate Ravilious - Tuesday November 22, 2005 - The Guardian

Depriving young children of cuddles and attention subtly changes how their brains develop and in later life can leave them anxious and poor at forming relationships, according to a study published today. Love and affection from parents and carers are vital to developing brain pathways associated with handling stress and forming social bonds, the researchers found.

Seth Pollak, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues compared the progress of children being raised by their biological parents in America with children who had come from crowded orphanages in Russia and Romania and had been adopted by American parents.

"When these [orphanage] children were babies there were so few adults around that there was rarely one available to respond to their needs," said Dr Pollak.

The children in the groups had an average age of 4.5 years, and the orphans had been settled with their foster parents for two years and 10 months on average.

Eighteen of 39 children studied were from orphanages. They were observed at home playing interactive games and sitting on their mother's lap.

Before and after this physical contact, the children provided a urine sample to measure levels of two hormones: vasopressin, thought to help us recognise familiar individuals and live in social groups; and oxytocin, the release of which makes us feel secure and protected, and lowers our stress level.

Children from orphanages had lower baseline levels of vasopressin and, unlike children raised by their biological parents, their levels of oxytocin did not rise with cuddling. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today.

"It is remarkable that the children's deficiencies in these affection hormones could still be detected now, after the children spent three years in loving adoptive homes," said Terrie Moffitt, a developmental psychiatrist at Kings College London. "An unanswered question is whether or not the hormonal deficiencies will result in any behavioural difficulties for the children in the long term."

The researchers suspect that if deprived of close adult contact soon after birth, children will never fully develop the pathways. "It used to be thought that the brain came all wired up, but now it seems that social experiences after birth are vital for opening up the pathways and strengthening the connections in the brain for these hormones," said Dr Pollak.

The groups plans a follow-up study with the same children to see if this is the case. "It suggests we need to pay a lot more attention to children growing up in deprived environments," said Dr Pollak.

He also speculates that giving children plenty of cuddles at birth leads to an addiction to close relationships in late life.

"The area of the brain that acts as the receptor for oxytocin is also the reward centre associated with drug addictions. It is possible that close relationships function like an addiction, making us go and seek them out in later life," he said.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,9830,1647930,00.html

HELSINKI COMMISSION CO-CHAIRMAN INTRODUCES LEGISLATION

HELSINKI COMMISSION CO-CHAIRMAN INTRODUCES LEGISLATION URGING ROMANIA TO IMMEDIATELY REFORM HARMFUL ADOPTION POLICIES


Representative Chris Smith's (R-NJ), Co-Chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, today introduced legislation urging Romania to reform its adoption policies which have prevented thousands of children from being placed in permanent loving families in the United States and Western Europe. More than 200 Americans had pending adoption applications when the new law prohibiting inter-country adoptions took affect. Smith has conducted a hearing on the effect of the law and the dire situation for Romania's abandoned children.

UNICEF reports that more than 9,000 children a year are abandoned in Romania's maternity wards or pediatric hospitals. According to the European Union, 37,000 children remain in institutions. Nearly 49,000 more live in non-permanent settings in "foster care" or with extended families. An unknown number of children live on the streets.

"The current Romanian law is based upon the misguided belief that an institution of the state or foster family is preferable to an adoptive family from outside the child's country of origin," said Smith, who has championed human rights causes since being elected to Congress. "In each of the thousands of instances that Romania denies a child a loving home and a caring family, they commit another human rights abuse."

Following the execution of Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, it was discovered that more than 100,000 underfed, neglected children were living in hundreds of squalid and inhumane institutions throughout that country. Smith, who visited Romania six weeks after the fall of the Ceausescu regime, witnessed first hand the misery and suffering of children.

"For years, Americans have opened their hearts and checkbooks and worked to help Romania improve living conditions for children in these institutions," said Smith. "Many families also opened their homes to Romanian children through adoption."

Between 1990 and 2004, 8,213 Romanian children found permanent families in the United States; thousands of others joined families in Western Europe. In June, 2004, the Romanian government enacted a law that prohibits inter-country adoption except by a child's biological grandparent(s). Prior to enactment of the 2004 anti-adoption law, approximately 1,700 adoption cases remained 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. Earlier this week it was revealed that the Romanian government had delivered to the State Department a list containing final decisions in 101 of the Americans cases.

