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Section on US Laws The United States (US) is bound both by domestic and international laws regarding adoptions of children. The laws cover US families adopting children from abroad, and families abroad adopting US-born children. Many US children are adopted abroad. Families in the US adopted 8,668 children from abroad in 2012.

There are several international treaties and conventions regulating the intercountry adoption of children. When possible, the US prefers to enter into multilateral agreements over bilateral ones, because of the difficulty in getting the Senate to ratify international agreements.
 * Inter-American Convention on Conflict of Laws Concerning the Adoption of Minors, 1984 (US not signed or ratified)
 * US bilateral agreement with Viet Nam on 1 Sept 2005
 * United Nations General Assembly Declaration on Social and Legal Principles Relating to Adoption and Foster Placement of Children Nationally and Internationally (adopted without vote)
 * Hague Adoption Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention). The US has acceded to (signed) but the Senate has not ratified the Hague Convention.  The US also made a declaration that this convention does not supersede Title 18, United States Code, Section 3190 relating to documents submitted to the United States Government in support of extradition requests.
 * United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US signed (16 Feb 1995) but the Senate has not ratified because of states’ rights to execute children (minors tried as adults).  This was deemed unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 2005, but the Senate has not reversed its position.

The US Department of State (State Department) lists the pertinent legal documents regarding adoptions. In particular, the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 incorporates the Hague Convention into domestic law. The act stipulates requirements for US children being adopted internationally. Paragraph 97.3 (§97.3) stipulates the requirements for an outgoing child to another country that has also ratified the Hague Convention.

Outgoing Children: Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. 14901-14954. §97.3  Requirements subject to verification in an outgoing Convention case. (a) Preparation of child background study. (b) Transmission of child data. (c) Reasonable efforts to find domestic placement. (d) Preparation and transmission of home study. (1) Information on the prospective adoptive parent(s)' identity, eligibility, and suitability to adopt, 			background, family and medical history, social environment, reasons for adoption, ability to undertake an intercountry adoption, and the characteristics of the children for whom they would be qualified to care; (2) Confirmation that a competent authority has determined that the prospective adoptive parent(s) are eligible and suited to adopt and has ensured that the prospective adoptive parent(s) have been counseled as necessary; and (3) The results of a criminal background check. (e) Authorization to enter. (f) Consent by foreign authorized entity. (g) Guardian counseling and consent. (h) Child counseling and consent. (j) Contacts. (k) Improper financial gain.

A families’ eligibility to adopt from another country is fairly similar to the requirements of domestic adoptions, with additions regarding citizenship, visas, and immigration. These are detailed in the booklet “Intercountry Adoption from A to Z” (http://adoption.state.gov/content/pdf/Intercountry_Adoption_From_A_Z.pdf).

 E LIGIBILTY TO ADOPT  Before you can bring a child home from another country, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) must determine that you are able to provide a loving, stable home for that child. The most important requirement for USCIS approval is a home study that establishes your ability to care for a child. Every state has different requirements for this home study, but in general all home studies will detail personal, financial, and medical information. They will include items such as personal references, fingerprint clearances, verification of employment, proof of health and life insurance, and sometimes photos of your home and family. Home studies are typically prepared by a social work professional or organization, though state laws vary. Your adoption service provider should know the requirements of your state, and make sure that your home study satisfies all laws and regulations (including those of the Hague Adoption Convention). If adopting from a Hague Convention country, your home study must be completed by an accredited adoption service provider unless the home study preparer qualifies as an exempted provider. Once your home study is complete, it will be submitted to USCIS.

Visa Requirements are broken down by destination country depending on if the country is a party to the Hague Convention. The Adoptive Child needs a VISA to enter the US. Depending on if the country is Hague or not the child will need one of the following: Hague: I-800A; I-800; DS-260; DS-5509; DS-1981 Not Hague: I-600A; I-600; DS-260; DS-1981. The forms can be found here: (http://adoption.state.gov/us_visa_for_your_child.php).

 P ROCESSING YOUR CHILD’S VISA Although the visa interview appears to involve a single action that may be quickly completed, the Consular Officer performs several different steps required by U.S. law and regulation. The Consular Officer: • Reviews the approved I-600 or I-800 petition to ensure that the child has satisfied the requirements of an orphan or Convention Adoptee as defined by U.S. law; • Verifies that a competent foreign authority has fully and irrevocably terminated the birth parents’ rights or granted appropriate permissions so the child can be adopted; • Determines that the child's medical condition, as reported by the panel physician, or other factors do not preclude visa issuance; • Establishes that the adoptive parents have legal custody (Some adoption guardianship decrees, such as the ones practiced under Islamic Family Law, may not meet the requirements of U.S. immigration law); • Confirms that the child has the required travel documentation such as birth certificate and passport; and • Conducts the required security checks.

