• Engage the State Department in an ongoing dialogue to identify needed regulations to appropriately implement this legislation, to review accreditation standards, and to assess how the treaty is working.

Issue Background
The Alliance for Children and Families advocated for passage of the Hague Convention legislation, and we believe that its codification into law is a great victory for us as well as for parents and children involved in the adoption process. Over the last 10 years, almost 100,000 children have joined U.S. families through intercountry adoption. Americans adopt more children from abroad than the citizens of all other countries combined. In 1998 alone, 15,774 children from other countries joined U.S. families. This number is a sharp increase from the 7,093 adopted in 1990, and that number is expected to increase.

In 1993, recognizing the need for protections against exploitation and abuse of children who are unable to find permanent families in their countries of origin, the U.S. signed the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The convention prescribes a framework for cooperation and a legal structure to safeguard children, birth parents, and adoptive parents involved in intercountry adoptions. In order for the convention to become operational, implementing legislation needed to be enacted. Such legislation was introduced in both houses. The Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 to provide for implementation by the United States of the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptions was signed by the President of the United States on October 6, 2000 and became Public Law 106-279.

The law aims to ensure that international adoptions take place in the best interests of the child, that countries cooperate to prevent child abductions and trafficking, and that adoptions adhere to basic standards, and provides that:

• Certain determinations, such as adoptability of the child, eligibility to immigrate, and prospective parent suitability and counseling, are made before the adoption can proceed.
• Every country that is a party to the convention will establish a national, government-level Central Authority to carry out certain functions that include cooperating with other Central Authorities, overseeing local implementation of the convention, and providing access to information on its adoption laws. In the U.S., the State Department will serve as the Central Authority.
• Every country must establish a national government-level process for uniform screening and authorization of adoption service providers.
• Case-specific functions under the convention, such as adoption counseling, matching children with prospective adoptive parents, preparation of reports on the child and the adoptive parents, and post-placement services may be performed by adoption agencies and other international adoption service providers.
• Certified convention adoptions are recognized in all other countries party to the convention.

Countries allowing children to be adopted by families in other countries prefer that the nations in which the adoptive parents reside be parties to the convention. Some countries may choose to allow only families living in countries that have ratified the treaty to adopt their children. Twenty-nine countries are now operating under the Hague Convention and it is anticipated that many more of the 66 countries that collaborated on its development will eventually come under its provisions. Eleven additional countries have signed the convention, indicating intent to ratify. No safeguards previously existed in U.S. law to protect the rights of U.S. children who were being adopted by parents in other countries. Such safeguards are now available under the Hague Convention.

The law calls for the Secretary of State to oversee the accreditation process for adoption agencies both in the United States and abroad and to ensure that U.S. adoption agencies engage in an ethical manner in finding homes for children. The U.S. Department of State is now required to ensure that a child’s medical records are available in English, that agencies prepare reports on prospective adoptive families, that the emigration and immigration processes are streamlined for adopted children, and that appropriate measures are taken when adoption is contrary to a child’s best interest.

The Alliance for Children and Families intends to continue work with the Hague Confederation, a coalition of adoptive parents groups, children's advocacy organizations, and child welfare agencies to express concerns and make recommendations to the State Department with regard to the Hague Convention regulations.