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If there are enough members in the Guatemalan Congress on December 11th for a special session, the New Adoption Law will have its third and final vote. The way it stands today, this law will not truly grandfather in all the pending cases because of the proposed system. Article 56 would require all the pending cases to be registered within thirty days, an impossibility since a new Central Authority has yet to be created and there are over 5,000 adoptions to be registered.
I would like to get into the mind of the person who came up with this absurd idea. They are either naïve, incredibly ignorant or downright anti-adoption. Yes, the adoption system in Guatemala needs to be changed to better protect the children, the birth mothers and the adopting families, but what no one needs is unreasonable legislation designed to stop pending adoptions, and deter new ones from being initiated.
The JCICS (Joint Council on International Children’s Services) has taken several steps in response to serious concerns raised over this law, and particularly Article 56. They’ve asked the Guatemalan Congress and President Berger to amend this article, and if the law doesn’t pass on December 11th, to create a grandfather clause that would include all children who’s Powers Of Attorney are registered by December 30th, 2007. In addition, if this Adoption Law isn’t passed, they’d like all adoptions in process to be registered in PGN by January 31st, 2008 in order to complete these adoptions under the old adoption system.
Amid rumors that only adoptions registered with PGN by December 30th, 2007 will be grandfathered in, these demands are legitimate. But the problem remains that we are demanding things from a country we are not citizens of. No doubt Guatemala is tired of the pressure from all the different sources: UNICEF is pushing one way, the US Congress another and the people of Guatemala yet another. Combined with the fact that a new president will take over in Guatemala in January, the situation is chaotic at best.
At this point we need to do everything in our power to bring the children in the pipeline home and ensure that adoption from Guatemala will not be closed forever. Children caught in the system and subject to a new adoption process could be held up for a very long time, and who knows what conditions they will live under until they come home, if they get to come home to their adopting parents at all. Infant adoption is by far the best scenario for the adopted child; extended periods in an institution challenge every child physically and emotionally.
