The Ministry of Justice has published the new rules for working with the children as part of the special needs program:
CONDITIONS AND ORDER FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SPECIAL MEASURES FOR ADOPTION OF CHILDREN UNDER ART. 21 OF ORDINANCE NO. 13/2009
I. General provisions
1. The special measures for the adoption of children shall be implemented through the active cooperation of the organizations accredited under Art. 116 of the Family Code (FC) and the foreign accredited organizations which shall take the necessary actions to examine the specifics of the children, consult and prepare the prospective adoptive parents on how to address the particular needs of the children.
2. The organizations as per Par. 1 shall take all actions for the sole purpose of the adoption of the child and the securing of the child’s interests in compliance with all legal requirements for personal data protection of the respective country.
3. The organizations as per Par. 1 shall take the necessary actions for the termination of the use and distribution of the information about the child and return the information to the Ministry of Justice in case the respective reasons occur.
II. Publication of information about children
1. The Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions” shall make a profile for each child for whom the Intercountry Adoption Council has ascertained that the circumstances under Art. 112, Par. 6 of the FC have occurred and shall publish the child’s profile on the official webpage of the Ministry. The following information about each profile shall be published: date of birth; gender; health status and information about the child’s placement.
2. The order of listing the profiles of the children shall be correspondent to the sequence of their inscription in the Register under Art. 113, Par. 1, Clause 1 of the FC.
3. Each month the following information shall be published on the official webpage of the Ministry of Justice: 1) profiles of children for whom the Council has suggested special measures to be taken during the previous month and 2) profiles of children published in the previous months for whom adoptive parents need to be found – “A table summarizing data about the active profiles of children for whom adoptive parents are being sought”.
III. Requirements for the organizations
1. An organization accredited under Art. 116 of the FC which would like to participate in the implementation of the special measures for the adoption of children should submit a written application under its accreditation number. The following documents should be enclosed to the application:
a) A notarized declaration by the representative of the organization stating that the additional information received and/or gathered about each child shall be used for the sole purpose of the adoption in compliance with all legal requirements for personal data protection;
b) A list of the foreign accredited organizations to which information about the children will be presented;
2. Within a one-month deadline following the submission of the application the organization accredited under Art. 116 of the FC shall submit a notarized Declaration as per Par. 1 “a” from the representative of each foreign accredited organization included in the list as per Par.1 “b”. The Declaration should meet the requirements stated in Art. 6, par. 8 of Ordinance No. 13/2009.
3. The organization accredited under Art. 116 of the FC shall not be entitled to provide additional information about children to a foreign accredited organization before accomplishing the requirements as per the previous paragraphs.
IV. Regulations regarding the provision and collection of additional information about a child whose profile has been published on the webpage of the Ministry of Justice.
1. Regardless of whether a child’s profile is published for the first time or has been published before, the additional information can be provided only after the allocation of profiles between the organizations accredited under Art. 116 of the FC.
2. The allocation is conducted at the Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions”, no sooner than 3 days after the publication of the profiles.
3. Applications for participation are submitted electronically to the Social Services Department of the Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions”, only by organizations which had fulfilled their obligations under Par. III.
4. The attending representatives of the organizations accredited under Art. 116 of the FC, draw a lot number randomly and pick profiles based on it. The representative who pulls # 1 is the first to choose one of the new or available profiles. Subsequently, # 2 chooses a profile, etc. This continues until the participants do not wish to take any more profiles or until all profiles have been allocated.
5. Each organization accredited under Art. 116 of the FC has the opportunity to request profiles, in compliance with the requirement to work with up to 20 children at any given time. The number of children is revised on the 24th day of every month. The profiles of siblings who are to be adopted together are considered a single profile.
6. A protocol is prepared after each allocation procedure. A copy signed by all participants should be provided to everyone. A report about the allocation is to be presented to the competent Deputy Minister up to 3 days after it has been held.
7. The organizations accredited under Art. 116 of the Family Code submit applications for obtaining additional information about the profiles requested at the allocation by the end of the following day. The application is registered in the registration office at the Ministry of Justice under a new reference number 16-08- sequential digit. Failure to submit an application is viewed as a rejection of the choice made.
8. The applications are processed in a 7-day period by the Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions” and information about the children is conveyed on USB Flash Drives. The two-month deadline starts from the day the information has been provided as per Art. 21 of Ordinance 13/09.
9. Within the two-month deadline as per Art. 21 of Ordinance № 13/09 the organization accredited under Art. 116 of the Family Code is obliged to make every effort to study all the specifics of the children in a precise manner by using the information, received by the Ministry of Justice and/or by gathering additional information: making photos and/or videos; filling in questionnaires; organizing consultations, etc.
Provided that the organization collects additional information the latter must include not less than 5 full – length photos of the child and/or a video material showing how the child performs usual activities in his/her environment and lasting no less than 3 minutes; questionnaires, containing information about the neuro-psychological development of the child and the specifics in his/her behavior; results from consultations held with doctors and/or other experts.
10. The organization accredited under Art. 116 of the Family Code shall submit an application for collecting additional information for the child/ren to the Ministry of Justice. The Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions” prepares a letter to the organization which contains information about the children for whom the organization is authorized to gather additional information, the institutions where the children are placed, as well as the period in which the organization has been authorized to work with the profiles. Based on this letter the organization establishes contact with the people taking care of the children and organizes the visits.
11. It is mandatory that additional information, as described in Par. 9, is collected for each child whose profile has been published on the list for the first time.
12. When additional information has been collected for a child, an update is not to be allowed in the next 4 months. The Ministry of Justice can decide on the necessity of subsequent collection of additional information, based on the specifics of each child.
V. Applications, submitted by prospective adoptive parents
1. After the two-month deadline as per Art. 21 of Ordinance № 13/09 expires the organization accredited under Art. 116 of the Family Code is obliged to submit all the information, gathered about the child both when an application of a prospective adoptive parent is present and when the organization has not been successful in finding an adoptive parent for the child.
2. All children’s profiles for whom the two-month deadline has expired and no application has been submitted will be considered available on the 24th day of each month. The organization may return the information about a child before the expiration of the two-month deadline but no earlier than one month after receiving it.
3. No applications of adoptive parents, represented by another organization, accredited under Art. 116 of FC will be reviewed before the two-month period as per Art. 21 of Ordinance № 13/09 expires for the organization currently working with the profile. Such applications will be reviewed if no application by a prospective adopter, represented by the organization working with the child’s profile has been submitted within the stated term.
4. All the applications submitted under Art. 21 of Ordinance № 13/09 shall be reviewed by the Directorate “International Legal Protection of Children and International Adoptions”. If considered necessary, the case may be reported at a session of the Intercountry Adoption Council so that a decision can be made.
5. In case the documents, necessary for the inscription of the prospective adoptive parent in the register have not been submitted in the legally required form within 6 months following the submission of the application, the profile of the child is considered available and it gets activated on the website of the Ministry. The organization accredited under Art. 116 FC shall terminate its work with the profile and return all the information about the child to the Ministry immediately. In case a home study report has been presented, the adoptive parent may be provided with an additional deadline up to 3 months to submit all required documents.
6. Provided that the adoptive parent withdraws their application for adoption or states a refusal to accept an adoption referral, the child’s profile is considered available and gets activated on the website of the Ministry, and the organization returns the information about the child and terminates its work with the profile immediately.