President of the Adoption Authority: We will resume the steps for international adoptions because it gives children with disabil

President of the Adoption Authority: We will resume the steps for international adoptions because it gives children with disabilities or other ethnicities a chance. Families in Romania resort to adoption only if they cannot have biological children

ARTICLES • JANUARY 22, 2020 • EDITORIAL OFFICE • 1,664 VIEWS • 12 COMMENTS

We will resume the steps for international adoptions, because they offer a chance to a family of children with disabilities or other ethnicities in the protection system, in the context in which the Romanian families do not adopt such children, said the president of the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoptions (ANDPDCA), M?d?lina Turza, in an interview with Agerpres.

Turza said she is considering more measures regarding adoptions: simplifying the procedure for internal adoptions, evaluating case managers, because it is a problem with opening adoption files, and will launch an adoption promotion campaign.

"The families of Romanians who adopt children are those who cannot have children naturally, mostly. I think this story of adoption must be popularized among people. I do not think Romanians necessarily refuse to adopt, I believe that there is simply not a very strong awareness of this option and I think that a campaign in this sense is very useful ”, said M?d?lina Turza.

She said that it is a question of emancipation of the society, because about 80% of the adoptive families in Romania are those who cannot have children, which reflects either an ignorance or a reluctance, because we have not reached the level where we see adoption as a well done, greater fulfillment than the biological need to have children. "I mean we don't think of a child unless we can do it. This is a matter on which we cannot act directly, obviously, but only through a lot of information, communication, and it is effectively about the level of emancipation of the company, it is not necessarily a financial problem ”, added Turza.

The president of the adoption authority explained that, in this context, international adoptions are welcome.

"I believe that these children still institutionalized, especially with disabilities, and not only, can have a real chance from outside adoptive families. If we, the Romanian society has not reached the level of development that can adopt a child to do a greater good, no matter what color the child's skin has, whether or not he has disability, then I think we have to give the chance to other families , who want a child, to practically save a child. And this is practically an extremely important solution, because in civilized countries people want to adopt children regardless of the criteria ”, Turza said.

She explained that she sees this international adoption in a very balanced way, with post-adoption monitoring.

Regarding the danger related to trafficking in children, Turza said that it exists in the case of domestic adoptions. "It is the role of the competent bodies, the Police, the Prosecutor's Office, to investigate such situations when they are revealed. On the other hand, I believe that there are levers in which to prevent and monitor such skids, and if there are no international adoptions we will create them. Intermediate mechanisms must be avoided, I know what companies or NGOs or so on, so there are all kinds of ways in which situations can be avoided, "she said.

"Obviously, no system is perfect, but we must not restrict the rights of these children to the family, because of possible skids. And for this very reason, I want to hold a public debate with some US experts on international adoption, precisely to assess what the risks are and how they can be addressed in practice, from procedures, that is, how you do to avoid such situations. But I repeat, and I want to emphasize this idea - this risk of corruption, of selling, or as you want to call it, there are also in relation to the internal adoption and it is happening right now - there are children who are actually taken directly from motherhood, you no longer go through the adoption procedure, but because you have a nurse who knows that today a mother left the hospital leaving the child, she calls on the track, announces the wish and comes and takes it directly to the placement and then adopts it much easier. It doesn't go into that classic procedure anymore. So the Romanians have found ways to circumvent the system and the norms and inside, so this risk I do not see only in relation to the international adoptions, I think that for these problems solutions must be found both inside and outside ”, stressed M?d?lina Turza.

Asked if the steps for international adoptions will be resumed, if the party that proposed it, PNL, will win the majority in the elections, M?d?lina Turza replied: "Definitely yes. We want to have international adoptions in the interest of children. If we see at one point that Romanians have reached the level where they are open for adoption and for the adoption of the most vulnerable children, then obviously things can change in the law, that is, they are not immutable things ”.

From 2012, the international adoption of the child with the habitual residence in Romania by a person / family with the habitual residence abroad can be approved only in the following situations:

a) the adopter or one of the spouses of the adoptive family is related to the fourth degree including the child for whom the opening of the internal adoption procedure was approved;

b) the adopter or one of the spouses of the adoptive family is also a Romanian citizen;

c) the adopter is the husband of the natural parent of the child whose adoption is requested.

Photo: Facebook Maria Madalina Turza

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