Public meeting of the Intercountry Adoption Council, April 26th, 2011

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27/04/2011

On 26.04.2011 a public meeting of the Intercountry Adoption Council was held with the participation of the accredited organizations and topical issues were discussed. The accredited organizations demanded greater transparency with respect to the Council’s work.  It was suggested for the old practice of publishing information to be restored. It gave access to the first group of waiting candidate-adopters whose candidatures are being discussed by the Council and are going to receive a referral by order of enrollment. The question was raised why some candidates do not receive а referral, although their turn has come. The Council explained that the registration itself does not guarantee that the candidates will receive a referral and pointed out that the fundamental principle regarding referrals is the child’s best interest. Examples from the Council’s experience were given to support that: 1) candidate-adopters aged 60 or older apply for a child at age 3. In this case it is in the child’s best interest to be adopted by younger candidates and 2) candidates with serious health issues and who have received negative assessment and prognosis in the homestudy  report– in this case the Council considers it better for the child to be adopted by adopters who do not have such health profile.

From the Council’s thesis two conclusions were drawn: 1) that the procedure does not give a guarantee of adoption and 2) the fact that a given candidate’s turn has come is not a prerequisite for a referral. Taking into consideration the above, the Ministry of Justice stated that they consider a change in legislation regarding imposition of age restriction on the candidate-adopters. Fortunately, Family National Association does not represent candidates whose turn for a referral has come and the Council preferred other candidates instead.

The program for special needs children was also discussed. There are many suggestions for its optimization, but for now no concrete decisions in that direction have been reached.