Is Azerbaijan the Next Honduras?

What I mean by that is how many new “pilot” programs are we going to see for Azerbaijan? We talked about Azerbaijan back in January 2012 . At that time, the Department of State still did not have  a country page for Azerbaijan. They updated country pages years ago, but never had one for Azerbaijan. Well, sometime here in August, they added a page. See here. Better late than never, I guess.

The statistics on the DOS page are incomplete as they only list up to the year 2008. Our January post quotes statistics from Azerbaijani media that show a few children have been adopted to the US in the past few years.

A quick search on agencies still yields Adoption Ark and Illien as the two placing agencies as we discussed in January.

A new media article describes the adoption authority in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan prepares proposals for a new order of adoption of children [Azerbaijan Business Center 8/24/12] This is consistent with what the DOS pages states.

“The State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs has assumed the functions of authorizing adoption of the children who are citizens of Azerbaijan.

The Committee reports that work is carried out in accordance with the Rules of state supervision over the implementation of children’s rights, which involve the creation of favorable conditions for the protection of the rights and interests of children as defined by the laws and the Constitution of Azerbaijan, the prevention of accidents and causes of violations of children’s rights.

“We currently are working on the preparation of proposals for the management of general accounting of children deprived of parental care and adoption of children. Until the end of the year we plan to prepare and present the proposals to relevant structures,” the Committee said.

The Committee gives permission for adoption of children, Azerbaijani citizens by foreign citizens or stateless persons, and takes measures, necessary for solution of issues for interstate adoption. In this case the Committee gets acquainted with conditions of children’s life and upbringing on relevant reports and in case faults are inspected, files a suit to the court on liquidation of adoption.

In this case, if international agreements, to which Azerbaijan acceded , provide other rules, the child who has Azerbaijani citizenship, returns to the country or measures are taken in accord with the legislation of the child’s guardian’s country.

The State Committee also controls and accredits the bodies providing legal assistance to stateless persons and foreigners wishing to adopt children in the country.”

REFORM Puzzle Piece