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NOV.
7, 2007
Guatemala:
Congress announced today that it will not pass any new adoption
law until the US implements the Hague convention, perhaps in
April of 2008.
It is expected that the adoption climate will relax somewhat
and that current cases will now proceed more normally. - NHIA
GUATEMALA STAFF
Nov. 4, 2007
Colom wins election promising a judicial overhaul and increased
social spending.
A response to <http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention_3170.html>
March 14, 2007 ADA - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ADOPTION
OF GUATEMALAN CHILDREN
Question: I am paper ready and waiting for a referral. Is it
still safe to adopt from Guatemala?
Answer: Yes. Guatemala has a legal system that protects adoptions
by nationals and foreigners. The process remains the same, according
the Civil Code and the Law of Notarial Process of Voluntary
Matters which has been in place since 1977. The government of
Guatemala cannot change the process of adoptions, because only
Congress can change the current system, within the limits set
by the Guatemalan Constitution.
Q. Is it legal that a single lawyer represents the interests
of all the parties involved in a process of adoption?
A. Yes, it is legal. A process of adoption, like a marriage,
is a voluntary matter, where all the parties involved have a
common goal and the same interest: to give the child a family.
For that reason, there is no conflict of interest that would
require a different lawyer for each party, as it happens in
a divorce. More complicated matters, like the probation of wills,
are successfully handled by notaries, even though the interests
of all heirs could not be the same. On the other hand, the staff
of the lawyer performs different duties that supply the social
services to the birth mothers and children that the State of
Guatemala does not provide, fulfills the requirements of the
US government that include staying the whole night in line at
the sidewalk of the embassy building, in order to get a number
to submit documents the next morning.
Q. Why is that the role of the notaries in the adoption process
is questioned?
A. Because there are many misconceptions, due to the fact that
there is no equivalent of the notaries in the legal systems
of other countries. The Guatemalan Schools of Law give their
graduates two professional titles: lawyer and notary, and the
academic decree of Licenciado. The lawyer represents clients,
in both litigious or non litigious matters. The Notary presides
over non litigious matters and also authorizes acts and deeds.
In an adoption process, the notary presides the process, with
the same obligations and legal responsibilities of a public
officer and the lawyer represents the foreign parents. If the
adoptive parents would choose to live in Guatemala during the
adoptions process, the lawyer would not be needed. If a notary
commits any wrongdoing performing his notarial duties, the time
of the sentence is increased in one third, as it happens with
public officers, and without the benefit of pre trial process
that protects judges and public officers of groundless accusations.
Q. Does the government of Guatemala exercise any oversight
of the adoption process?
A. Yes, it does. The notary who presides the process of adoption
has to present the adoption file to the Judiciary, that appoints
a Social Worker of a Family Court, to review the social and
economic conditions of the birth mother and of the adoptive
parents, after an interview with the birth mother and a careful
examination of the child that is being adopted. Without her
favorable opinion, the adoption cannot proceed. Then, the notary
submits the file to the review of the Executive, through the
office of the State Attorney, namely, the Procuraduria General
de la Naci̸n, of PGN. This entity reviews the
adoption file and has to give an opinion stating if the adoption
should be authorized. If the PGN objects anything, the notary
has to correct what the PGN requires to be corrected. Until
the PGN is satisfied, it issues an approval of the adoption.
It is until then, that the notary can authorize the final deed
of adoption, signed by the birth mother and the adoptive parents
or whoever is acting on their behalf. Any authorization of the
adoption by the notary without the approval of the PGN is null
and void and the Civil Registry would not record the adoption.
Q. Why is that the children being adopted are cared for by
unregulated foster care providers?
A. The foster care system for children being adopted in Guatemala
was born by the total lack of public services of child care
and the need of those children to be taken care of by foster
mothers. To take care of children in their homes, enable women
to work at their homes and to care for their own children, that
otherwise would have to be left unsupervised. Other countries
have eliminated the orphanage system because it is considered
detrimental to the development of the children. Following that
tendency, Guatemala eliminated orphanages but does not fund
the foster care system, as it is done in those other countries.
For that reason, only those children whose adoptive parents
pay for the expenses of the foster care, are being kept privately.
Private funded orphanages support more than twenty thousand
children off the streets. They do it with donations and the
income provided by adoptions. The government does not regulate
the foster care because that would establish the obligation
to pay for those services, something that the Guatemalan government
is not willing to do. Adoption professionals supervise the services
of the foster mothers, and in general terms, the foster care
system of Guatemala is way much better than the foster care
provided in developed countries, according to people who were
raised by foster parents in those countries.
Q. Is Guatemala compliant with The Hague Convention on Intercountry
Adoptions?
A. Guatemala became a party to the Hague Convention in November,
2002 and it became effective since March 1st., 2003. For a six
month period, not a single adoption was processed by the PGN,
appointed Central Authority by the President of Guatemala. The
order was restored when the Constitutional Court upheld the
challenges filed by the lawyers who handle adoptions. During
that time, not a single governmental office or international
aid organization provided any of the services that the lawyers
and adoption professionals were no longer providing. Children
died as a result of this badly implemented convention that has
successfully closed down adoptions in the rest of Central and
South America. The Guatemalan Congress could implement the Hague
Convention in a way that does not violate the constitution,
allowing the private adoption system to continue, with as many
checks and filters as necessary, to allow children to find permanent
loving homes that their families of origin cannot provide.