 U.S. CITIZENSHIP FOR AN ADOPTED CHILD It’s very important that you make sure your adopted child becomes a U.S. citizen. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 was designed to make the citizenship acquisition process easier and eliminate extra steps and costs. Under the Child Citizenship Act, children adopted abroad can automatically acquire U.S. citizenship if: • At least one parent of the child is a U.S. citizen; • The child is under the age of 18; • The child is admitted to the United States as an immigrant for lawful permanent residence; and • The adoption is final. Because of the Child Citizenship Act, many parents are no longer required to make a separate application for their children to be naturalized. If your adoption doesn’t meet these requirements, however, acquiring citizenship for your child will require an additional process and additional fees. If you postpone or even forget to file for your child’s naturalization, your child may have difficulty getting college scholarships, working legally, voting, et cetera. In some cases, your child might actually be subject to possible deportation. Make plans right away to protect your child’s future.

The State Department provides useful interactive maps detailing US adoption rates since 1999 by several categories (http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php). Outline

Outline_ International Adoption

Team Member: Carolina Prandelli, Hanjie Wang, David Gertiser, Damien N. Somé

Note: Dear Professor, We have endeavored to sketch the outline in a very comprehensive manner in the hope you could help us narrow down to the core priorities in line with your expectations from this exercise.

The current Wikipedia entry for the topic of “International adoption” has many inadequacies. It has been evaluated by Wikipedia itself as an article that has multiple issues and therefore needs to be improved. Concerns expressed by Wikipedia include the need of “additional citations for verification” and the fact that the article may not represent a “worldwide view of the subject”. Our task, henceforth, consists essentially of: 1. locating and editing the contentious parts; 2. adding new content in order to improve the overall quality of the article and to make it reflect a global perspective on the question of international adoption. We will do so by grounding our writing into the existing literature on the subject, by taking other Wikipedia contributors’ opinion on the “talk” page, and also by following strictly Wikipedia’s recommendations for a good Wikipedia article.

Concretely, we hope to improve the article with regard to the following aspects:

1-Terminology [edit]

Problem observed:

The current article uses confusedly and interchangeably the terms “transnational or intercountry/ international/ interracial adoption or transracial/ transcultural” adoption.

Solution:

For more clarity we intend to consistently use the term “International adoption” which seems to us more comprehensive. Meanwhile, we will devote 1~2 lines to clarify the difference between these confusing terms.

2- Concept and History of international adoption [New Section]

Problem observed:

The current article simply addresses the term of “international adoption” without any reference to its history, despite the fact that “international adoption” is plentiful in meaning and has evolved historically.

Solution:

To help understand the current situation and problems of today’s international adoption in a historical context, we will create the new section of “Concept and History of International adoption”. Here, we show the history narrative of international adoption, its evolution, and its current situation.

Reference:

UNDP Child Adoption Trend and policies, 2009, available at http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/adoption2010/child_adoption.pdf

Claire Gore, « L’adoption. Adoptables, adoptés, quelles sont les réalités de l’adoption ? Sa place en lien avec les évolutions de la parentalité ? Son devenir institutionnel ? »,

Armand Colin, Paris, 2007 (p. 55 and p. 77 about the current trends of the international adoption as tool of child protection)

Trevor Buck ,“International Child Law”,New York : Routledge, 2011 ( brief history of international adoption and current trends, p. 243)

Isabelle Lammerant, Marlène Hofstetter, “Adoption: at what cost? For an ethical responsibility of receiving countries in intercountry adoption”, Terre des homes, 2007 (sensitive introduction on the current trends of the phenomenon of international adoption)

Ingeborg Schwenzer, “International Adoption”,Bern: Stämpfli, 2009 (p.99 historical perspective of the phenomenon of adoption (not specifically “international adoption”), from Roman Law, Middle Age, to Modern and Contemporary  Ages )

3- International Legal Framework [Editing on current section of “International Law”]

Problem observed:

In the current section of “International Law”, only two conventions are mentioned, the “Hague Adoption Convention” and very briefly the “UN Declaration Relating to the Welfare of Children”. Important literature missing includes the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child” as well as an attempt to  systematically present laws/ regulations on a regional/ national level. There are only scattered and very general references to specific countries’ laws and policies with regard to international adoption.

In addition, the existing section on the Hague Adoption Convention seems to contain “original research” showing a specific point of view: the implementation of the Convention results in hindering adoptions instead of implementing them. However the argument seems underdeveloped (only the case of one country is presented, namely Guatemala). The section also lacks proper references and it is biased in the sense that the opposite point of view (e.g. positive effects of the Convention’s implementation in some countries) is not reported.

Solution:

We will change the name of the section into International Legal Framework. First we aim at completing the section about the international laws on international adoption, including other legal sources and presenting a less biased point of view with regard to the Hague Convention. Second, we consider it necessaryto improve the Law section adding more information about the general legal frameworks (and policy trends) specifically for 4 regions. Basically, each team member will briefly contribute analysis of Asian, African, American and European perspectives. Although an exhaustive mapping of national laws on international adoption is impossible, by presenting the general legal aspects of four regions at least we aim to provide a broader and global picture.

