Cambodian Officials Head to US for Adoption Training UPDATED
“Cambodia’s long-awaited resumption of international adoptions will soon take another tenuous step forward with a US State Department program that will see local adoption officials flown to the United States for training.
The initiative, pegged an “informational visitor’s program”, follows on the heels of a January visit by US Special Adviser for Children’s Issues Susan Jacobs to Cambodia, a State Department official told the Post.
“The program would afford them the opportunity to learn about US child welfare, adoption and case management best practices while fostering enhanced Cambodian interagency coordination and cooperation on adoption,” the State Department official said, adding that US officials were hopeful the program would begin in the first half of this year.
US embassy spokesman Sean McIntosh confirmed yesterday that the program was in “the early planning stages”.
Reung Rithiroth, chief of adoption administration at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said yesterday that while an official invitation has yet to be received, the program is expected to take flight in late April.
“She [Ambassador Jacobs] promised to take Cambodian officials to train in the US, probably from about five government ministries, with one or two officials from each ministry,” Rithiroth said yesterday, adding that a public seminar would take place on February 26 and provide an update detailing the Kingdom’s progress towards resuming adoptions.
While the freeze on adoptions – put in place in 2009 with the passage of the Inter-Country Adoption Law – was lifted in January, the country has yet to begin accepting or processing applications for adoptions.
In response to questions on the Kingdom’s timetable, national adoption officials said a new approach was being formulated.
“We anticipate that this progressive approach will look first to Cambodia’s state-run institutions and may possibly target children with special needs,” the State Department official said.
The US is among a group of countries that placed their own bans on the adoption of Cambodian children in 2001, citing the scant regulations in place. ”
Officials to head to US for adoption training[The Phnom Penh Post 2/13/14 by Amelia Woodside]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:DOS issues a notice.
http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=cambodia_6 and pasted below:
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Cambodia
February 18, 2014
Notice: Update on Status of Intercountry Adoptions from Cambodia
The Department of State’s Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, Ambassador Susan Jacobs, met with Cambodian adoption officials in Cambodia on January 9 and 10. The Ambassador met with key officials in several Cambodian ministries and authorities that will implement intercountry adoptions once Cambodia resumes processing intercountry adoptions with other countries, including Cambodia’s Central Authority, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation; the Ministry of Justice, which works with Cambodia’s courts and provides legal advice to the Central Authority; and the Municipal Court of Phnom Penh. Ambassador Jacobs also met with UNICEF and a child protection non-governmental organization to seek their perspectives on Cambodia’s child welfare and protection systems.
During Ambassador Jacobs’ visit, she noted the Royal Government of Cambodia’s significant progress in drafting several procedures that will serve as the legal foundation of Cambodia’s system under the Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Convention). Cambodia acceded to the Convention in 2007, passed an intercountry adoption law to implement the Convention in 2009, and has since been working to draft and finalize important implementing procedures. These procedures will govern the authorization of foreign accredited adoption service providers, the implementation of relative adoptions, and the definition of special needs, among other areas.
Ambassador Jacobs also obtained clarification on the Cambodian Central Authority’s stated intention to resume intercountry adoptions in 2014. We understand that the Royal Government of Cambodia is preparing for Convention implementation carefully by planning a progressive approach to the resumption of intercountry adoptions. We anticipate that this progressive approach will look first to Cambodia’s state-run institutions and target children with special needs. Cambodian officials did not provide a specific timeline of next steps, though several emphasized the importance of finalizing relevant procedures before intercountry adoptions can begin.
During her visit, Ambassador Jacobs observed key areas of Cambodia’s child welfare and protection system that, if strengthened, would help to ensure that an adoption is ethical, transparent, and in the best interests of each adopted child. This includes regulation of Cambodia’s many unlicensed orphanages, instituting a case management system to identify prospective adoptive children, and duly considering domestic placement options in accordance with the Convention. The Department of State supports the ongoing efforts of the U.S. Agency of International Development and UNICEF to strengthen these and other areas of Cambodia’s child welfare and protection systems.
The Royal Government of Cambodia is not processing intercountry adoptions with other countries at this time. Additionally, the Department of State’s determination not to issue Hague Certificates in adoptions from Cambodia is still in effect. Please see the Department’s January 2, 2013 Notice for further information related to that determination.
The Department of State will continue to publish updates on Cambodian intercountry adoptions on adoption.state.gov. Please direct any questions related to this Notice or Cambodian adoptions to AdoptionUSCA@state.gov, 1-888-407-4747 within the United States, or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States.”
Update 2: “Cambodia is inching closer to lifting a self-imposed ban on inter-country adoptions and believes its efforts to reform will soon meet preconditions for restarting the adoption process with countries that outlawed the practice in response to numerous high-profile child trafficking scandals, the government said Tuesday.
In 2011, the government bowed to international pressure by banning foreigners from adopting Cambodian children amid reports of corruption, child trafficking and non-orphans being sold to orphanages.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Social Affairs said in a statement that a series of reforms had equipped it to properly implement the Adoption Law it enacted in 2009, as well as the Hague Adoption Convention signed two years earlier.
“[The ministry] has now opened for duly registered Adoption Agencies in partner countries to apply…for authorization for them to operate inter-country adoption in the Kingdom of Cambodia,” the statement says, adding that the first steps toward an open adoption system would be tentative.
“Cambodia will start…with a small number of children with special needs and this process will start only after all local adoption options are exhausted,” it says.
In late 2013, the government jumped the gun when an announcement that it was to end its moratorium largely failed to change the position of foreign countries. Only Italy was appeased by the reforms, but both Italy and Cambodia eventually backed away from the resumption.
But according to Roeun Rithyroath, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Social Affairs’ inter-country adoption authority, Italy is already back on board.
“Italy is the first country that signed an agreement with Cambodia at the end of 2014…and their adoption authority is coming to Cambodia in April for further discussions,” he said, adding that other countries could also be confident that problems such as corruption had been fixed, as prospective foreign adopters now needed to pay a flat $5,000 fee per child.
“We banned child adoption so we had better legal regulations. We wanted to stop a culture of money under the table—‘tea money’—and find good parents,” Mr. Rithyroath said. “We will find the real orphans.”
While the government is confident that new safeguards will protect the adoption process from abuse, the cautious tone of the Social Affairs Ministry’s statement anticipated more muted responses than Italy’s.
“Much work remains to be done,” said Denise Shepherd-Johnson, chief of communications for Unicef Cambodia.
She added that Unicef would continue to work with the government to prioritize reuniting children in orphanages with their biological families, and to ensure that the interests of each child are assessed before adoption is considered.”
Government to Start Small as It Moves to End Adoption Ban[Cambodia Daily 3/4/15 by SIMON HENDERSON AND KHY SOVUTHY]
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