During Romania's accession to the European Union, allegations were made about the fate of children adopted from Romania and about the qualifications and motives of those who adopt internationally. Sadly, no one within the European Union successfully countered these efforts and, as a result, Romania adopted the law against inter-country adoption in order to secure its EU accession.

Smith's bill recognizes the need and desire of the Romanian government to improve the care and well being of their children, but urges that they amend child welfare and adoption laws to decrease obstacles to both domestic and international adoption. In addition, it requests that the European Union and its member states not intercede in Romania's efforts to place orphaned or abandoned children in permanent homes.

"We can not sit by and allow petty politics to ruin the lives of thousands of children in need of a loving home," said Smith. "My bill urges the Romanian government to remove the restrictive laws that are prohibiting their own children access to loving families."

Romania's Abandoned Children Are Still Suffering

I just found out today that the Romanian Government has sent the files back to the US Government on the 100 or so adoptions they were considering allowing to proceed. It is a huge setback and very disappointing for the families involved. Once again, it is shown that these orphans are nothing but political pawns and talk of their welfare is just that - talk. The US Government is outraged and it remains to be seen what can be done. Here yet is another article documenting the suffering these orphans are forced to endure.

The Lancet
2005; 366:1595-1596
November 5, 2005

DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67646-5

Romania's abandoned children are still suffering
Carmiola Ionescu

Thousands of Romanian orphans lived in appalling conditions under former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Now, authorities are keen to advertise improvements. But, says Carmiola Ionescu, the official figures do not count the many children still being abandoned in hospital wards.

As Sarah Wade walks up the muddy path to the tiny, ramshackle hut, she gets her first glimpse of the poverty that would have been her adoptive son's fate if she had not rescued him.

The house has been cobbled together out of corrugated iron, old linoleum, and crumbling stone. As she sees the piles of rubbish in the garden, her worries about fighting to keep her foster son, Dylan, away from his real parents vanish and she knows she has made the right decision.

"I've lived in Romania for about 4 years now, and so I am used to seeing run down houses and shabby surroundings, particularly in the small villages outside the cities. But the thought of allowing Dylan to be brought up in a home like that made me feel ill", she says, after going to meet Dylan's biological parents to discuss the 4-year-old's future.

Sarah met Dylan when he was a "hospital baby"-one of thousands of Romanian children who live the first years of their lives in hospital maternity wards.

The children, most of them healthy, are simply abandoned by mothers too poor to care for them properly, yet under new laws they cannot be put into orphanages until they reach the age of 2 years.

In the hospitals, overworked doctors and nurses have no time to spend with the young children, other than feeding them and changing their nappies, and for these youngsters the only way out is if their family later turns up to collect them or they are placed with a professional foster parent, of which there are far too few to cope with the demand.

British charity worker Wade, who took Dylan home with her when he was 18 months old, has spent 3 years helping him to catch up on what he missed as he lay for a year and a half with no human interaction.

As far as Wade is concerned Dylan is now her son. But other new legislation, banning foreigners from adopting Romanian children, means she is not allowed to legally become his mum and instead had to fight hard for Dylan not to be handed back to his biological parents.

The adoption ban is part of a series of EU-backed measures designed to cut the number of children in state institutions in time for the country to join the EU in 2007.

But Wade, who has set up her own Romania-based foundation called Romanian Relief, believe the laws are ineffective. "Of course something needs to be done to help the children here, but at the moment all the Romanian government is doing is signing forms sending children back to their parents ... It doesn't seem to matter that the parents might be alcoholics or have no means to look after their kids as long as the numbers are cut", she says.

The extra income that families get from child benefits is one of the most common reasons for parents taking a son or daughter back. Other parents are also concerned that if they do not take back their children they could end up in trouble with authorities keen to present EU officials with a picture of a state returning children to their parents.

Statistics from UNICEF released at the beginning of this year show that 4000 newborns are abandoned every year in maternity wards while 5000 are abandoned in paediatric hospitals.

The organisation says the figures are on a par with those of 20 and 30 years ago, when communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was in power. At that time, hundreds of thousands of children were housed in state run institutions and when his regime fell in 1989 and observers came into the country, the atrocious conditions that the children were kept in sent shock-waves around the globe.

The huge number of babies abandoned before 1989 was a direct result of Ceausescu's social policies, which included a law prohibiting abortion and contraception.

His policies also actively encouraged couples to have children by awarding mothers of at least five children significant benefits, while mothers of at least 10 children were declared "heroic mothers" and were given a gold medal, a free car, free transportation on trains, and free holidays each year.

