Russia and US to Sign Bilateral Adoption Treaty in Mid-July 2011 UPDATED

Russia and the United States will sign an adoption treaty on July 12-14 in Washington, Russia’s ombudsman for child rights Pavel Astakhov said on Wednesday.

The treaty, which will be signed during Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov’s visit to the United States, is expected to ensure the safety of Russian children adopted by U.S. families.

“The signing of the agreement, this historic…, should take place on July 12-14, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will pay a visit to Washington,” Astakhov said. “The last proofreading of the text was held on Wednesday in the Ministry of Education and Science, which is preparing the draft agreement on adoption.”

Russia, U.S. to sign adoption treaty in Washington by mid-July – ombudsman
[Ria Novosti 6/22/11]

Update: “Mrs Clinton confirmed that the agenda of the forthcoming talks [with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov] would include items concerning visas, adoption of children.”

ITAR-TASS claims that the full interview will be “broadcast by the Russia-24 TV channel and published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta. ”
US, Russia “want to travel many miles together”–Hillary Clinton.
[ITAR-TASS 6/29/11]

Update 2: “Adoptions of Russian children by families in the United States will be carried out only by U.S.-based agencies that meet the Hague Adoption Convention’s requirements, a Russian official said on Wednesday.

Russia and the United States will sign an adoption treaty that is expected to ensure the safety of Russian children adopted by U.S. families in mid-July.

“We will arrange with the American side that only accredited adoption service providers that have a so-called Hague accreditation [eligible to provide adoption services within Hague Adoption Convention] can receive a permit to work on Russia’s territory,” said Sergey Vitelis of Russia’s Education and Science Ministry said.

Once the treaty comes into force, adoption agencies will receive accreditation under the new rules, he added.”

Russian-U.S. adoptions to adhere to Hague convention
[RIA Novosti 6/29/11]

Update 3: Three more Russian articles and a Wall Street Journal article discuss the anticipated Wednesday July 13, 2011 signing of the bilateral treaty. The Wall Street Journal claims to have seen a copy of the actual treaty. That article marks the first US publication to mention the Russian adoptee disruption case that we have been reporting on since June 10, 2011.

Russian Articles

“The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will sign adoption and visa facilitation agreements in Washington next week. This was declared by US Ambassador John Beyrle at the reception marking the US Independence Day in Moscow.

Russia and the USA to sign more agreements
[The Voice of Russia 7/4/11]

“On child adoptions, the Russian government has long sought the agreement after witnessing a series of deaths of Russian children at the hands of their U.S. parents over the past decade. The final straw was the U.S. mother’s decision to send her young son back to Russia last year with a note saying he was psychologically unstable.

Among other things, the child adoption agreement will require adoptive parents to be more closely monitored for signs of potential abuse and neglect in their homes.

Alexander Zakharov, a senior Foreign Ministry official who helped draft the agreement, told reporters last week that the document was the product of seven rounds of talks and that the final round had reconciled linguistic differences between the Russian and English versions, Interfax reported.”

Beyrle: Visas Bigger Deal Than Arms Pact
[The Moscow Times 7/5/11 by Andrew McChesney]

“Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said an adoption agreement between Russia and the United States included toxicity testing of adoptive parents and forbade independent adoption.

In an interview with Rossiya 24 Channel on Thursday, Lavrov said, “An agreement on international adoption includes several very important and obligatory elements. The first element is essential toxicity testing of potential adoptive parents due to several episodes such as beating and abuse of Russian adopted children. The American authorities will bear responsibility for this testing.”

“The second element is to forbid the so-called independent adoption. Adoption should be conducted only through a specially accredited agency. The U.S. authorities also bear responsibility for this,” Lavrov stressed.

“And the third element is that all Russian children adopted by Americans will not change their citizenship,” he added.

According to official Russian data, last year 1,079 children were adopted from Russia by American parents. To date, according to various estimates, approximately 130,000 children have been included in the data bank of those who are ready for adoption. A few years ago there were 160,000 of such boys and girls.

To this end, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will make a visit to the United States on July 11-13 for talks with American officials. Among other things, the parties hope to sign an adoption agremeent.

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador in Moscow John Byerly said the Russian foreign minister and the U.S. Secretary of State would sign an adoption agreement in Washington next week.

