U.S. State Department -- Update on Adoptions in Nepal

Nepal -- U.S. State Department

April 22, 2011

Notice: Update on Adoptions in Nepal


Government of Nepal Announces Amendments to 2008 Terms and Conditions

On January 5, 2011, the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MOWCSW) in its Notice No. 1 announced that children found by the police will not be available for intercountry adoption until further notice. This and other amendments to the Terms and Conditions of 2008 may be found at:

http://www.mowcsw.gov.np/inter-country-adoption-15-en.html


Nepal Forms New Government

On February 3, 2011, in the 17th round of voting, Nepali parliamentarians chose Jalala Nath Khanal as the new Prime Minister. On the same day, Parliament passed a resolution censuring Sarba Dev Ojha, the most recent Minister of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, for negligence, lack of responsiveness, and violation of the parliamentary Committee on Women, Children, and Social Welfare's rules. On March 12, 2011, Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma was appointed as new Minister of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Bishwakarma previously held this same position from 2007-2009, during the Government of Nepal-imposed suspension of intercountry adoptions.


Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice L. Jacobs' Visit to Nepal

Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice L. Jacobs visited Nepal on February 16-17, 2011. During her visit, she met with officials in the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Prime Minister's Office. They discussed the United States Government's concern with the lack of integrity and transparency in the adoption system in Nepal.

Assistant Secretary Jacobs encouraged the Government of Nepal to work with the international community, including The Hague Permanent Bureau, to implement The Hague Adoption Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.

Assistant Secretary Jacobs noted that recent changes to the adoption process in Nepal are inadequate to address concerns about the origin of the children being matched for intercountry adoption.

The U.S. suspension on new adoption cases involving abandoned children will remain in place until substantive progress is made on the issues raised by a February 2010 Hague Convention report.


Permanent Bureau meeting with Government of Nepal Adoption Officials in Rome

On March 29, a joint Department of State/U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services delegation attended meetings in Rome organized by The Hague Permanent Bureau (HPB) and the Italian Central Authority to discuss how to improve Nepal's intercountry adoption and child welfare system. Nepal sent representatives from the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, and the Intercountry Adoption Management Committee. The two-day meeting involved representatives from 12 major receiving countries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) as well as participants from UNICEF and Terre des Hommes Foundation.


Update on Adoption Case Processing

Since the August 6, 2010 announcement that the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) were suspending processing of new adoption cases from Nepal that involve children who are claimed to have been found abandoned, sixty four families filed Form I-600 petitions with the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu on behalf of their adoptive children. Of these, Embassy Kathmandu found six petitions approvable and sent 56 petitions to the USCIS office in New Delhi as "not clearly approvable." One case in which the Form I-600 was recently filed with Embassy Kathmandu is under investigation by the Consular Section. USCIS approved one case after an initial review, and sent 55 families Requests for Evidence (RFE) asking for additional information in their case. As of April 15, 2011, USCIS found those 54 petitions approvable after reviewing additional information submitted by the families. One petition remains pending. Embassy Kathmandu has issued 46 immigrant visas to the beneficiaries of those petitions; the remaining families are in the process of finalizing their adoptions and applying for their adopted child's immigrant visa.

http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=nepal_3



Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Nobody’s child (The Himalayan Times)

Nobody’s child (The Himalayan Times)

Prakriti Pathak

January 30, 2011

The international adoption trade is a booming multibillion-dollar industry, as families in the west increasingly adopt more babies from developing countries. Nepal, it seems does not want to miss out on this global opportunity.

In 2007, Nepal adoption alter it faced pressure and severe criticism from national and international media over allegations of corruption and children being sold. In addition, the report, Adopting the Rights of a Child prepared by the UNICEF and the Swiss-based child relief agency foundation Terre des hommes revealed instances of children and babies being put up for adoption without the parents’ consent. As a result, the United States and a number of European countries like the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Norway, Spain, Canada, Italy, Switzerland and Germany banned adoption from Nepal.

