CQ COMMITTEE COVERAGE

CQ COMMITTEE COVERAGE
House International Relations Subcommittee Markup
Feb. 14, 2006

Panel Approves International Relations Resolutions

By Eleanor Stables, CQ Staff

The House International Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats on Tuesday swiftly approved by voice vote two resolutions for full committee consideration.

H Res 673 would urge the government of Belarus to conduct free and fair presidential elections March 19, and expresses support for the efforts of the people of Belarus to establish a full democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.

Subcommittee chairman Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., said democracy in Belarus is suffering as groups critical of the government are being repressed. He said the Belarusian government has refused an impartial investigation of the disappearance of journalists, and urged unimpeded access to the media as part of the free and transparent elections the resolution encourages.

Foreign Adoptions in Romania

H Res 578 would urge the Romanian government to complete the processing of foreign adoption cases pending before the Romanian parliament in June 2004 barred all those not by a child's biological grandparents.

The Romanian law affects 211 cases in which Romanian children had been matched with adoptive parents in the United States, and some 1,500 cases in which children had been matched with prospective parents in Western Europe, the resolution said, noting that "unsubstantiated allegations ... about the fate of children adopted from Romania and the qualifications and motives of those who adopt internationally" had contributed to the Romanian government's restrictions on foreign adoptions.

The resolution also would urge the secretary of State and the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development to work collaboratively with the Romanian government to amend Romania's laws to decrease barriers to adoption.

The resolution also would request that the European Union and its member states not impede Romania's efforts to place orphaned or abandoned children in permanent homes in a manner consistent with Romania's obligations under the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which Romania ratified and which recognizes that children may benefit by being placed with adoptive parents outside their home countries.

Ranking Democrat Robert Wexler of Florida said Romania's plan to join the EU in 2007 might give the resolution more leverage.

In 1989 it became public that more than 100,000 underfed, neglected Romanian children were living in destitute, inhumane institutions, and in the following years thousands of Romanian orphans were adopted by Americans, Europeans and others.

The United Nations Children's Fund reported in March 2005 that more than 9,000 children a year are abandoned in Romania's maternity wards or pediatric hospitals.