Adoption of children by foreigners the last resort: draft law
Adoption of children by domestic families should be given priority and that by foreigners treated as a last resort, according to a draft law released at a meeting in Hanoi Friday.
The draft is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee early next month.
The policy aims to ensure that the children are raised in an environment most conducive to their integration into mainstream society. Not sure I completely agree with this statement. Being adopted whether domestic or international doesn't impede integration into society.
The draft law lengthens the time available for finding domestic families to adopt orphans and other needy children from 30 to 90 days before they are put up for adoption by foreign families.
Even for adoption by domestic families, local departments of justice and the ministry would be in charge of selecting children and introducing them to families, he added. Not quite sure how this is going to prevent corruption. The article stated that the Ministry of Justice would be the sole agency to put children up for adoption by foreigners yet it says the above. Who's to say agencies can't pay off the local justice & ministry departs to only select healthy children for their families.
Source: VNA
*********************************************
Draft bill favours local adoption for children(22-08-2009)
HA NOI — The adoption of Vietnamese orphans by foreigners will only be permitted after all attempts to place them with a local family have failed, states the draft child adoption bill prepared by the Ministry of Justice.
Specifically, the bill requires an in-country search to be conducted simultaneously at the communal, provincial and central levels for 90 days. This replaces the previous regulation that required a only a 30-day search at the provincial level.
Many violations
Another new stipulation in the bill states that the legal authority to put children up for foreign adoption lies with the Ministry of Justice, not nursing establishments as is currently the case.
According to reports from 49 departments of justice nationwide there were 100 cases of violations connected with adoptions during the 2004-09 period. I don't see these numbers to be as "huge" a deal as the US' report on how corrupt VN was in their adoption practices. 100 cases in 5½ years (closed in Sept 08 to US currently still open to other countries) to who knows how many agencies (40 something US agencies). That # seems relatively small to me.
The bill is scheduled for proposal to the National Assembly in October at its sixth session.
According to the Ministry of Justice, from 2003 to the end of June 2009, nearly 20,000 Vietnamese children have been adopted, including 6,000 by foreigners. According to these numbers domestic adoption is already the priority in VN, so why the stimpulations?
Viet Nam has signed adoption agreements with Italy, France, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, Sweden and the US, and is preparing to join the 1993 Hague Convention. Not sure whether "signed" is present or past tense. Meaning, VN has recently signed agreements with these countries or they have signed agreements in the past. Because VN does not, to my knowledge, have a signed agreement with the US. That agreement was allowed to expire last year hence, the closure on September 1, 2008. They had thought they would sign a temporary agreement, but last I knew that wasn't going to happen. Did all of these countries also allow their agreements to expire with VN? I know Ireland let their agreement expire May 1st of this year and they aren't listed as a country with whom VN has "signed" an agreement.
Source: VNS
I was sent links to these articles via my agencies VN chat room which says they were posted by the chat room moderator Sunday evening. I have yet to hear anything more from my agencies VN coordinator.
No comments:
Post a Comment