Guatemala ratifies adoption treaty
by Juan Carlos Llorca

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
24 May 2007

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Guatemala has ratified an international adoption treaty, committing to bring adoptions under government regulation and make sure babies are not bought or stolen.

Guatemalan law currently allows notaries to act as baby brokers who recruit birth mothers, handle paperwork and complete foreign adoptions in less than half the time it takes in other countries.

But U.S. officials have urged Guatemala to tighten up the procedure amid concern brokers were paying or threatening mothers to give up their babies. More than 4,000 babies from Guatemala were adopted by U.S. parents last year, making it the second highest source of U.S. adoptions after China.

On Tuesday, Guatemala lawmakers ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions, which requires that government agencies regulate adoptions to ensure babies have not been bought or stolen.

By ratifying the convention, 'we will avoid that adoptions become a market for buying and selling children,' said Rolando Morales, chairman of the congressional commission on children and families.

To comply with the Hague Convention, legislators have proposed a separate law that would create a federal adoption oversight agency known as the National Adoption Council.

Legislators hope to approve the law in the coming weeks.

The Hague Convention also demands that adoption fees are kept to a minimum to avoid women deliberately having babies to give them up for adoption.

Guatemalan notaries currently charge a 'country fee' of up to $19,000. With U.S. paperwork and plane trips, the typical Guatemalan adoption costs as much as $30,000 adoption agencies say.

In January, a U.S. State Department official warned that Guatemala must improve its procedure for foreign adoptions or the United States would no longer give American parents visas for the babies they are seeking to adopt.

In March, the U.S. government announced that it would look more closely at adoptions from Guatemala after detecting alleged irregularities in the system, including a concern that brokers were threatening or paying mothers to give up their children.

The Association of Adoption Defenders, a grouping of Guatemalan notaries who facilitate adoptions, has repeatedly denied that mothers are paid for their cooperation.

The Hague Convention goes into effect on Dec. 31. Adoptions already in progress before that date will be allowed to move forward under the previous rules.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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