Reference:

UNDP Child Adoption Trend and policies, 2009, available at http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/adoption2010/child_adoption.pdf

Isabelle Lammerant, Marlène Hofstetter, “Adoption: at what cost? For an ethical responsibility of receiving countries in intercountry adoption”, Terre des homes, 2007 ( Europe trends p. 21)

Claire Gore, « L’adoption. Adoptables, adoptés, quelles sont les réalités de l’adoption ? Sa place en lien avec les évolutions de la parentalité ? Son devenir institutionnel ? », Armand Colin, Paris, 2007 (European Context p. 190)

P.R. China Adoption Law (2005)

Aime Wata, « La protection internationale de l’enfant en droit congolais » Geneva :: Schulthess éd. Romandes, 2013

4- Sources of children for adoptive parents [ Editing on current section of “Sources of children for adoptive parents in the United States”]

Problem observed:

1) The current section is too biased and narrow, focussing only on the case of the US. Even though parents in the US are those adopting the most, International Adoption is a global issue and more standpoints have to be included.

2) Russia’s ban on US adoption is mentioned in this section. Considering the fact that some other countries are also placing bans on international adoption, this emphasis on the Russia- US story is partial.

Solution:

1) We will work on sources of children for adoptive parents from a worldwide perspective, not simply the US. Might be providing statistics by region/ country.

2) We will also include other countries implementing bans on international adoption, and whether these ban are against specific countries.

5- An “adoption market”? [New Entry]

As some of the literature so far reviewed raise several issues related to the “politicization” or “monetization” of international adoption, we are considering mentioning them by reporting the accurate references and trying to balance the positive and negative aspects related to the phenomenon. It will be a very challenging attempt to maintain a “neutral point of view”. We still have to discuss this potential “new entry” in greater detail. Specifically the main issues related to the topic we found are:

1) Demand and supply/ offer logic and international dynamics, gender perspective (Reference: Reysoo Fenneke, Bos Pien «N’est pas mère qui veut. Le paradoxe de l’adoption interntionale» Nouvelles Questions Féministes, vol. 30 n. 1, 2011; Herman Ellen, The paradoxical rationalization of Modern Adoption) – The politics of international adoption (Wcelebrities’participation in international adoption. Reference: Trevor Buck ,“International Child Law”,New York : Routledge, 2011)

2) Financial transparency (Isabelle Lammerant, Marlène Hofstetter, “Adoption: at what cost? For an ethical responsibility of receiving countries in intercountry adoption”, Terre des hommes)

3)Child Trafficking:

Problems observed:

Due to large demand of children adoption and situation of under- supply, many children are trafficked. This is closely linked with International Adoption, and is identified as one of the major drawbacks as pointed out by Wiki contributors on “talk” page.

Solution:

We will 1) briefly explain the relationship between international adoption and child trafficking; and 2) create the link to the Wikipedia entry of “Child Trafficking”.

Reference:

Isabelle Lammerant, Marlène Hofstetter, “Adoption: at what cost? For an ethical responsibility of receiving countries in intercountry adoption”, Terre des hommes

7- Positive consequence of international adoption. [edit]

Problem observed:

The current section of “Consequences of international adoption” has been very imbalanced distributed into negative and positive, with negative outweighing the positive parts. It threatens the neutrality of this article. Also identified by Wiki contributors on the “talk” page as major drawbacks.

Solution:

1) We will look into literatures to find more positive consequences and add these to the article, so as to recover the neutrality of wikipedia articles.

2) We will also improve the existing part of negative consequences, possibly adding some findings/questions that have been raised about “the ethics of adoption”

Reference:

Claire Gore, « L’adoption. Adoptables, adoptés, quelles sont les réalités de l’adoption ? Sa place en lien avec les évolutions de la parentalité ? Son devenir institutionnel ? », Armand Colin, Paris, 2007, (p. 77 -78)

Ingeborg Schwenzer, “International Adoption”,Bern: Stämpfli, 2009 (p.26)

Elements of Bibliography:

Aime Wata, « La protection internationale de l’enfant en droit congolais », Geneva :: Schulthess chulthess :n inter

Claire Gore, « L’adoption. Adoptables, adoptés, quelles sont les réalités de l’adoption ? Sa place en lien avec les évolutions de la parentalité ? Son devenir institutionnel ? », Armand Colin, Paris, 2007

Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, (concluded 29 may 1993)

Herman Ellen, “The paradoxical rationalization of Modern Adoption”, Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 2, Winter 2002

Ingeborg Schwenzer, “International Adoption”, Bern: Stämpfli, 2009

Isabelle Lammerant, Marlène Hofstetter, “Adoption: at what cost? For an ethical responsibility of receiving countries in intercountry adoption”, Terre des homes, 2007

Nevena Vučković Šahović et al, “The Rights of the Child in International Law”,Stampfli Publishers, Berne, 2012

Reysoo Fenneke, Bos Pien «N’est pas mère qui veut. Le paradoxe de l’adoption interntionale» Nouvelles Questions Féministes, vol. 30 n. 1, 2011

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Trevor Buck ,“International Child Law”,New York : Routledge, 2011

UNDP Child Adoption Trend and policies, 2009, available at http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/adoption2010/child_adoption.pdf

Some other links to double check:

1- Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism’s Gender and Justice Project

2- http://www.genderacrossborders.com/2011/05/26/international-adoption/

3- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2366972/