Latest News on Inter-country Adoption for Australians! June 2012
This news comes with the announcement by Ms Nicola Roxon (Attorney General), that 'due to adoption program in Ethiopia becoming increasingly unpredictable,' Australia will be closing their adoption program with this country at the end of June 2012. This news will obviously impact on many Australian couples who have already committed their lives & soles to adopt a child from Ethiopia, and our hearts go out to these couples and also the children within the Ethiopian orphanages left without loving families. Unfortunately there is no positive outlook for this situation.
Vietnam & Ireland Talk - This is good progression! Perhaps Australia could follow this example?
Minister seeks to reopen Vietnam adoption links
By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith Saturday, December 31, 2011
MINISTER for Children Frances Fitzgerald is to visit Vietnam as part of talks aimed at establishing a safe inter-country adoption system between the south-east Asian nation and Ireland.
In a statement last night, Ms Fitzgerald said she will be "accepting an invitation extended to her" to visit to help ensure adequate adoption practice standards are in place. Between 1991 and 2008, Vietnam was one of the top three nations in the world from which Irish inter-country adoptions took place. However, Ireland chose not to renew its bilateral agreement with Vietnam in 2009 due to concerns raised by a major Unicef international social services report into inter-country adoptions from that country.
The document found that there was virtually "no active promotion of domestic adoptions" by Vietnamese authorities, giving rise to concern that some cases may not have been in the best interests of the children involved. In recent months, Irish and Vietnamese officials have been discussing how administrative arrangements could be improved.
This process is specifically focussed on the ratification of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, and guarantees that plans for safe and secure domestic Vietnamese adoptions are also implemented.
This process has already led to visits by Irish authorities to the country earlier this year, with a second visit planned for January, said Ms Fitzgerald. "The Vietnamese authorities are committed to putting in place the legislative framework that supports safe and secure domestic and inter-country adoption," she said.
"Once this is in place, and with the work of the Adoption Authority on the Irish side, I am confident arrangements for inter-country adoption between Ireland and Vietnam can progress."
* FOCionnaith.direct@examiner.ie