Byerly said, “My task is to build more constructive and more fruitful relations between our countries. It can be said much: about the START Treaty, Russia’s upcoming to the WTO and ambitious economic deals.”

“But the most important thing for me is that next week, when I go to Washington, Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton will sign an adoption agreement and an agreement on liberalising the visa regime. All of us should applaud it because this proves the depth of our relationship,” the U.S. diplomat said.”
RF-US adoption deal includes toxicity testing of adoptive parents
[ITAR-TASS 7/7/11]

US Confirmation of Treaty Signing

“The agreement is set to be signed on Wednesday after 15 months of negotiation and sent to Russia’s parliament for ratification. Both sides say it will help dispel distrust that has slowed American adoptions in Russia but also could make those adoptions somewhat costlier.”

“Russia had demanded one for years, but Washington agreed to the talks only after Moscow threatened to halt adoptions in response to the plight of a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Russia alone last year by his adoptive mother in Tennessee, claiming that he had psychological problems with which she couldn’t cope.

Under the accord, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. State Department will work closely with Russia’s Ministry of Education to gather periodic reports on the living conditions and “psychological and physical development” of adopted Russian children and to address any serious problems.

“We will have clear information, and this will make it easier for us to monitor the welfare of our children,” Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman, said in an interview.”

“Families are now required by Moscow to undergo four home visits by an American social worker within three years after adopting a Russian child, enabling the adoption agency to report to Moscow on the child’s status. Under the agreement, the agency is further held responsible for tracking the child until age 18 and continuing to report any instances of abuse, neglect, termination of the adoption, or adoption by another family.

The accord also would bar adoptions facilitated by independent operators to help parents short-circuit the process. Russia would limit participation in the program to those U.S. adoption agencies that comply with a 1993 Hague Convention on intercountry adoptions.

Hague requirements include rigorous training of parents wanting to adopt foreign children. Most of the roughly 30 U.S. agencies licensed in Russia already meet those standards, adoption advocates say.

U.S. officials welcomed the agreement but declined to discuss details ahead of its expected signing in Washington by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Russian officials and American adoption advocates say the Cabinet-level oversight, strict licensing and prolonged reporting requirements would help detect troubled U.S. adoptions that have recently caused scandals in Russia.

In one such case, a Georgia woman, Marta Blanford, adopted a Russian girl in 2001 but gave up her parental rights in 2009. The child was then adopted by the woman’s sister and her husband, Michael Grismore. He was indicted last July on five counts involving the beating and sexual abuse of the child, and is awaiting trial in Cherokee County, Georgia.

Had Russian officials been informed of the second adoption, Mr. Astakhov said, they could have objected, or at least requested home-study reports on her new family. The U.S.-Russia accord requires such notification “in a reasonable time” and Russia’s consent for any readoption.

The reporting requirements spelled out in the accord could lead to more detailed contracts between American agencies and adoptive families, involving marginally higher fees, adoption specialists say.

“What the Russians are saying is, ‘We can ask you anytime about the child and you need to know where that child might be,’ ” said Larisa Mason, a board member of the Virginia-based National Council for Adoption, an adoption advocacy group. “There will be more responsibility on the agencies to be involved with the parents.”

She and other advocates said the agreement should reassure Russian governors and judges, who have been reluctant to approve adoptions in some regions since the Tennessee case last year, as well as American families who then hesitated to seek children in Russia. American adoptions in Russia declined last year to 1,079, from 1,586 in 2009.

“Instead of two countries addressing child protection issues independently, this agreement brings them together to ensure that children’s best interests are served,” said Tom DiFilipo, president of the Virginia-based Joint Council on International Children’s Services, another advocacy group. “As a result, we believe there will be fewer incidents of abuse or neglect.”

U.S., Kremlin Reach Deal to Monitor Adoptions
[Wall Street Journal 7/12/11 by Richard Boudreaux]

Year after year, adoptive parents don’t send in postplacement reports under the current requirements. Disruption reporting has always been in a hear-no-evil, report-no-evil mode. We are not holding our breath on actual tracking and accountability.

The US Department of State doesn’t monitor postplacement ANYTHING, so how are they going to assist with this?They are visa-issuers. The adoption industry/JCICS will actually be monitoring this and making even MORE $$$$ off of adoptive parents in the process while still not lending practical assistance to troubled families.

REFORM Puzzle Piece