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/

Some background to the TDH/Image Ark documentary Paper Orphans

Some background to the TDH/Image Ark documentary Paper Orphans

The Terre des hommes/Image Ark documentary Paper Orphans was a major reason so many receiving countries suspended adoptions from Nepal.

Paper Orphans focuses on three NGOs -- Nepal Children's Organization (NCO/Bal Mandir), the Helpless Children Protection Home (HCPH), and the Education Centre for Helpless Children (ECHC).

For background to the documentary, see the following links.

The Nepal premier at Patan Museum (March 2010):

Paper Orphan\Kishan Sharki (Kantipur Daily):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/03/paper- orphankishan-sharki-kantipur. html

and

Paper Orphans on the Screen (Voice of Children):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/05/draft- agenda-for-special-commission- on.html

The Hague screening (June 2010):

2010 Special Commission of the Hague Releases its Conclusions and Recommendations:

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/07/2010- special-commission-of-hague. html

and

Nepal skips the Hague meet on adoption (Republica):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/06/nepal- skips-hague-meet-on-adoption. html

Nepal Children's Organization (NCO/Bal Mandir):

Victims of Balmandir:

http://poundpuplegacy.org/ node/43654

and

Prachanda Raj Pradhan -- head of the Child NGO Federation Nepal (CNFN):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/03/ prachanda-raj-pradhan-head-of- child-ngo.html

The Helpless Children Protection Home (HCPH):

Paper Orphans & The Helpless Children Protection Home:

http://poundpuplegacy.org/ node/43603

and

Dalit Couple Foils Adoption Of Offspring (Republica):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/02/dalit- couple-foils-adoption-of.html

and

Adopted Children always in disputes! (Voice of Children):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/04/adopted- children-always-in-disputes.

Also worth reading (for general background on Nepali adoptions):

Trade of Children (Voice of Children):

http://pearadoptinfo-nepal. blogspot.com/2010/06/trade-of- children-voice-of-children. html

and

Orphaned or Stolen? The U.S. State Department investigates adoption from Nepal, 2006-2008

Exclusive State Department internal cables from Freedom of Information Act requests

The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ schuster-institute-for- investigative-journalism/ orphaned-or-stolen-the-us_b_ 825451.html

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

Orphanage Operator Held (Republica)

Orphanage Operator Held

Republica

KATHMANDU, April 2: Police have rescued 20 children from Mukti Nepal, a Maharajgunj-based orphanage, and arrested its operator after finding that the orphanage does not meet minimum standards. The rescued children are aged between five to 15 years.

Police arrested Goma Luitel, chairman of the orphanage, at the behest of the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB).

“We found the children living in pathetic condition. Six boys and 14 girls were kept in one room,” Lochan Regmi, a CCWB monitoring officer said.

Regmi added that some foreigner, including a representative of Save the Children Norway, had complained about the orphanage.

He said a 12-year-old girl died in the orphanage in November. But the orphanage has not informed about the incident to the CCWB.

“They could not show the authorized documents about the child´s death,” Regmi said adding, “We have been told the child died at Kanti Children´s Hospital, but they showed papers from Kantishwori Cultural Center.”

The children rescued from the orphanage complained they were not given enough food.

“Children were also compelled to go out to fetch water when there was a water shortage at the home,” chief of District Child Welfare Board (DCEB) Suneeta Shah said.

She added that the children themselves had to cook meals and wash clothes. “Some children were not sent to school,” Shah said.

Children have complained that operator Luitel used to beat them.

“The kids were living in a terrible condition. We decided to rescue and transfer them to another home,” Shah said.

She also revealed that children are from the outskirts of the capital and all have parents. The DCWB is working to find their parents. “In the name of charity work, the operator was doing business,” she said.

The orphanage has been operating since 2004.

The CCWB said the orphanage is now closed permanently.


Republica:

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=29845



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

Twenty Children Rescued from Mukti Nepal

Mukti Nepal rescue photo (Nepali Times):

http://www.nepalitimes.com/gallery/mainphoto.php?id=1259

LET US OUT: Human Rights Organisations recently rescued 20 children from Mukti Nepal, an orphanage in Maharajgunj. The orphanage had failed meet even the minimum requirements, housing 24 boys and girls, aged between 7 to 15, in a single room.

PHOTO: BIKRAM RAI

Posted on: 22 MARCH 2011

For the story of the Mukti Nepal adoption scandal, see

Pound Pup Legacy.

Mukti Nepal -- alleged torture of a birth parent (a sibling was in mid-adoption to the United States).

In Victims of Balmandir:

http://poundpuplega cy.org/node/ 43654

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

Orphaned or Stolen? The U.S. State Department investigates adoption from Nepal, 2006-2008 (The Huffington Post)

by EJ Graff
Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University

Posted: February 18, 2011
Updated: February 23, 2011

Exclusive State Department internal cables
from Freedom of Information Act requests

Children abducted from their families for international adoption, so that middlemen could profit from Westerners' cash. Families that left their babies temporarily with a child welfare center during times of illness or financial distress--only to discover on returning that, to their horror, their children had been sent away forever to Spain, Italy, or the U.S. A "demand and supply" effect: when international adoptions were suspended, reported "abandonments" drop. Fees that suddenly increase without rhyme or reason--unless orphanages needed more cash for bribes or just out of greed.

