July 17, 2004 we met with then Prime Minister Nastase to discuss the moratorium and proposed new law. In that meeting he promised to process select cases with serious medical issues. To my knowledge, this was never done. In October of 2004, then French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was to lead an international committee under the direction of the Romanian government to review and process the pending cases. This also was never done. In March of 2005, we met with President Basescu. He expressed sympathy for the abandoned children and for those of us with pending cases, but we've still seen no action. In June of 2005, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute sponsored a letter to President Basescu urging him to process pending case and consider revising the adoption law. Over 40 US congressmen signed the letter. Still, to this day, no response has been received. We understand that there are political ramifications involved with these pending adoption cases, but truly it is unthinkable that abandoned children would have to wait to join loving families already assigned to them, while their government plots and ploys a strategy for accession into the EU.

We consider ourselves fortunate compared to some American families with pending cases. We have traveled to Romania to see our assigned child on two occasions and receive periodic updates and photos. However, many have waited much longer than we have some up to six years. Some continue to pay monthly for private care in children's homes or foster care to ensure proper care for their child. Still others have lost all contact with their assigned children or learned that they were singled-out for domestic adoption. Time is passing. These children are growing up without families, families that have already been assigned to them by the Romanian government. We urge the Romanian government to approve all pending cases immediately. In the words of one pending family, "These children do not have shelf-lives, and if they did, they would have expired long ago."

Our daughter Simona has been praying daily for our assigned child for two years. She often asks us when the government of Romania will say yes and let her little sister come home. Simona somehow knows the urgency of this adoption and what it is like to be without a mom and a dad. She also knows the joy of belonging to a family. She is a small voice for many children from her own country that need permanent loving families. And right now a voice is what the abandoned children of Romania desperately need. Thank You.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DEBRA MURPHY-SCHEUMANN, PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, JOINT COUNCIL ON INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S SERVICES

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, thank you for providing me with an opportunity to share our experience and concern about the current situation in Romania.

I am pleased to be here today and hopeful that the Commission can take action and encourage reform in Romania's child welfare system so that it is indeed, operating in the best interest of the children.

I am the mother or guardian of 10 children; have been a foster parent for more than 60 children; the founder and President of Special Additions, Inc.; the President of JCICS and the President of a Romanian Association that operates a children's home in Romania. I have served on the JCICS Board of Directors since 2002 and this is my second year as President.

Today, I will touch on who JCICS is and what we believe; Romania's legislation and Children's Rights; violations of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the influence of the European Union; Romania today and lastly, our recommendations.

JCICS OVERVIEW

Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) is one of the oldest and largest associations of licensed, non-profit international adoption agencies, child advocacy groups, parent support groups and medical clinics in the world. Our mission is to advocate on behalf of children in need of permanency and promote ethical practices in intercountry adoption.

Through our involvement in international child welfare since 1976, JCICS has developed an appreciation of the complexity related to the processes and approaches that serve to protect children while expeditiously meeting their need of finding permanency, safety and love. Collectively our members, over 200 organizations, serve approximately 75% of all international adoptions in the United States. JCICS believes that all children-regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, medical limitations or other conditions-deserve a permanent, safe and loving home. When children cannot be safely cared for in their birth families, or in permanent adoptive homes within their country of birth, we believe that ethical intercountry adoption provides the most positive option for children.

ROMANIAN LEGISLATION

Joint Council shares the commitment of the Romanian government to strive for best practices in child adoption and welfare law and we support Romania's effort to promote national adoption in an effort to care for its children. We also recognize the intense political pressure within Romania and their desire for European Union accession.

As you are aware, on January 1, 2005 Romania implemented new legislation eliminating international adoption as an option for

children in need of permanent families, except for cases of adoption by biological grandparents.

While the new legislation seeks to promote national adoption, which is an important piece of child welfare and one that JCICS supports, only 3,513 children were adopted by Romanians over a 2 year span from October 2001 to October 2003. In the spring of 2004, there were an estimated 37,000 children still institutionalized, as reported by Gabriela Coman, head of the Child Protection and Adoption Authority. However, this figure does not include infants born in maternity centers or abandoned at hospitals who are counted under the Ministry of Health, or foster care. JCICS's foremost concern is for the development and care of the tens of thousands of children who remain in institutions or inadequately funded foster case situations.

Many adoption cases were legally registered with the Romanian Government prior to implementation of the new law and are now considered "pending or pipeline cases". There are approximately 211 such cases in the United States. In March 2005 President Basescu agreed to process the pipeline cases by April 2005 ensuring permanency for these children. To date this has not occurred.

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

One of the most basic human rights is the right to have a family. This is something that most of us take for granted. Sadly, many children in Romania have become political pawns in government politics and are being denied the right to permanency.

According to the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, the best interest of the child is a permanent family.