Impoverished and uneducated mothers, however, were not able to cope with all their children and simply abandoned them.

Romanian authorities have proudly claimed that last year only 1483 children aged 0-2 years were in state institutions, compared with 7483 in 1997. But those figures do not include hospitals, where staff admit they rely on donations from charities and individuals to keep helping such children.

Ana Culcer, the head of the Neonatology Department at the University Hospital in Bucharest, says abandoned children stay on average for 6-7 months. "They have to be fed using funds allotted to newborn babies because there is no separate fund for them", she explains. "Obviously we cannot ignore these children but at the same time we cannot be parents to everyone."

Culcer believes the situation is almost as bad as it was in Ceausescu's time. "I have to use space and personnel for the abandoned kids which means that sick children are not getting the attention they should."

At the Bucur Maternity Hospital in Bucharest, the head of the Neonatology Section, Filofteia Dragomir, got the nick name "the milk woman" because she uses her own car and time to deliver dried milk for the abandoned babies. But she says it is not so simple to address the children's other needs. "When it comes to clothes for them, we have to rely on donations. Many of these come from people whose children are growing up, mostly women who gave birth at our maternity ward and know that there are abandoned babies who are still here", Dragomir explains.

She adds: "Last year, we had more abandoned kids than ever because the law changed. And it changed for the worse for the people in the maternity wards because the law forbids us to send children under 2 years old to state orphanages."

Sarah Wade, who volunteered as a care worker at a hospital when she first arrived in Romania, has her own experiences of the conditions abandoned children like Dylan face. "The hospital I worked in was horrendous. It was filthy, dull, and had no toys. Each room had up to 30 children and they would just sit in their cots or on their beds not moving or talking", she says.

"It was very regimental. None of the nurses played with the children, they simply came in to feed them or give medicine to those who needed it and then left again."

The only time many of them saw the outside world was when Wade and other volunteers like her took them to parks to escape the harsh life within the hospital walls.

She also described when she first met Dylan. "He was a year old but couldn't even lift his head up on his own, he was severely underweight, and was sick with bronchitis. I couldn't leave him in the hospital, who knows what would have happened to him", she says.

Within weeks of taking him home Dylan's chest infection had cleared up and he had started to put on weight.

"Physically, he got better very quickly, but it took a lot longer to heal his emotional wounds. Before I brought him home I had to visit him everyday for 3 weeks for him to get used to me. He had never been held or kissed and would scream blue murder if I tried to pick him up and cuddle him. He just used to sit staring at the walls not smiling", she says.

Doctors, who had diagnosed Dylan as autistic, said he would never walk, but 3 years on he runs around like any other small boy.

Romanian government officials have said they are concerned about the apparent numbers of abandoned children in hospitals and are considering changing legislation to help them.

A spokesman for the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights, a government body, says: "We are focussing on finding the best solution for these children so that they can start their lives in a family.

"We admit that the child protection system was not properly prepared for the legislation forbidding children under 2 years old to be sent to state institutions.

"We only managed to find solutions for a third of the abandoned kids in hospitals last year by either sending them back to their biological families or to a substitute family. But we are aware that for a large number of new-born children there is no solution at the moment. We are awaiting the results of a detailed report from all hospitals in the country with children in this situation so that we can decide what the best solution for them is and how we can change legislation to their benefit."

Moscovici: Romania needs to solve international adoption issue

Moscovici: Romania needs to solve international adoption issue

Andreea Pocotila

The fight against corruption, environment legislation, integration of Roma and international adoptions are the key issues in Pierre Moscovici's report to be debated by the European Parliament.

