forts, in cooperation with the global adoption community, could have addressed the problems. But, for now, the European Union, led by Baroness Emma Nicholson, has ended intercountry adoptions out of Romania, by making Romania's admission into the EU contingent upon this tragic policy. There is concern that this harmful policy could spread to other countries, especially nations desiring admission to the EU. Many countries of origin deal with a certain amount of nationalistic reaction to the idea of allowing their countries' children to be adopted internationally. The American and international child welfare communities should be very concerned about this attack on children's rights in Romania, work to reverse the policy as soon as possible, and prevent opponents of adoption from advancing their harmful agenda in any other vulnerable countries. National boundaries and national pride should not prevent children from having families. Intercountry adoption can and should strengthen the bonds of friendship between countries, not strain them. It is indisputable that adoption, whether domestic or intercountry, is a phenomenally successful social institution, which has met the needs of millions of children. It can continue to do so for millions more orphans around the world, if allowed the opportunity. NCFA calls upon the European Union, the government of Romania, and all those concerned about the welfare of children to advance the positive option of intercountry adoption, in the interest of children. We greatly appreciate the American government's and this Commission's advocacy of intercountry adoption and offer our continued assistance in advancing this crucial mission. MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY HON. [Excerpt from the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. ILLEGAL ADOPTION, BABY SELLING, AND HUMAN Legitimate intercountry adoption provides a permanent family placement for a child unable to find one in his or her country of origin, absent any irregularities by the adoptive parents, the birth parents, or any parties involved in facilitating the relationship. Appropriate and legitimate intercountry adoption does not imply baby selling or human trafficking. Unless adoption occurs for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, adoption does not fall under the scope of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Baby selling, which is sometimes used as a means to circumvent legal adoption requirements, involves coerced or induced removal of a child, or situations where deception or undue compensation is used to induce relinquishment of a child. Baby selling is not an acceptable route to adoption and can include many attributes in common with human trafficking. Though baby selling is illegal, it would not necessarily constitute human trafficking where it occurs for adoption, based on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the UN Protocols on Trafficking in Persons and the Sale of Children, the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, and definitions of adoption established by U.S. jurisdictions. The purposes of baby selling and human trafficking are not necessarily the same. Some individuals assume that baby selling for adoption is a form of human trafficking because trafficking and baby selling both involve making a profit by selling another person. However, illegally selling a child for adoption would not constitute trafficking where the child itself is not to be exploited. Baby selling generally results in a situation that is nonexploitative with respect to the child. Trafficking, on the other hand, implies exploitation of the victims. If an adopted child is subjected to coerced labor or sexual exploitation, then it constitutes a case of human trafficking. STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY HON. DAN BURTON, MEMBER OF CONGRESS (IN-5) Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the Helsinki Commission for allowing me the opportunity to comment on the subject of Romania's adoption policy. Under the regime of Romania's former Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, hundreds of thousands of Romania's abandoned children languished in hospitals, left to die of horrible diseases and neglect. The fall of the Ceausescu regime brought a ray of hope to these and many other children, but now just a few years later, the children of Romania-the most helpless of Romania's citizens-are once again caught between a Byzantine bureaucracy, and an illconceived law that may prevent them from ever having a family to call their own. I was greatly disappointed when the government of Romania passed Law 273/2004 in June of 2004, which took full effect on January 1, 2005, and brought inter-country adoptions to a sudden halt. The only exception granted was for adoption by grandparents living abroad. The result: many children who were already in the process of being adopted by foreign families are now caught in limbo, and their adoptive parents have no legal recourse to try and get them out. As we should all understand and appreciate, the reuniting of children with their birth parents is a high priority for the government of Romania, and they should be commended for their efforts in this regard; however, for every overburdened caseworker there are 300 children. If parents cannot be found or-tragic as it may sound-simply do not want their children, the only viable option is to find a family willing to adopt these children. I doubt few people would argue with this simple premise, but the new Romanian law unfortunately only allows children with a birth certificate and a court-issued decree of abandonment to enter the adoption process. The difficulty arises in the fact that without parents to sign over care to the state, these children become, in essence, non-existent in the eyes of their own government. Furthermore, is it likely that enough in-country adoptive families can be found when conservative estimates show that 6.4 percent of the Romanian population is unemployed and 