ADG - Hague regulations slow international adoptions

From my archive of press clippings:

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Hague regulations slow international adoptions

BY NOEL E. OMAN

Posted on Monday, November 24, 2008

Donna Baslee of Bella Vista knows firsthand how difficult and complex it is to adopt foreign-born children.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Nationally, international adoptions fell to 17, 438 in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 from 19, 613 in fiscal year 2007, a drop of 11 percent, according to the Office of Children’s Issues at the U. S. State Department.

It was the lowest number of adoptions in nearly a decade and far below the peak of 22, 884 adoptions reached in 2004.

International adoptions likely will continue to decline. Guatemala had the highest number of intercountry adoptions with the United States in 2008, replacing China, which had held the top spot for a number of years. But the United States said in September that it would no longer process adoptions from Guatemala because the adoptions can’t comply with the Hague Adoption Convention standards, which the United States began enforcing April 1.

The Hague Adoption Convention is an international agreement among participating countries on best adoption procedures.

It has two main goals: to ensure that the best interest of children are considered in every intercountry adoption and to prevent the abduction, exploitation, sale and trafficking of children.

Guatemala has agreed to participate in the Hague Adoption Convention, but U. S. officials say the nation has yet to set up procedures and a central office to handle intercountry adoptions."