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