The Hague Convention reads:

"The States signatory to the present Convention,

Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,

Recalling that each State should take, as a matter of priority, appropriate measures to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin,

Recognizing that intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin."

The Convention on the Rights of the Child echoes The Hague Convention's tenet that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. Article 21 of CRC:

"States Parties that recognize and/or permit the system of adoption shall ensure that the best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration and they shall:

(b) Recognize that inter-country adoption may be considered as an alternative means of child's care, if the child cannot be placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot in any suitable manner be cared for in the child's country of origin;

(c) Ensure that the child concerned by inter-country adoption enjoys safeguards and standards equivalent to those existing in the case of national adoption;"

In a later press release, issued on January 26, 2004, UNICEF clarified their position on intercountry adoption vs. institutional care and stated that:

"For children who cannot be raised by their own families, an appropriate alternative family environment should be sought in preference to institutional care, which should be used only as a last resort and as a temporary measure. Inter-country adoption is one of a range of care options which may be open to children, and for individual children who cannot be placed in a permanent family setting in their countries of origin, it may indeed be the best solution."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which has been adopted by the EU also states:

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

We would like to stress that foster care is not a permanent solution. The 150 year history of foster care in the United States demonstrates the faults and shortcomings of a foster care system. The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care in 2004 revealed the poor outcomes for emancipated youth in the United States after they leave foster care. Focus groups with 100 youth in Nevada found that 41 percent did not have enough money to cover basic living expenses, 24 percent had supported themselves at some time by dealing drugs, 50 percent left foster care without a high school degree, and 41 percent had been in jail.1 The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 establishes unequivocally that our national goals for children in the child welfare system are safety, permanency, and well-being. It addresses the inadequacy of foster care to provide a permanent family for children in need, and it directs that permanency planning efforts must begin as soon as a child enters foster care and must be expedited by the provision of services to families. JCICS urges all countries to use foster care only as a short-term solution for children awaiting a permanent family.

The United States recognizes the urgent need of permanency for children. While the US is a receiving country, we are also a sending nation with families in Canada, UK, and Australia among others, adopting US children through the foster care system or private adoption.

JCICS is concerned for children who do not find permanency. Their options are severely limited as they age out of institutional settings. They leave without adequate education and training and their options are severely restricted. They are prone to be victims of abuse and violence and/or perpetuate violent acts against individuals or society. Many of them will runaway to live on the streets or in the sewers and become involved in crime, drugs and prostitution.

1 Nevada KIDS COUNT. "Transition From Care: The Status and Outcomes of Youth Who Have Aged Out of the Child welfare system in Clark County, Nevada." Issue Brief II. Las Vegas: University of Nevada, 2001.

VIOLATION OF CONVENTIONS

It is our concern that the newly implemented legislation does not provide maximum protection of a child's rights nor contains proactive measures to achieve permanent placement within a family structure as echoed in the Hague and CRC conventions.

Romania is party to both conventions. Romania signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child on October 28, 1990. Romania ratified The Hague Convention on December 28, 1994 and it entered into force on May 1, 1995.

Article 3 (1) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child states that: "In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." The Hague Convention states a similar priority for the best interest of children.

JCICS, along with other child welfare advocates, are concerned that the current legislation in Romania, essentially eliminating the possibility of intercountry adoption, is in breach of these convention principles.

INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Child protection has been one of Romania's priorities for their governing program in connection with EU integration. Sadly, the undocumented claims made by the EP's former rapporteur to Romania appear to have influenced foreign media coverage and current legislation resulting in reform that contradicts the basic tenets of the Hague Convention by compromising a child's right to a permanent family through intercountry adoption.

The cessation of international adoptions was largely a result of EU pressure to improve their [Romania] "human rights record”. In 2001, the former EU Rapporteur to Romania issued a report which threatened Romania's opportunity to advance into the European Union. It repeated claims that children were being sold for their organs and prostitution in amounts up to $50,000. These accusations have continued throughout the years with a recent article addressing the plight of internationally adopted children occurring in July 2004, by former Rapporteur Emma Nicholson: "Supporters of this trade claim it provides loving couples with a child whose life would otherwise be miserable. While this can be true in some cases, the reality for many Romanian children is far less positive. Children exported abroad-often against their will-are often subjected to pedophilia, child prostitution or domestic servitude. Since 1989 this trade has grown endemically and propped up the corruption which has seeped into many aspects of Romanian public life."2 Despite repeated requests to the EU and Romania for proof of these accusations, they failed to provide documentation supporting these allegations.

Romania needs to institute reforms to combat corruption. This should include stringent penalties and enforcement of laws—not limiting laws to such a degree as to prevent intercountry adoption as an option for children. While Romania is striving for economic

2 Nicholson, Emma. Red Light on Human Traffic. Guardian Unlimited: July 1, 2004.