That's what the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu was seeing between 2006 and 2008 when it checked into how children had become available for U.S. citizens to adopt, as documented in official internal cables received by the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

read more....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/schuster-institute-for-investigative-journalism/orphaned-o

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

Govt. mulling to amend in adoption provision again (Review Nepal)

Govt. mulling to amend in adoption provision again

Review Nepal

21st Feb:

Kathmandu, Nepal –

The government of Nepal is mulling to amend again in the adoption-related provisions, which were amended on last December, stating that recent provision failed to impress the western countries.

The Ministry of Woman, Children and social welfare has said that it will prepare a draft proposal to amen on the exiting provision. The government was under pressure to amend the provision not only from the domestic institution but also from the international adoption group, a loose alliance of Western countries whose citizens adopt Nepali children.

A loose group, who adopts Naples children largely, from the countries like USA, UK, Norway Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland other western countries have been insisting that they can not adopt Nepalese children unless the government amend in the existing adoption-related provisions.

It has been mandatory provisioned that any organization working on the sector of facilitating inter-country adoption should submit details about each orphan child to a Probe and Recommendation Committee (PRC) within seven days and to a Family Selection Committee (FSC) under MWCSW within 14 days. Likewise, concerned district administration office (DAO) also needs to verify the child about his or her status.

Some domestic organizations have been pressing the government as it has been provisioned that the government deserves right to de-list any organizations eligible for inter-country adoption if it found involved in fraudulent practices. Those de-listed organizations will be barred from facilitating inter-country adoptions for the next five years.

Likewise, the government had also provisioned that any children's organization or orphanage home should have engaged for a minimum of six years in the field of child welfare to be eligible for facilitating inter-country adoptions. However, International communities have been objecting the existing provision stating that it lacks of integrity in the system.

Following the widespread condemnation that some institutions in home are trading Nepalese children with fake documents, the government had amended on the provision. However, the amended provision failed to impress the western countries.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs, who was in Nepal visit recently, has also conveyed her country's concern that existing provision is not sufficient to resume the adoption. During the visit with officials she had mentioned that the recent amendment in the adoption process is not sufficient.

http://www.reviewnepal.com/detail_news.php?id=1873

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

West not impressed by changes in adoption process (Republica)

West not impressed by changes in adoption process

Republica

KIRAN CHAPAGAIN

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: Recent government efforts aimed at reforming its widely questioned inter-country adoption practices have failed to impress the United States, one of the main Western countries to stop adoptions from Nepal on grounds of lack of integrity in the system.

The US said the amendment in the adoption process introduced last December is not sufficient to answer questions surrounding inter-country adoptions from Nepal.

Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs conveyed Washington´s stance on the reform initiatives during her meetings with officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) on Thursday.

“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 inter-country adoption,” said Heather Steil, spokesperson at the US embassy, when asked about the US stance on the recent reform measures.

Last December, the government, in the wake up of widespread questions over the adoption system, amended adoption-related provisions, making it mandatory for any children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization facilitating inter-country adoption to submit details about each orphan child to a Probe and Recommendation Committee (PRC) within seven days and to a Family Selection Committee (FSC) under MWCSW within 14 days after the concerned district administration office (DAO) verifies that the child in question is an ´orphan´ or a ´destitute´ seeking foster parents.

In addition, MWCSW has also made it necessary for the children´s home, orphanage or children´s organization to have been engaged for a minimum of six years in the field of child welfare to be eligible for facilitating inter-country adoptions.

The amendment has also provisioned to ´delist´ from its roaster of organizations eligible for inter-country adoption any children´s organization found involved in fraudulent practices. Once ´delisted´, such organizations will be barred from facilitating inter-country adoptions for the next five years.

Jacobs, who arrived here on Wednesday to discuss adoption issues, also conveyed the US government´s concern at lack of integrity and transparency in the adoption system.

Western countries have suspended adoptions from Nepal as investigations by The Hague Conference on Private International Law, an inter-governmental organization based in Holland, last February found the adoption system marred by widespread abuses.

Diplomatic sources told Republica that other countries are also not impressed by the recent steps taken by the government to improve the adoption system. A meeting of the adoption group - a loose alliance of Western countries whose citizens adopt Nepali children - held on January 13, had also concluded that the efforts were not sufficient. In addition, they were also against reopening adoption from Nepal. Besides the US, representatives from the embassies of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the UK, Norway and Switzerland were present at the meeting called to discuss the reforms introduced in the adoption system in December.

“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,” the US embassy spokesperson further said in a statement to Republica.

The report had called on the government to overhaul the adoption system and even enact legislation so that children are better protected.

Jacobs, during her meeting with government officials here, encouraged the government to work with the international community, including The Hague Permanent Bureau, implement the Hague Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.


Republica 2011-02-19

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28409

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