PRESIDENT Georgi Purvanov has returned for further consideration in Parliament amendments to the Family Code.
At a news conference last Friday, Purvanov said the law did not create appropriate conditions for adoption in Bulgaria.
In the diplomatic community, the law had a varied reception, with French ambassador Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge supporting it, and Swedish ambassdador Sten Ask objecting to the lack of transparency in the law.
Purvanov said the amendments facilitated foreign adoptions abroad and restricted adoptions in Bulgaria.
He emphasised the need for better protection of the rights and interests of Bulgarian adopters and for Bulgarian adopters to be given preference over foreign ones. Under the Family Code amendments, an adoption may be carried out internationally only if suitable Bulgarian adoptive parents are not found three successive times within six months. The amendments provide for the setting up of adoption boards with all regional social assistance departments to determine suitable adoptive parents for each child in the registers kept at these departments.
The amendments require that the registers of potential Bulgarian adopters and children for adoption should be kept by the Regional Directorates for Social Assistance.
"This decision is a retreat from the much better idea in the Child Protection Act, by which a national database must be created of adoptable children," Purvanov said.
He said that the Family Code should enable setting up of a single national register of adoptable children and Bulgarian adopters and provide for hearing from various parties in the course of the adoption procedure.
"The Family Code deprives the court of the opportunity to hear the stand of the state body which under the Child Protection Act is in charge of the implementation of the child protection policy - the Social Assistance Directorate of the respective municipality," Purvanov said.
Citing article 47, paragraph four of the constitution, which provides for abandoned children to enjoy the protection of the state and society, Purvanov said he did not accept the dropping of adoption out of the list of child protection measures.
Ask questioned whether the dropping of adoption as a protection measure under the Child Protection Act did not benefit somebody's economic interests.
"We raise this question because Swedes are second or third in the number of adopted Bulgarian children after the Americans and the Spanish," Ask told a news conference last Wednesday.
Kuhn-Delforge told BTA he supported the implementation of the amendments by the Justice Ministry and was surprised at the criticism.
"A child is not a commodity. There should not be a market for adoptions. Intermediation should not be the object of a transaction. But we know very well that there is a market in Bulgaria in this area. We know very well that certain interests are involved. Transparency is needed for the benefit of the child," he said.
- Staff Reporter
At a news conference last Friday, Purvanov said the law did not create appropriate conditions for adoption in Bulgaria.
In the diplomatic community, the law had a varied reception, with French ambassador Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge supporting it, and Swedish ambassdador Sten Ask objecting to the lack of transparency in the law.
Purvanov said the amendments facilitated foreign adoptions abroad and restricted adoptions in Bulgaria.
He emphasised the need for better protection of the rights and interests of Bulgarian adopters and for Bulgarian adopters to be given preference over foreign ones. Under the Family Code amendments, an adoption may be carried out internationally only if suitable Bulgarian adoptive parents are not found three successive times within six months. The amendments provide for the setting up of adoption boards with all regional social assistance departments to determine suitable adoptive parents for each child in the registers kept at these departments.
The amendments require that the registers of potential Bulgarian adopters and children for adoption should be kept by the Regional Directorates for Social Assistance.
"This decision is a retreat from the much better idea in the Child Protection Act, by which a national database must be created of adoptable children," Purvanov said.
He said that the Family Code should enable setting up of a single national register of adoptable children and Bulgarian adopters and provide for hearing from various parties in the course of the adoption procedure.
"The Family Code deprives the court of the opportunity to hear the stand of the state body which under the Child Protection Act is in charge of the implementation of the child protection policy - the Social Assistance Directorate of the respective municipality," Purvanov said.
Citing article 47, paragraph four of the constitution, which provides for abandoned children to enjoy the protection of the state and society, Purvanov said he did not accept the dropping of adoption out of the list of child protection measures.
Ask questioned whether the dropping of adoption as a protection measure under the Child Protection Act did not benefit somebody's economic interests.
"We raise this question because Swedes are second or third in the number of adopted Bulgarian children after the Americans and the Spanish," Ask told a news conference last Wednesday.
Kuhn-Delforge told BTA he supported the implementation of the amendments by the Justice Ministry and was surprised at the criticism.
"A child is not a commodity. There should not be a market for adoptions. Intermediation should not be the object of a transaction. But we know very well that there is a market in Bulgaria in this area. We know very well that certain interests are involved. Transparency is needed for the benefit of the child," he said.
- Staff Reporter
