The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption by Maureen Evans, Director, JCICS

The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption

by Maureen Evans, Director, JCICS

The most significant change (that we can predict!) currently in international adoption will be the implementation of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, a multilateral treaty now being considered for ratification by countries around the world, including the United States. The treaty seeks to ensure that the rights and responsibilities of all adoption triad members (adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents) are respected in intercountry adoption.

The Hague Convention is designed to standardize adoption requirements, allay fears that internationally adopted children are being treated as servants or otherwise mis-used, and improve the process by which a child can gain a permanent family. The Convention will impose new responsibilities on the U.S. government, such as creation of a Central Authority with general oversight and trouble-shooting responsibilities for international adoptions covered by the Convention. Many members of the international adoption community have been actively involved in establishing accreditation criteria for adoption agencies and working with federal officials to ensure smooth implementation of the Convention.

The United States signed the Hague Convention in 1994, a symbolic act showing that the U.S. intended to eventually ratify the Convention. The U.S. Senate needs to give its ³advice and consent² to U.S. ratification, and the Congress needs to enact legislation to ensure uniform implementation of the Convention through the United States. Ratification of the Hague Convention is expected to occur within the next 2-3 years.

The Hague Convention mandates creation of a ³Central Authority,² an entity for adoption oversight and cooperation with the Central Authorities of other countries which have ratified the Hague. The goals of the Central Authority are laudable and practical: removal of barriers that delay or inhibit intercountry adoption, advocacy for and protection of children without permanent families, prevention of improper financial gain and fraudulent practices, dissemination of statistical data about intercountry adoption, and other important objectives.

What will all this mean in a practical sense for the adoption process? Once the United States has ratified the treaty, agencies will have to be approved by a formal accreditation body in order to work with ³Hague countries² (foreign countries which have also become parties to the Hague Convention). They will still have to be licensed by their state, but will also need Hague Convention accreditation, which involves meeting rigorous, substantive requirements regarding staff credentials, accounting practices, and other ethical and practical standards. Smaller, homestudy agencies may not need to be fully accredited, but will need to be approved to work under the Hague Convention and will probably work with accredited agencies. Non-licensed, non-accredited agencies will not be allowed to offer adoption services covered by the Convention.

For adoptive parents, the Hague Convention should mean additional peace of mind regarding their agency, since the parents will know the agency is formally accredited as meeting the standards for all Convention-accredited agencies. Parents will also know that the foreign government with which their agency is working is also committed to safeguards ensuring that an intercountry adoption not only is in the best interest of the child but also respects the child¹s fundamental rights as recognized under international law. One practical change is that re-adoption in the United States will not be necessary, because a Convention adoption, finalized overseas, must be recognized by all countries that have ratified the Convention. It is possible that the Hague Convention will also promote expedited naturalization and citizenship.

Birth parents and adoptees should benefit as well by the formalized safeguards and standards. The rumors that sometimes arise in countries of origin regarding use of children as servants or worse should be put to rest, encouraging birth parents to consider an adoption plan. Adoptees¹ interests, under the Hague Convention, should be protected by preservation of information about their origin and medical history, in keeping with the laws of both the country of origin and the adoptive country.

I am hopeful that the Hague Convention will strengthen the integrity of international adoption for all involved. As an adoptive parent as well as an adoption professional, I am increasingly convinced of the viability of international adoption as an option for homeless children. I firmly believe institutional and foster care should be viewed only as temporary solutions to a child¹s need for permanency; I also believe that, when a child cannot remain with his or her birth family, in-country adoption is a first priority. When that is not possible, international adoption offers a positive solution for children who need homes and forever families.

Maureen Evans, M.A., is Director of the Joint Council on International Children¹s Services, the largest, oldest affiliation of licensed, non-profit international adoption agencies in the world. She is also the adoptive parent of two sons, born in the United States, and 2 daughters, born in Ethiopia

http://web.archive.org/web/19980124045700/http://www.jcics.org/hagueinfo.html