NEW YORK, August 3 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Loshchilin) - A court in the town of Manassas, Virginia, started hearing a case Tuesday that has raised a number of issues related to the adoption of Russian-born children by American foster parents.
Peggy Sue Hilt stands accused of the second-degree murder of her adopted Russian daughter, Nina, who was born Viktoria Bazhenova and lived in an orphanage in Irkutsk (Siberia) before she was adopted. The case was adjourned until October 4, 2005 after the defense asked for a medical examination of the defendant.
The key issue is possibly that the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, which stipulates the establishment of a national oversight body to monitor the living conditions of adopted children, has not entered into force in the United States. Indeed, although Russia signed the Convention in 2000, it has not yet ratified the document.
"According to official data, Americans have adopted more than 43,000 Russian-born children since 1991," Alexander Demkin, Russia's vice consul in New York, told RIA Novosti. "In 90% of the cases, Russian children live happy lives with their foster parents. In 10% of the cases, they experience various problems, which are normally resolved with time."
The U.S. does not have a system of oversight bodies for intercountry adoption either on the federal or state level. This means Russian consulates, private adoption agencies and, to a certain extent, the U.S. State Department monitor the living conditions and upbringing of adopted children from Russia.
"One of the major problems for us is that under U.S. legislation on adoption passed in 2000 children adopted abroad become U.S. citizens immediately after crossing the U.S. border on the way to their foster homes," Demkin said. "We consider them to be Russian citizens until they reach 18, although when we make inquiries with their foster parents we often hear the answer, 'Talk to our lawyer, please. Our child is an American citizen'."
"Russian children adopted by American foster parents remain under our control and the supervision of adoption agencies for four years. The agencies must send four annual reports to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and regional educational authorities, which govern adoptions in the Russian Federation, and also to the U.S. State Department," Demkin continued. "After four years of reporting and visits to foster families, children become regular U.S. citizens and can be even re-adopted without the notification of the Russian authorities. In fact, we had such a case."
The vice consul said there were some levers to apply pressure on the adoption agencies that do not fulfill their obligations. "Following our alerts, they might be banned from operating in Russia, or their U.S. licenses might be revoked," the vice consul said. "Unfortunately, our possibilities within the U.S. legal system are very limited. The State Department cannot maintain stringent control over the situation with children adopted from other countries because of the broad legislative autonomy of the states. For instance, local police can easily refuse to provide the State Department with information about an incident with children adopted by from Russia referring to confidentiality of the information."
According to Demkin, Russian consulates do their best to monitor closely the lives of adopted Russian children, "but it is impossible to maintain control over the situation given the number of adopted children and limited resources."
"I think the United States and Russia should conclude bilateral agreements that can be implemented on the federal level and ensure the supervision of adopted children until they reach the age of 17, for example, by the State Department," Demkin said.
Patricia Sheehy, the regional director of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, agreed with the idea of developing common laws regulating intercountry adoption and extending the authority of local supervisory bodies in this sphere. She said local agencies of the State Department could assume control functions, but added that more efforts would have to be made in Russia to minimize the risks of children being subjected to violence in the U.S. Ms. Sheehy said the Russian authorities sometimes failed to conduct medical examinations of adoption candidates at the due level and did not inform future foster parents about their medical problems.
According to some American adoption specialists, many foster children from former Soviet countries arrive in the U.S. with inherited alcohol syndrome, although Russian experts strongly disagree with this opinion.
"These cases make up less than 1% of all adoption cases, and the majority of adopted children are perfectly healthy," Galina Tseikin, a doctor with the Bridge of Hope adoption agency said.
"There is another problem I would like to focus on," she said. "Russia allows independent adoption, which gives foster parents the right to adopt children on their own. Sometimes in these cases the necessary medical exams, including a psychological evaluation of potential foster parents, are not conducted. Only two out of 13 adopted Russian children, who died in the last 15 years in different circumstances, had been adopted through special agencies, whereas the rest of the children were adopted independently."
