Today, September 17, 2012, a working meeting was held in the Ministry of Justice in relation to the legal framework under Art.21 of Ordinance № 13/2009.
We presented the opinions and suggestions of our partnering organizations with regards to the major issues aiming at optimizing the Special needs program. The possibility for having families and children matched not by the Council but by the Directorate for International Legal Child Protection and Intercountry Adoption at the MOJ, based on a unified application form, was discussed. When this form is prepared, all accredited organizations will be informed and provided with a sample.
A possible future meeting between the Intercountry Adoption Council and the accredited organizations was discussed. It is expected that during this meeting the Council will clarify the principles they follow in their work and the criteria they abide by when judging the eligibility of adopters, who have filed applications for special needs children, as well as when determining the best interest of the children. We hope to understand how the Intercountry Adoption Council applies the criteria in their work.
It was emphasized that it is imperative to have the personal contact between children and adopters in the cases of the adoptions of special needs children since thus the adopters will get their own idea of the child’s needs and whether or not they could cope with them. Of course, adoption procedures without a personal contact will be allowed by way of exception in the cases under Art.14, par. 1 of Ordinance №13/2009.
Another working meeting was scheduled for October 11,2012.