In 2008, Nepal promptly reopened inter-country adoption and in 2009, signed the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect to inter-country adoption. With an objective of ratifying the Hague Convention, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) formed a high level committee on May 14, 2010. Later in December 2010, new policies were introduced to facilitate the inter-country adoption process. “To discuss inter-country adoption, a team is heading to Italy in the first week of March, where all the European countries are expected to meet and most probably European countries will agree on adopting children from Nepal,” says Sher Jung Karki, under secretary at MoWCSW.

The optimism and speed to get things back on track is surprising. If only such promptness and dedication was displayed by our government in tackling much bigger issues that have almost brought Nepal to a standstill. What’s odd is the fact that while the government is going the whole hog to encourage international adoption, it has done precious little to even facilitate domestic adoption within Nepal and the vagueness of laws and provisions are often seen as a deterrent.

“The government is more focused on inter-country adoption, introducing new rules and regulations repeatedly and has completely neglected domestic adoption. Many factors are responsible for pushing the inter-country adoption but ’capital ’ is the main factor as lo reign countries have to pay hefty amount to adopt Nepali children and even with the new policies, there may still be space for irregularities,” says a source at the same ministry.

Interestingly, there is no data or any information on domestic adoption at the ministry. When a country neglects domestic adoption and focuses solely on inter-country adoption, it raises many questions. The answers themselves are not very hard to figure out. “We welcome recent improvements announced by the ministry but they are focused solely on inter-country adoption. Local solutions should be developed as a priority in line with international commitment”, says Joseph Aguettant, country representative of Terre des hommes in Nepal. He further added that local solutions include kinship, foster care and domestic adoption. Recently, Terre des hommes has been involved in promoting domestic adoption in mid-western regions in collaboration with Social Welfare Council, the local administration and NGOs. Besides creating a new mindset, the task involves deciphering the existing laws which are vague and need simplification.

“Nepal lacks adoption law and domestic adoption has not been fully practiced in Nepal yet. Though it is mentioned in Muluki Ain (Country Code), the process is vague and lengthy,” says Lochan Regmi of Central child Welfare Council. According to the Code, domestic adoption can be done by adoption can be done by relatives. But through various amendments, now any Nepali can adopt a child. “Though the horizon for domestic adoption has expanded, it is impractical and unscientific. There is no mention of the process for domestic adoption as the concerned body is busy regularly updating the policies of inter-country adoption,” says Rudra Kandangwa, advocate and chairman of Children Home Federation.

According to advocates and people involved in children’s homes to encourage domestic adoption, the government has to simplify the rules and laws. In the absence of proper and clear laws for domestic adoption, children’s homes are making their own. Aasha Shrestha, in charge of planning and sponsorship section of Bal Mandir says, Nepalis wanting to adopt a child legally from Bal Mandir have to fulfil a list of requirements.

Couples have to submit citizenship certificates, medical certificates to prove their infertility approved from Nepal Medical Board, marriage certificates, character certificates, details of economic status including land papers and bank balances, letters of consent from their family members, letter from authorized doctor proving the couple free from diseases like HIV; Hepatitis and mental illness. In addition to these, the age difference between the to-be adopted child and prospective parents should be not less than 35 and not more than 55 years. After completing all the required documents, they have to register the adoption case at the Land Revenue Office. According to her, Nepali children can gel genuine homes in Nepal rather than in other countries. But that is only possible if the government places the rights of orphans above all other issues.

To facilitate families and homes for orphans should be the priority. Whether in Nepal or abroad is secondary. Shrestha says the ministry’s priorities are misplaced; the concerned body should encourage domestic adoption rather than just aiming to maximize revenues from adopting parents from foreign countries. Till date, there is not a single child home in Nepal with the sole objective of promoting domestic adoption in Nepal.

The irony is that the ministry has all the data related to inter-country adoption but nothing on domestic adoption. Domestic adoption is supposed to be handled by the Land Revenue Office. However, many officers at the office itself were unaware about this fact. According to Beni Madhav Bhattarai, under secretary at the Ministry of Land Reform and Management, there is zero record maintained of domestic adoption and he argues that MoWCSW is the concerned body for both inter-country and domestic adoption.

