Letter of State Secretary Bertzi to Orphanage Directors

Government of Romania
Romanian Office for Adoptions
Rue Muzeul Zambaccian, no. 29, secteur 1, Bucarest, code postal 011872
Telephone 0040 21 230 13 51; Fax: 0040 21 230 13 20;
email: secretariat@adoptiiromania.ro

No. 2324/14.03.2006

Dear Madam, Honorable Director,

Following the complaints received, and in conformity with the legislative package, the Romanian Office for Adoptions recommends that the visit and the maintenance of personal relationships of any kind (correspondence, telephone conversations, etc.) with the children included in the protection system by persons/families of foreign nationality and of foreign domicile be authorized in the following situations:

1. The person or one of the two spouses in the foreign family is a kin of the concerned child, up to the fourth degree of kinship.

2. The persons/families with the foreign nationality and the foreign domicile have adopted brothers [siblings?] of the children for whom the visit is requested, because we consider that it is necessary to respect the right of two brothers to maintain personal relationships and therefore it is our opinion that the visit is justified and we recommend to the DDPE to support the maintenance of personal relationships between biological brothers, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 14 and 15 [of the UN Convention?] concerning the protection and promotion of children rights.

3. If, considering the age, the degree of maturity and the opinion of the child, and after a complex and professional psychological evaluation of the child realized by an independent/neutral expert, it appears that the child has developed attachment relationships to the concerned persons and that the interruption of the personal relationships risks to harm the psycho-social-emotional development of the child, we recommend to the DDPE to allow the maintenance of the personal relationships with these families/persons.

We recommend that the neutral expert mentioned above not be hired by the DDPE. In this situation, we ask that you provide us with a copy of the evaluation report.

Also, the concerned persons/families will be informed in accordance with the legal provisions applicable in Romania to international adoptions, specifically the provisions of Article 39 of Law No. 273/2004.

We consider that these are the only three situations in which the visit and the maintenance of personal relationships by persons/families of foreign nationality and foreign domicile with children part of the protection system must be allowed.

In situations other than those described above, it is not in the best interest of the child to have visits or to maintain personal relationships with families of foreign nationality and foreign domicile for the following reasons:

* For the concerned children, all necessary steps must be taken to maintain ties with their biological or extended family and the actions of DDPE representatives aiming at integrating/reintegrating the child can become ineffective if the child is given unrealistic expectations concerning a potential international adoption by a foreign family, adoption that may not be carried out in the conditions of Article 39 of Law No. 273/2004.

With regard to the provisions of Article 4, supported by the provisions of Article 29 of The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoptions, the child who does not have the status of adoptable child must not be met by and visited by foreign persons/families (who would not be in one of the three situations mentioned in the preamble) with a view to adopting him.

* In the situation where the child has the legal status of an adoptable child, pursuant to the Law, all steps must be undertaken to identify the most appropriate persons/family in Romania, capable of adopting the child in question, and the matching process could be disturbed/affected in the case where the child has unrealistic expectations concerning a potential international adoption by a foreign family, adoption that may not be carried out in the conditions of Article 39 of Law No. 273/2004.

To respect the best interest of the child and to apply accordingly the law on the protection of the child and adoption, we ask that the recommendations of our institution be made known to all professional maternal assistants and to all persons in the protection system working directly with the children.

Furthermore, we ask you to ensure the implementation of these recommendations and in cases where bad faith would be established (e.g., where a maternal assistant or other professionals would facilitate visits or the maintenance of personal relationships between a child and a foreign family in circumstances not falling within one of the three situations described above), [we ask you] to adopt all penalties provided for in the law for failure to perform work tasks, harm to the best interest of the child, etc.

Should you identify other situations (other than the three situations mentioned above) where you consider that the visit and the maintenance of personal relationships with children in the protection system by foreign persons/families are in the best interest of these children, we ask that you inform our institution of this fact with the supporting arguments, knowing that the Romanian Office for Adoptions will engage in a detailed analysis of these cases and we will communicate our views.

With our regard and thanking you for your collaboration.

State Secretary

Theodora Bertzi