Head of adoption agency knows what she's talking about Sun, Feb. 26, 2006

BY MAUREEN HOUSTON

News-Democrat

Brenda Henn didn't set out to run an adoption agency. "I was a speech therapist from the Midwest. I went to Hungary to get my child (in July 1993)." When Russian doctors (Slava Platonov and Yelena Kogan) who had emigrated to St. Louis read her adoption story in a newspaper, they wanted to do something for the orphans of Russia. The result is Small World Adoption Foundation of Missouri Inc., based in Ballwin, Mo. "When people come in our little office, they say, 'Do you have any other offices?' 'No, this is world headquarters,'" said Brenda 49, director of operations. "I have the best job in the whole world. It's the most fabulous experience. I feel like I have 1,500 to 1,600 children floating around the United States." [More...]

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. no reference to Independent Panel

PE SANTIERELE A DOUA CASE PENTRU COPII CU HANDICAP,

Sera Romania si Gemenii din Campulung - tun de miliarde in bugetul statului

de Ionut PARVULESCU | 21 feb 2006

foto(1)

Sera Romania si Gemenii din Campulung - tun de miliarde in bugetul statului

JK Rowling backs expert in fight for Romanian children Feb 20, 2006 00:00 By Birmingham Post A Birmingham academic has teamed up with Harry Potter author JK Rowling to launch a charity improving the lives of children in care. 334 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email A Birmingham academic has teamed up with Harry Potter author JK Rowling to launch a charity improving the lives of children in care. Professor Kevin Browne, an expert on childcare and protection at the University of Birmingham, is among a team of four working for the charity Children's High Level Group. The others include Rowling, MEP Baroness Emma Nicholson and education expert Muir-John Potter. The charity was launched on the back of work Prof Browne and Baroness Nicholson have done in Romania. The two have already worked closely with the Romanian Prime Minister to reduce the number of young children in care. About 22,000 children have been put back into family-based care over the past four years, with half of them returned to their parents or relatives. Also, due to a change in the law, it is no longer possible to institutionalise children under two years old. Instead of working from the grass roots, the charity aims to continue its work with high-level officials and government representatives. The charity has received funding from the EU to repeat its work in the eight EU countries with the highest number of children under the age of five in care. These are the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Hungary. "With the celebrity status of JK Rowling and the political talent of Baroness Nicholson, I hope we will be able to target leaders of government and solve this problem," Prof Browne said. "There are many negative psychological and develop-mental effects from taking young children away from their families and not providing adequate foster care for them where they can receive one-to-one interaction. "These countries have all signed the UN Convention on the right of the child, and the Children's High Level Group hopes to help them meet their targets as part of it." The charity will also work with other countries inside and outside Europe and is already in discussions with the Prime Minister of Moldavia. Prof Browne, based at the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology, said JK Rowling "is aware of the publicity that she can attract to the charity". He added: "I am convinced that she will soon become an expert on childcare issues in her own right."

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sday, February 14, 2006

Briefing Note on Romanian Human Rights Issues

This is the official briefing from John Mulligan, Chairman, Focus on Romania, to the Secretary General of the European Commission, Catherine Day. A note about 36,000 children still in institutional care - that is not the total number of children under the care of the State. The accurate number is 110,000. This has been brought to the attention of Mr. Mulligan so his report can be revised. Focus on Romania is out of Ireland.

To: Ms Catherine Day, Secretary General, the European Commission.

From: John Mulligan, Chairman, Focus on Romania.

Dear Prime Minister Popescu-Tariceanu:

As Members of the United States Congress, we write to voice our concerns over the Romanian adoption authorities` recent announcement stating that they plan to reject the remaining unresolved international adoption petitions filed between June 21, 2001 and January 1, 2005.

The Romanian authorities' action fails to demonstrate that a transparent system was used to review the cases and process the adoptions that were qualified under special ordinance 121 prior to its suspension. ln addition, the action is adverse to the spirit and tenets of both international child welfare treaties to which Romania is a signatory, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Inter-country Adoption (hereinafter, "Hague Convention").