When domestic adoption is not promoted serious questions arise. What kind of ‘New Nepal’ are we building in which our orphans have no place and no rights in their own country? For a country emerging from civil war and on the path to reconciliation, is our society not open to adoption and reaching out to orphans? Are Nepal’s orphans only worth the foreign exchange they bring in? What exactly is the government’s commitment and arrangements for orphans in this country?

Presently commitment is not visible. Orphans are housed in private children’s homes till they are exported to western families. These homes receive no financial assistance and hence little monitoring from the government. Over 198 of these children’s homes are far below the minimum standards. “The children’s homes that are not running in accordance with the government’s minimum standards should be shut down to ensure rights and the best interest of children,” says Gauri Pradhan, member of National Human Rights Commission of Nepal.

When contacted, even the minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Sarwadev Prasad Ojha admitted that “domestic adoption is unsystematic and major steps have to be taken to promote it”. Then he hands us the age-old diplomatic line. ’’A team will be set up to make the new guidelines for domestic adoption."

From:

http://www.tdh.ch/en/news/nepal-perspectives-nobodys-child

PDF copy of original article:

http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/gender/adoption/docs/NobodysChild_HimalayanTimes30Jan11_Pathak.pdf

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Minister Sarwadev Prasad Ojha's Opening Speech at Euradopt

The following transcript of Minister Sarwadev Prasad Ojha's speech at the Euradopt meeting in Oslo on October 30, 2010 was provided to PEAR by an interested party in Nepal:

Distinguished Participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Namaste,

First of all, on behalf of the Government of Nepal and myself, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the President of EurAdopt Madam Pia Brandsnes for providing me this opportunity to express our views and concern on Inter-country adoption of Nepal in front of you.

As you all know that the history of inter-country adoption in Nepal has been started 3 decades back. A lot of changes have been made during these period regarding the policies, laws and practices. We are always concerned with the children of Nepal and our policies and laws have always directed towards the path of the child first. We are also aware that children should grow up in the family environment and should receive all the rights guided by the national and international standards.

At present the new law - Terms and Conditions and Process for Granting Approval for Adoption of Nepali Child by Alien 2008 is prevailed for processing inter-country adoption of Nepal. We all know that development is a continue process and there is always room for improvement in every aspects. However, the new Terms and Conditions 2008 is also flexible in this matter.

After the report in regard to inter-country adoption of Nepal prepared by Hague Secretariat on 4 February 2010 and the following meeting of Hague Secretariat on June 2010, some negative messages and misunderstandings have been spread out in international community which affected the process of inter-county adoption in Nepal. We do honor the sensitivity and seriousness of the report. We are always sincere to improve the weaknesses and gaps existed in our inter country adoption process.

We know international community is watching keenly the further steps to be taken by Nepal, as some of the countries have suspended inter-country adoption from Nepal at the moment. We are observing the international trend of inter-country adoption system. In this regard, I would like to assure you that the Ministry has started to reform the existing process and policies and for this we need your technical support and valuable suggestions.

To improve the existing Terms and Conditions we have already started necessary steps. A High Level Committee has been formed consisting government and non-government stakeholders. This Committee is working for providing suggestions to the Ministry for reviewing existing law to make it compatible with Hague Convention.

Nepal has already signed the Hague Convention in 28 April 2009 and now we are in a process to ratify it. The High Level Committee as I mentioned above is working in this guide line.

At present, malfunctioning children homes/orphanages have been penalized and they are banned for working on inter-country adoption. We are strictly monitoring the activities and process of documentation of the children homes/orphanages involved in Inter-country adoption.

We know there are more corrective steps yet to be initiated by the Government of Nepal for which we need valuable suggestions and technical support from the international community.

We are here today once again to show our commitments towards the welfare of children and willingness to work together with all of you.

Thank you very much for your warm welcome and the hospitality provided to us during our stay in OSLO.

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/