Europe Adoption Bill enforces Hague Convention

22 Jan 2009 |

‘Irish Times’ reports that a new bill submitted by the Irish government will provide uniform standards of child protection for the approximately 400 inter-country adoptions completed each year. Once the Bill becomes law (expected in a year), it will be possible to adopt children only from countries that have ratified the Hague Convention, or countries with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement. This means Irish parents will no longer be able to adopt from Russia and Ethiopia, which have not ratified the convention. Some 4’600 children have come to Ireland under inter-country adoptions since 1991, with about 1’400 of these coming from countries not covered by the Hague Convention or bilateral agreements.

Source : Irish Times