The document presented by the European Parliament's rapporteur Pierre Moscovici in the EP's Foreign Affairs Committee last night insists that the delicate issue of international adoptions in Romania be solved. Moscovici's report summarizes the conclusions of the European Commission's monitoring report, but demands the international adoption problem be dealt with by the Romanian authorities, after adoptions had been blocked by a moratorium in 2001. The report acknowledges the significant progress made by Romania in the child protection field, but demands Bucharest authorities "solve as soon as possible international adoptions requests submitted during the ban, taking into consideration the real suffering of adoptive parents." As well as the European Union's warning letter sent last week, the report draws attention to the necessity for the protection of mentally disabled people to be improved, as their life and conditions of care are yet not satisfactory. The EP's report also demands stricter surveillance of use of force by the security forces, particularly involving firearms, as well as for efforts to reintegrate Roma people to continue. According to Moscovici, better access to the labor market would allow the Roma community to fit better into society. Moscovici remphasizes that the fight against corruption is a priority, especially at high level, and insists on the continuation of justice reform. The rapporteur also asked for urgent measures to strengthen institutions' administrative capacity and demands the Bucharest government make additional efforts to apply environmental legislation. Moreover, the European lawmaker encouraged Romania to adopt and apply laws in the veterinary field and said the intellectual property rights issue should be among the authorities' priorities. Moscovici asked the European Commission to help Romanian authorities fulfill their commitments and constantly inform the European Parliament about its monitoring activity in Bucharest. The EU lawmaker supports the European Commission's decision to make a recommendation as to whether Romania should join the EU in 2007 or not, but has called for the EU Parliament to have a say in the decision. Moscovici's report restates the EP's wish for Romania to join the European Union as scheduled, on January 1, 2007 and calls on EU members to ratify the country's EU accession treaty as soon as possible. The report will be debated twice by the Foreign Affairs Commission and will be voted on in the EP at the beginning of December.

EU Watches Adoptions in Romania

Comments from a Source: If you reread the article, what Moscovici is saying is that the Romanian government needs to find "solutions" aka "answers" to the pending cases immediately as, our waiting parents know all too well, it is cruel to make them wait any longer for an answer. He's basically giving "permission" for the Romanian government to make it publicly known that they are reviewing these cases and that inter-country adoption may be one of the "solutions". However, I believe his real message is that he's pressuring the RO's to speed it up as I'm sure he's aware they have only turned over approx. 100 dossiers/files out of the 211 registered. I'm also going to presume that certain EU high ranking individuals in the EU have given him their permission to make such a statement publicly and to pressure the RO's, which means our State Dept. efforts are succeeding on one level.

EU Watches Adoptions in Romania

Strasbourg hosted last evening the first reading of the European Parliament's report project on Romania's preparations for the accession to the EU, decided to take place in January 1st, 2007, by the Foreign Affairs Committee, says Rompres. The debate focused on the information presented to the Committee by EU Rapporteur for Romania Pierre Moscovici. The first Committee voting is due on November 23rd. MEPs are to vote on the document in the session to be held in December. Last evening's debate was not open for public. Romanian Minister of Integration Anca Boagiu and Romanian Minister of Justice Monica Macovei attended. According to the report project, the European Parliament still wants to see Romania joining the EU in January 1st, 2007, if conditions stipulated in the treaty of accession are met. The document Pierre Moscovici elaborated also reiterates that Romania's accession is the objective of both the EU and Romania, which will allow for the closing of the fifth enlargement session. The text also refers to wish that Romania and Bulgaria would join the EU in solidarity. The EU Rapporteur for Romania appreciates the significant progress made, especially with the freedom of expression, Justice, national minorities' integration, child protection and property restitution. He insists that reforms should continue and public administration reform first of all.

Moscovici wants adoptions to be made again

As for child protection, the report expresses satisfaction with the significant progress made, but demands Bucharest authorities to rapidly find solutions to requests for international adoptions sent during the moratorium in 2001, given the real suffering of adoptive parents. But Socialist Moscovici's attitude will get confronted with Baroness Nicholson's opinion in the Foreign Affairs Commission, as Nicholson is for the continuation of the 2001 Moratorium.

The report highlights concern about persisting delays with the improvement of the administrative capacity, the use of legislation in fields like Justice and Internal Affairs, agriculture, public market and environment. The document mentions the fight of corruption and especially of high corruption should be priority, as the fight must go on in much determination and at all levels, by means of rigorous use of the law and real awareness of this severe problem and its consequences. Moreover, the report insists on the need to go on with the reform in the judiciary system and to obey the calendar included in the action plan. The document also demands the reform should be carried out and focus on the fight of trafficking and on the consolidation of financial checks, say Rompres sources.

European Commissions watches every step Romania takes

Pierre Moscovici asked the European Commission to go on with rigorous and objective monitoring of Romania's preparations for accession and also to help Romanian authorities meet requirements. The European Parliament is also demanded to get information on monitoring measures and fully consent to the final decision on the activation of the safeguard clause.

The document expresses once again the wish to see Romanian joining the EU in 2007, but warns that such ambition depends first of all on Bucharest authorities' ability to meet requirements. It is to be mentioned that EU states that have not ratified Romania's treaty of accession to the European Union are required to proceed to it soon.

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