28.9 percent live below the poverty line? What type of life will these children have to look forward to under those circumstances? Hundreds upon hundreds of Romanian children are caught in this legal limbo waiting to be adopted by loving and caring adoptive families. In fact, more than a dozen pending cases were presented to President Basescu in March of 2005. Unfortunately, I have been told that eight of those families have already been given the devastating news that their prospective children have been domestically adopted or are being presented for domestic adoption. In fact, my dear friends the Murrells were one of those unlucky families. They were eagerly awaiting the adoption of a beautiful little girl named Cristina, only to be told in February 2005, after two and a half years of trying to bring Cristina home, that she was adopted by a family in Romania and there was nothing the United States could do about it. Losing Cristina was like suffering a death in the family and the family was understandably devastated. Un fortunately, to compound the tragedy, when my staff tried to follow up on this case with the State Department, the Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs was anything but helpful. As a senior Member of Congress actively involved in children's issues, I know that there is a strong desire within the United States Congress to aid the Romanian government in seeing that these children find safe, loving homes, and to ensure that each Romanian child transitions safely through the adoption process. I agree that we must continue to ensure that the birth parents have their rights protected and that the perspective adoptive parents are capable of providing for the needs and well-being of these children. However, when all intra-country options have been exhausted we must question the wisdom of Law 273/2004, which arbitrarily prohibits an inter-country solution. In closing, I am extremely grateful that the Helsinki Commission has chosen to take up the question of Romania's adoption policy. I believe as policymakers we have an obligation to protect and defend those who cannot stand up for themselves. We should not close our eyes to the facts; namely, hundreds of thousands of innocent children without parents, some suffering a multitude of health problems in deplorable hospitals and orphanages throughout Romania-almost harkening back to the days of Ceausescu-simply because of an ill-advised law that appears to put the issue of national pride over the best interests of the children. I believe that this is no way to treat the children of Romania. I fervently hope that the Commission will send a strong message today that the abandoned children of Romania deserve better; they deserve to live in loving homes, whether in Romania, the United States or anywhere else. STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HOUSE OF ANGELS (GAESTI, ROMANIA) My name is Simona Stewart (nee: Vatafu), I'm a Romanian citizen, born in the city of Targoviste, Dambovita County. I've been running the House of Angels (a private emergency shelter for abandoned children 0-3) in Gaesti, Romania (Dambovita County) since March 2002, and I've been in the middle of the battle for Romanian child welfare rights since 1999. As a Romanian, I consider it my social responsibility to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, namely the little Romanian orphans who bear the brunt of the horrific consequences of our current "national adoption policy"; wrongfully imposed upon us by the shortsightedness and impracticable orders of European Parliament's Rapporteur to Romania, Baroness Emma Nickleson, MEP. Given the new Law on Child Welfare which passed this January, 2005, in direct response to Baroness Nickleson's demands as a condition of entry for Romania to get into the European Union, the welfare of all orphaned and abandoned children has been directly affected by this new Law, and I truly hope and pray that someone could wake up the Romanian Government so they can re-consider the disastrous humanitarian effects of this law. House of Angels was built to be an oasis where new born babies, recently abandoned by their birth mothers in State hospitals, could receive proper care, nutritious meals, and the most important thing of all-a loving hug! Three or four months after staying at the House of Angels, the new born babies would be ready for foster care families. In concept, this would have smoothed the way for a transition to traditional family care. But, in accordance with the new Law, new born babies from birth to two years old are no longer allowed in any institution of any kind, and now must go directly from the hospitals to foster families. If they can! This may work well on paper, but the problem is that foster families here in Romania don't want to take such young babies of just a couple of weeks or months, as they are rightfully very high maintenance. And since the current adoption moratorium was imposed, there are now many hundreds of babies simply abandoned in State hospitals without any legal possibility of ever leaving them. Life of an abandoned baby in our Romanian hospitals is very stark: no human contact or stimulation, no nutritional meals, no diapers, just months and years of living in a one square meter crib. For there is no money to pay for such things. Yes, the new Law mandates we do this to these defenseless children, but when has the Law ever been funded to pay for these demands? Sadly, the consequences of gross under-funding have been disastrous: the infants quickly develop RADS (Radical Abandonment Disorder) which manifests itself through a self stimulating rocking motion. This in turn leads to severe mental problems as all functionality of the upper brain is left to waste away during the most critical period of a child's mental development. As the hospitals have no funding to care for this extra burden imposed by the new, un-funded, Law; the children-no, the babies-are left to fend for themselves and are supplied only with occasional meals when |