A press release from the US State Department will be of interest to the international adoption community in America:

The United States has moved closer to its goal of ratifying the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption with the publication of proposed rules related to adoption and custody proceedings, and with the designation of two entities to handle the accreditation of adoption service providers.

The State Department has named the Council on Accreditation and the Colorado Department of Human Resources as entities responsible for accrediting nonprofit agencies or other providers to handle adoptions between countries that have implemented the Hague Convention.

The designation of accrediting entities is one of the steps necessary for the United States to ratify the convention. Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty has said that implementing the Hague Convention for the United States is among her “highest priorities.”

The convention sets minimum international standards and procedures for adoptions that occur between implementing countries. It aims to prevent abuses such as the abduction, sale or trafficking of children, and to help prevent the exploitation of children, birth parents and adoptive parents.

To date, 68 countries have ratified or acceded to the convention. The United States signed the pact in 1994 and hopes to ratify it by 2007. The Intercountry Adoption Act signed by President Clinton in 2000 calls on the State Department to issue regulations to implement the convention.

In February, the State Department met a major milestone with the adoption of final regulations on the approval and accreditation of adoption service providers – a necessary step toward bringing the convention into force.

“We now have, for the first time, a set of national standards for adoption agencies,” Assistant Secretary Harty told the National Council for Adoption in April.

Harty went on to say the United States signed the Hague Convention because “we believe it is a vital tool for ensuring that intercountry adoptions are always based upon the best interests of children.”

She said the United States works hard to persuade other countries to join and implement the convention.

“We invite foreign government officials to come to the United States to see how our intercountry adoption system works and to witness first-hand the benefits enjoyed by children,” she said. In 2005 the State Department hosted two delegations from Russia as well as delegations from Kazakhstan and Armenia, Harty said.

Two additional rule-makings proposed by the State Department also would move the United States closer to ratification of the convention.

In a June 16 proposed rule, the State Department sought to establish the application process for Hague Convention Certificates and Hague Convention Declarations in cases involving emigration of a child from the United States. The proposal also would establish a process for seeking certification that an adoption done in the United States following a grant of custody in a Hague Convention country of origin was done in accordance with the Hague Convention.

On June 22, the State Department proposed procedures that U.S. consular officers would follow in cases involving intercountry adoptions, including processing immigration petitions, visas and Hague Convention certificates.

The June 16 and the June 22 proposals are available on the U.S. Government Printing Office Web site.

Comments on the June 16 proposal will be accepted until August 15; the comment period on the June 22 proposal closed July 24. The State Department is required to consider any comments submitted before it can adopt final rules.

In 2005, Americans adopted nearly 23,000 children from countries around the world, with more than half coming from countries that are parties to the Hague Convention, according to Assistant Secretary Harty.

For more information, go to the Bureau of International Information Programs, US Department of State.