Q. Is the United States preventing Guatemalan children to be
adopted by US Citizens?
A. No, it is not. What the United States is very interested
in doing, is to verify that the child that goes to the DNA test
is the same that travels home with his adoptive parents, to
eliminate the possibility of any tampering with the evidence.
ADA and the adoption professionals of Guatemala, strongly urge
the US government to require a second DNA of the child, that
should match the first DNA result, and to scrutinize as much
as possible each case, not only from the Guatemalan side, but
also from the US side to ensure that the interests of all the
parties involved are duly protected.
Q. How can I find a trustworthy and reliable US adoption agency
that works with ethical adoptions professionals in Guatemala?
A. Research extensively. For many years, adoptions facilitators
working out of the US have handled adoptions in Guatemala, causing
a lot of grief to the adopting parents. Their reputations precedes
them, so it is not difficult to stay away from those unethical
facilitators. The wish to parent a child must not cloud the
judgment of those who want to adopt in any country of the world.
Cutting corners and resorting to illegal means is not justified,
even if it is to save a child, because it stigmatizes all adopted
children.
Q. If a child has been identified and my power of attorney
is already recorded in Guatemala, does that mean that my adoption
process will be finalized despite the enforcement of the Manual
of Good Practices?
A. No. According to the Manual of Good Practices, all adoptions
will be suspended by the PGN, all children will have to get
a declaration of abandonment - that may take several years -
even if their biological mothers are relinquishing them, and
the Secretary of Social Welfare of the Presidency will find
national families for them. The already started adoption processes
will not be finalized.
Q. If the Manual of Good Practices is enforced, who will take
care of the children?
A. Nobody. The children will be left stranded, deprived of the
private foster care that will no longer be available and without
state orphanages to admit them, their situation will be dreadful.
Q. Is it true that children are being produced for adoption
purposes?
A. Only those who do not know how painful and difficult giving
birth can be, may give credit to those rumors. Instead of admitting
that Guatemalan women are admirable, because instead of aborting,
they choose an adoption plan for their children, the anti adoption
groups belittle their courage, accusing them of producing the
children just to give them away. On the other hand, they accuse
the lawyers of coercing the mothers to give their children away.
Those unfounded allegations do harm the children who were given
the opportunity of a better life, by the remarkable sacrifice
of their birth mothers, and that is what the children will know
when they grow up.
Q. Is it true that adopted children from Guatemala are found
to have undisclosed serious special needs due to inadequate
foster care of fraudulent information?
A. That is not so. The adoptive parents are given the opportunity
of visiting their referrals and to take the children to as many
doctors as they want, before completing the adoption. That does
not happen in other countries, were the parents are given children
that they never saw before. Furthermore, parents receive medical
updates, pictures and pertinent information about the children
from their Guatemalan adoption professionals and before getting
the visa to the US, a doctor appointed by the embassy gives
a final checkup to the child. Undisclosed conditions are inherent
to the human condition, and there is no way to foresee some
of them, but screen tests, visits and behavior of the child
help to inform the parents of the health situation of the child
being adopted.
Q. Would an abrupt change in the adoption process hurt the
Guatemalan children?
A. Yes, it would hurt the children if the current system if
adoptions is stopped abruptly. UNICEF and other international
aid agencies have clearly expressed that the situation of the
children is a problem of the local government, that their role
is only to put pressure on the government to pass laws that
comply with the international conventions that Guatemala is
a party to, in order to please the international community.
To support children is not part of their plans.
Q. What would happen if the PGN starts enforcing the Manual
of Good Practices?
A. The ADA is poised to file criminal charges and all the legal
resources against those who do it. The Manual usurps the legislative
powers of Congress and cannot be tolerated. The absence of the
President of Congress at the presentation of the Manual is very
eloquent and at the same time, the presence of the US Ambassador
can only be construed as part of his diplomatic duties, but
cannot be interpreted as a support of an illegal measure to
deprive the children of the current services, and the US adoptive
families of the children that they already consider as their
own.
Q. Why is that UNICEF opposes intercountry adoptions?
A. UNICEF, once the world’s greatest effort
of humankind to help the needy children, has become a heartless
and dangerous monstrous organization who tries to limit the
population growth, resorting to means that do not exclude bribing
corrupt government officers, sterilizing women without their
consent and promoting abortion and no breeding sex. There is
ample information in the report of Families Without Borders
at http://www.familieswithoutborders.com and in the publication
Guilty As Charged at http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/unicef.pdf
Q. Is there anything I can do to help keeping adoptions open
in Guatemala?
A. Yes, there is a lot you can do. Talk to your local authorities
about the dire conditions of the Guatemalan children and tell
them about the threat that hovers above them, trying to steal
away their only hope for a future. Educate yourself about the
hidden agenda of UNICEF and the other lords of poverty, who
have made of the international aid a very lucrative and multimillion
dollar business, without helping those children they claim to
protect and work with us to set the record straight.
Posted by Susana Luarca, ADA (Attorneys for the Defense of Adoption)
at 10:00 PM |
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