Guatemala Adoption Information and News: New Online Petition

August 12, 2003

New Online Petition

My amazing group of coauthors has worked feverishly to put together another petition. This one is addressed to Michelle Bernier-Toth, Director of the Office of Children's Issues at the U.S. Department of State. It outlines the problems that are being faced with the U.S. government position regarding Guatemalan adoptions (eg sending us to the Central Authority for information, suspending DNA authorizations, etc) and requests five major points of action.

Please read, sign, and pass on to everyone that you can, the petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/DOSguat/petition.html

We have requested that you supply your state of residence. That request was made because we hope that U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives will look at this petition while considering how they will intervene on behalf of their constituents. If they see that there are people from all over the country who are affected, and many people from their state, then they might be more likely to take positive action quickly.

The petition was authored by Ellen Daley, Allison McSweeney and myself (Maura Meade-Callahan) with thoughtful revisions by Theresa Lacey and Hannah Wallace. Thanks to everyone.

Posted by at August 12, 2003 10:57 PM

Comments

There are many children out there that need good homes, and there are many, many parents that want to provide a good life for a child. Why then, does the government make it so hard for one to adopt? Lets reform some laws and DO IT SOON...

Posted by: AnnPeachey at August 14, 2003 06:30 AM

PLease do not let this pass - babies need good homes! All babies - don't make it more difficult for families and for these babies to find each other!!!

Posted by: Kelly Born at August 14, 2003 12:40 PM

I wanted to state where I am from and forgot!!

Posted by: Kelly Born at August 14, 2003 12:41 PM

To Whom It May Concern,

I think this is horrible what Guatemala is doing on the abrupt stop on the adoption process to the U.S. This descion is hurting MANY families that are in the process of their adoptions. This is a VERY cruel act that Guatemala has placed on adopties. Every baby born DESERVES a good family to go to, no matter what country they live in.

Posted by: Shelba Nedbalek at August 14, 2003 05:34 PM

For those who might be a bit hesitant about signing the petition after reading a public objection by one of the attorneys in Guatemala to some phrasing, I wanted to offer a bit of an explanation. Several items were pointed out that were incorrect from a legal perspective (like the fact that Guatemala did not sign the Hague Treaty, they acceded to the Hague Convention - which was the legal reasoning behind the Constitutional Court challenge that was approved yesterday; and the PGN has been stalling on their processing of adoption cases in spite of a court order, even as the appeals process goes on). Although it might have been better for consistency sake to have included these differentiations in the petition, it cannot be altered once it has been published online. We carefully considered the points and decided that they did not affect the message nor goals of the petition. If this petition were submitted by Guatemalan attorneys or had an audience in Guatemala, then the fine distinctions might be important, but we feel that they are not critical in a document signed by US citizens in requesting action from our DOS. We apologize for any confusion that might have been caused by this.

While the Constitutional Court has ruled favorably, we still would like to collect signatures just in case we need to ask the DOS to intervene on our behalf. Please keep the waiting children of Guatemala in mind.

Respectfully,
Maura Meade-Callahan

Posted by: Maura at August 14, 2003 09:20 PM

please make it possible for these kids to have families,and these parents to have children.

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