As you know, the founding principle of the Hague Convention is "that a child, for the full and harmonious development of his personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding." (Preamble) lt goes on to say that while international adoption is only appropriate after "possibilities for placement of the child within the State of Origin have been given due consideration" (Article 4; Subsection B), "inter-country adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her country of origin." (Preamble) This language is consistent with founding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As a signatory to the Hague Convention, the United States is in full support of the placement priorities that it outlines; reunification with birth family or relatives, domestic adoption, international adoption, long term foster care, temporary institutionalization. However, we cannot support distorting these priorities to favor the use of non-permanent domestic placements, such as foster care or institutionalization, over inter-country adoption.

Dear President Basescu:

As Members of the United States Congress, we write to voice our concerns over the Romanian adoption authorities` recent announcement stating that they plan to reject the remaining unresolved international adoption petitions filed between June 21, 2001 and January 1, 2005.

The Romanian authorities' action fails to demonstrate that a transparent system was used to review the cases and process the adoptions that were qualified under special ordinance 121 prior to its suspension. in addition, the action is adverse to the spirit and tenets of both international child welfare treaties to which Romania is a signatory, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Inter-country Adoption (hereinafter, "Hague Convention").

As you know, the founding principle of the Hague Convention is "that a child, for the full and harmonious development of his personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding." (Preamble) lt goes on to say that while international adoption is only appropriate after "possibilities for placement of the child within the State of Origin have been given due consideration" (Article 4; Subsection B), "inter-country adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her country of origin." (Preamble) This language is consistent with founding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

As a signatory to the Hague Convention, the United States is in full support of the placement priorities that it outlines; reunification with birth family or relatives, domestic adoption, international adoption, long term foster care, temporary institutionalization. However, we cannot support distorting these priorities to favor the use of non-permanent domestic placements, such as foster care or institutionalization, over inter-country adoption.

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Bucharest Daily News - 02-feb-06 - Denisa Maruntoiu

While parents and the Romanian authorities are struggling over the 1,100 orphans still caught in the middle of the convoluted international adoptions conflict, high ranking European officials including the Council of Europe's Deputy Secretary Maud de Boer-Buquicchio and European Parliament Member Baroness Emma Nicholson, are gathering in Bucharest for the annual International Conference on Children's Rights. The two-day conference starting today, organized under the patronage of the Council of Europe's Ministers' Committee, aims to find viable solutions for all the problems and challenges affecting the world's children, including the thorny international adoption issue. However, the stories of several Romanian adoptees, some happy, some tragic, illustrate how difficult it might be to find a balanced solution when it comes to children and their future.

Every night when Kathleen Richards reads her six-year-old son Alexandru his favorite bedtime story, she thinks about a little girl whom she will never get to kiss good-night.

Larisa, 4, is more than 5,000 kilometers away, in Romania, and Kathleen doesn't really know how to tell her son that the girl who should have been his sister will never come home to Keene, New Hampshire. That the toys and presents brought by Santa are all for him. That Larisa will get none. The Richards' mission is almost impossible, as Alexandru has been waiting for Larisa more than four years already. Kathleen and her husband David do not know how they can make a six year old understand why Romania, which is Alexandru's native country too, rejected their request to adopt Larisa.

Kathleen, a lifelong Keene resident, and David, a city councilor, have been married for 12 years. Immediately after their wedding, when they were both 30 years old, Kathleen found out she could not have a pregnancy because of infertility. Because they desperately wanted a child, they started working on the process of trying to adopt. "The laws required that we wait until we had been married two years before actually starting to look for a child, so in August 1996 we were officially granted the right to adopt from the U.S. or abroad," says Kathleen.

AP Interview:

"Harry Potter" author getting

involved with child welfare in Eastern Europe

By ALISON MUTLER

Associated Press Writer