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INS Suspends |
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Current Status November 2007 Reported from the Cambodian Press : "Cambodia's long-awaited new legislation on inter-country adoption was yet to be drafted but was still expected to be passed by the end of next year, Cambodian media quoted a senior Foreign Affairs Ministry official as saying Thursday. Secretary of State for the Foreign Ministry Long Visalo made the promise to US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty... "We are passing a law relating to adoptions but in drafting it we must consider all the benefits," the paper quoted Visalo as saying.He said most importantly the law must be in line with other international and individual nations' legislation and ensure "the reasons behind the adoptions are beneficial to the children and not just the individual who comes to take them." "Children are not some sort of goods to be sold at markets," the newspaper quoted him as saying. June 2007: From the State
Dept. Website: “Since
2001, the United States Government has consistently urged the Royal
Government of Cambodia to amend its adoption laws and implement an
effective, transparent child welfare system to protect children, birth
parents and prospective adoptive parents. Cambodia has begun this
process with its accession to the Hague Convention on Intercountry
Adoption in March 2007. However, the U.S. Government continues to
wait for Cambodia to take further steps towards Convention implementation
as well as to make progress on updating its overall child welfare system.
The U.S. Government will continue to urge Cambodian officials to develop
significant and much needed reforms that could eventually lay the
groundwork for a resumption of intercountry adoptions between Cambodia and
the United States. “
May 2007: During its November 27-30 [2006] session, the Cambodian
National Assembly approved Cambodia’s joining the Hague Adoption
Convention. The Convention was sent to the Cambodian Senate on
December 7th for approval; it was also sent to the Council of
Ministers for review. This forward movement is in keeping with
what Cambodian government officials had told Assistant Secretary Maura
Harty and Children’s Issues Director, Ellen Conway, during their
September visit to Phnom Penh in early December. At the time they
shared that ratification of the Convention is a high priority for the
Cambodian government. As of January 22nd, however, DOS is unaware
of further progress in the Convention’s ratification by Cambodia.
DOS continues to impress upon Cambodian officials that the United States
is willing to help Cambodia in implementing both adoption-related and
broader child welfare reforms. The latter are a necessary
prerequisite to a possible future reopening of Cambodia for intercountry
adoptions to the United States. (information courtesy of JCICS: http://www.jcics.org/Cambodia.htm
)
January 2006: RathCare has created
an online petition
requesting that the United States Senate Subcommittee
on East Asian and Pacific Affairs require the Department of Homeland
Security and the State Department to present a public report on actions
they have taken to lift the ban on Cambodian adoptions by US citizens that
has been in place since December 21,2001. The url for the petition
is: http://www.petitiononline.com/Cambodia/petition.html
. December 2005: The USAID funded survey of children in institutional care has been completed and the resulting database of information has been delivered to the Cambodian Government by the U.S. embassy.
April 2005: Members of RathCare recently held a
screening of the documentary "Compassion
and Controversy" for members of congress as well as
representatives of the Departments of State and Citizen and Immigration
Services. Following
the screening, there was good dialogue between
members of the panel and members of the audience, including
congressional aides and reps of the DOS and CIS.
Later in the afternoon, RathCare
met privately with members of the Children's Issues division of the
State Department. The following information came out of those
meetings:
March 2005: To address the overall child welfare needs
in Cambodia, the U.S. Agency for International Development has recently
contracted with Holt International Children’s Services, a
non-governmental organization to conduct a survey of children in Cambodian
institutions and orphanages. This
survey will provide a thorough assessment of orphans and displaced
children currently living in orphanages and institutions throughout To Read News/Updates from 2004 Go to Archived Updates |
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Punishing the Innocent
You can help the children of Cambodia today. RATH CARE (Resume Adoptions Truthfully and Honestly, Cambodian Adoption Rescue Effort) is a coordinated effort to advocate for Cambodian adoptions. Members actively participate in projects geared toward our goal of seeing the INS suspension lifted and ethical adoptions resumed in Cambodia. If you would like to join our effort, enter your email address below.
For more information about this situation see: Transcripts of testimony given at the full committee hearing before the committee on International Relations on May 22, 2002: Representative William Delahunt's letter to Commissioner Ziglar on behalf of the children and prospective families. Requires Adobe Acrobat USCIS (formerly INS) Listing of all Public Statements about the Suspension St. Petersburg Times article from May 26, 2002
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