Letter to editor: Financial Times

Dear Sir,

We would like to address some of the sweeping and untrue statements made by MEP Emma Nicholson and Bogdan Panait, Romania's Secretary of State, National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights, concerning the current situation of abandoned children in Romania and international adoption.

It is, indeed, true that Romania's current child welfare legislation was drafted and signed into law due to a need for a massive overhaul in their previous legislation. It's also true that corruption was rampant in all aspects of the child welfare system. Corruption was - and on some levels, still is - pervasive throughout every level of society in Romania. However, no one in the European Union called for a shut-down of the government and a halt to Romania's accession due to corruption. Nor should inter-country adoption be banned for the same reason. If Romania cannot find a way to resolve corruption on the much smaller scale of inter-country adoption, then they certainly are unable to do so within the higher levels of government and day to day living. We find it both shocking and dismaying that allegations of corruption and "baby selling" continue to be made, and yet, to date, no one has ever been formally charged and prosecuted In a Romanian court of law for these despicable crimes involving children. A first step would be to investigate the assets and bank accounts of individual Romanians who were once involved with inter-country adoptions, including government employees. Should the Romanian government want a "starter list", we are happy to provide one.

We have no idea who the child's rights experts are that MEP NIcholson cites in her letter. However, any credible, professional working with abandoned children and innumerable professional studies will agree that every child needs and deserves a permanent family and that institutionalization and long-term foster care are not in the best interests of the child. The USAID report that MEP Nicholson frequently cites did not advocate banning inter-country adoption, only ending practices and policies that were wide-open for corruption.

Finally, we have some misgivings that Mr. Panait would even be the appropriate person to address any issues involving the welfare and protection of children and recommendations as to their care. When recently presented with the case of 2 year old who is spending 20 hours a day in a cage so her guardian could work, Mr. Panait said,: "From what I have seen she is a healthy child, she has enough food and has had all her vacinnes. She seems to be developing perfectly normally. Her home needs to be tidied up, but as she spends most of the time in the cage anyway it's not a problem." (Daily Telegraph 4/16/06)

Signed by For the Children SOS and adoptive parent groups in France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain