US Assistant Secretary of State Says Nepal Changes in Adoption Process Inadequate

The United States’ stance on recent adoption reforms in Nepal was relayed by visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs on Thursday  February 17, 2011.

“Assistant Secretary Jacobs noted that recent changes to the adoption process in Nepal are inadequate to address concerns about the origin of the children being matched for inter-country adoption,” said Heather Steil, spokesperson at the US embassy, when asked about the US stance on the recent reform measures.”

In December 2010, Nepal “amended adoption-related provisions, making it mandatory for any children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization facilitating inter-country adoption to submit details about each orphan child to a Probe and Recommendation Committee (PRC) within seven days and to a Family Selection Committee (FSC) under MWCSW within 14 days after the concerned district administration office (DAO) verifies that the child in question is an ´orphan´ or a ´destitute´ seeking foster parents.

In addition, MWCSW has also made it necessary for the children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization to have been engaged for a minimum of six years in the field of child welfare to be eligible for facilitating inter-country adoptions.”

An alliance of countries that met on January 13, 2011 “had also concluded that the efforts were not sufficient. In addition, they were also against reopening adoption from Nepal. Besides the US, representatives from the embassies of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Switzerland were present at the meeting called to discuss the reforms introduced in the adoption system in December. ”

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28409
[Republica 2/19/11 by Kiran Chapagain]

“Tilak Ram Sharma, acting Secretary of MoWCSW, met Jacob and said that addressing US concerns would  take time. He said inter-country adoption was not a priority of the government. “Our primary focus will be to strengthen the domestic adoption in place of inter-country adoption,” Sharma said.”

http://www.ekantipur.com/2011/02/18/top-story/us-bar-on-nepali-kids-adoption-to-stay/329806.html
[eKantipur.com 2/19/11 by Baburam Kharel]

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