| On April 1, 2008, as the Hague Convention entered | | | | power to determine if every individual agency was in |
| into force in the United States, the field of | | | | compliance with the Hague Standards and therefore |
| international adoption field changed forever. The | | | | could grant or deny the right to continue to provide |
| implementation of the Hague Convention was the | | | | international adoption services. Agencies now had to |
| single most significant change to the process of | | | | be accredited on the State and National levels. |
| international adoption since it's beginning. It affected | | | | Other changes included requirements for written |
| everyone, from our to foreign governmental | | | | policies expressly forbidding agencies, employees, and |
| authorities and agencies to prospective adoptive | | | | agents, coordinators or facilitators, who operate |
| parents and children. | | | | under the supervision of an agency, from giving |
| One way of tracing the changes that this convention | | | | money to a child's birth parents as payment for a |
| has caused is through seeing how many adoption | | | | child. Prohibition of child buying was one of the |
| agencies have had to close since it's implementation. | | | | center-points of the Convention. A policy regulating |
| In the first year since the implementation of the | | | | incentive fees for locating children or placing children |
| Hague Convention more than 1/3 of the adoption | | | | for adoption was another requirement to assure |
| agencies have been forced to close their doors to | | | | ethical practices. In addition, agencies were required |
| families and prospective adoptive children. | | | | to subject their finances to independent audits to |
| First, lets talk about what the Hague Convention is. | | | | comply with the new ethical standards. |
| It is commonly referred to as the Hague Convention, | | | | Third, the Hague Quandary |
| or just the Convention, being the only and the | | | | Any undertaking of such proportion is inevitably |
| principal one guiding the intercountry adoption | | | | plagued by complacency, indecision, overregulation, |
| process, but it is actually recorded as The Hague | | | | and met with blind resistance. |
| Convention on Protection of Children and | | | | There was a need for a National Accrediting Entity |
| Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. It | | | | that would enforce agencies' adherence to the |
| is a multilateral treaty that was concluded and signed | | | | standards that were not standard yet. Agencies |
| on May 29, 1993 in The Hague, Netherlands, and 75 | | | | needed to operate in a manner compliant with the |
| countries have joined the Convention to date. | | | | unpublished standards and log their cases into a |
| The United States signed the Convention in 1994, but | | | | database that was not functional yet. Prospective |
| it wasn't until 2000, when the U.S. Congress passed | | | | adoptive parents were presented with policies and |
| the Intercountry Adoption Act, that the U.S. had the | | | | procedures that were not applicable yet. No one had |
| capability of implementation of the Convention. | | | | any experience adopting from a Hague Country yet, |
| However, signing the Convention was only the first | | | | and no one wanted to be the first one to dive off |
| step, and it wasn't until the the U.S. Senate gave its | | | | the deep end. |
| advice and consent authorizing U.S. ratification of the | | | | As of today, the Hague Adoptions number in the |
| Convention, that the next step could be taken. The | | | | hundreds, but we are still a long way away from the |
| Department of State was designated as the U.S. | | | | finalized, straight forward and transparent process |
| Central Authority with respect to the Convention and | | | | this is one day bound to become. The Council on |
| completed all the necessary preparations in 2007. | | | | Accreditation took upon itself the enormous task of |
| The Convention entered into force for the United | | | | being the accrediting entity for the adoption agencies, |
| States on April 1, 2008. | | | | ensuring compliance and providing assistance in |
| Second, let's address the changes to the | | | | transitional situations. Agencies are building upon the |
| Intercountry Adoption Process it caused. | | | | foundation provided by both Council on Accreditation |
| Implementation of the Convention required several | | | | and the US Department of State and developing their |
| important changes to the way international adoption | | | | Hague Programs, ironing out little details. The national |
| were handled in the United States. | | | | reporting database is slowly, some say - too slowly, |
| First and most visible change was the new | | | | is getting closer to a functional state, and parents |
| requirement for the adoption services providers to | | | | and children from the Convention Countries are |
| be accredited by an appropriate entity. Previously, | | | | united together. We may not be there yet, and we |
| adoption agencies were only required to be licensed | | | | are looking down the long road, but we already took |
| by the states in which they had offices, but now the | | | | our first steps and will not waiver in our |
| United States had an oversight authority with the | | | | determination. |