(Posted with permisison from Susana Luarca)
SUBJECT: The Constitutional Court upheld the challenge against the Hague Convention
Dear Friends:
Yesterday, the Constitutional Court ruled on the challenges filed
against the law that approved by Congress the Hague Convention of 1993 for
Inter Country Adoptions. The Constitutional Court, the highest court
of Guatemala in Constitutional issues, corrected the Guatemalan
Congress, who approved the accession of our country to the Hague
Convention in clear violation of the Constitution. The basic arguments are
that Guatemala never signed the convention and therefore it could not be
ratified, leaving only the accession as a way to become a party to such
convention according to the same convention, but since the accession
is not among the powers of the president, it was unconstitutional for
Congress to give to the President a power that exceeded those granted to
him by the Constitution.
This means that Guatemala will no longer be bound by a convention
that in theory is for the protection of the children and to unify the
rules of international adoption, but in practice it is the most effective
tool to eliminate adoptions. For the last five months, the PGN
appointed as Central Authority for the purposes of the Hague Convention, gave
us more than a glimpse of the catastrophic consequences that the Hague
Convention brings to international adoption. Not a single adoption
started after March 5th was approved during those terrible five months.
It was not because of lack of implementing legislation, because the
lawyers and the waiting families were willing to fulfill any reasonable
requirements that the Central Authority would have established. Many
adoption files were presented to the Central Authority, only to gather
dust at this office of the PGN. "To ban the lawyers and the baby
farms" were the instructions that Luis Rosales, the State Attorney
received
from the Secretary of the Hague Conference. Or at least that is what
he told us, a group of lawyers who met with him to discuss the matter.
We learned many things during this journey. We learned, among many
other things, that there is a way to reverse the Hague Convention, in
order to give the children the opportunity to be placed with permanent
and loving families. We learned that we have to fight for the right,
because no matter how strong the opponent is, justice prevails.
We hope to have set the example for other countries whose children
are not being adopted and for those countries whose citizens long to
become parents and are prevented to do so, because their governments
fell into the sand trap of the Hague Convention for inter country
adoption
Although things will take a while to get back on track, amparos will
have to be filed to make a hostile PGN to do its work, and even criminal
actions will have to be brought if they keep disregarding the orders of
the Court of Amparo, the nightmare is over. The Hague Convention in
Guatemala cannot harm adoptions any more.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Susana Luarca
Attorney at Law
Asociación Defensores de la Adopción
Guatemala City
THANK GOD and all who worked so hard to help us adoptive families! This is incredible news! Let the assignments begin for those of us still waiting!
Posted by: Katie Huebschen at August 14, 2003 01:30 PMMy wife and would not have been able to make it without Kelly,Maura and all the angles called Focus on Adoption. We love all of you
Posted by: soon to be parent at August 14, 2003 01:36 PMjust wanted to see if anyone knows if this will allow the embassy now to start doing the dna tests again. we are a pre 3/5 case and have been waiting for our dna to get done when all this happened so if anyone has susanna email address so i could email her and she if she might now i would greatly appreciate it. we are adopting a special needs little boy who is now 16 months old but was 6 months when we got his referal so its time to bring him home.
Posted by: Gina Torres at August 14, 2003 01:37 PMThis is fantastic news, and I hope it means what it sounds like. The Ethica website makes it sound like it is an unconfirmed report, but I trust our source!!
Posted by: Sarah J. at August 14, 2003 02:18 PMThanks for the Great news! Hopefully the PGN will quickly begin processing the Post March 5th cases. Our Case should be submitted to the PGN in 2-3 weeks. We hope to bring our little girl home for the Holidays!!
Posted by: Jim W. at August 14, 2003 02:27 PMGod Bless us everyone!!! Thanking all of the Atty's and everone behind the scenes that Worked SO HARD to make this happen, They truly are angels ^i^ ^i^ ^i^.
Posted by: Sonia at August 14, 2003 02:46 PMI am elated by the news but disturbed by the Ethica announcement that indicates that until it's posted, they may change their mind and the outcome of the vote.
That being said, I refuse to let this spoil the best news I've had since I accepted referral of my Natalie in May 2003.
>----- Original Message -----=20
>To: childrenoftheworldintladoption@yahoogroups.com=20
>Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 12:22 PM
>Subject: [childrenoftheworldintladoption] Ruling by the Constitutional =
>Court in Guatemala
>
>
>I am sure many of you have heard the rumor that the Constitutional Court =
>in Guatemala has ruled that the Hague Treaty is illegal and that PGN =
>must go back to processing adoptions as before the March 5th madness. I =
>just spoke with one of the Guatemalan attorneys and this is =
>true-HOWEVER-this is not offical yet. The ruling must first be =
>published in the newspaper and this will not happen until next week =
>sometime. The Guatemalan attorney is fearful that word of the ruling =
>being leaked may jeopardize the ruling of the Constitutional =
>Court-therefore I ask that you all keep this under you hats for the time =
>being. We will let you know next week as soon it is official. Thanks. =
>Carol
Already published in guatemala newspaper "Siglo Ventiuno", and usually takes effect about 3 days after publishing. Let's celebrate!
Prayer does work miracles!!
Congratulations to all!
THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Jamie at August 14, 2003 04:23 PMBack to the days of helping each other get paper work done, etc.
AMEN and Thank God for all of our angels.
Today is the first day in months I have actually felt happy! I go visit my son every 3 to 4 weeks in Guatemala. My heart breaks each time I leave him. I truly feel liberated today. I can't wait until he finally comes home. A special thanks to all of the lawyers that fought this horrible injustice. I may actually get my faith restored in the process of justice.
Again, thanks to all of you that fought so tirelessly for those of us you ahve never met!
Yes today is a day to celebrate, but the day we bring our children home with even be better. Does anyone know timelines, as to how long PGN will take to process post March 5th cases? I am eager to get my daughter home, where she belongs.
If anyone has any idea please respond to me.
Thanks Terri
Mom to Madison born 2-13-03
Our prayers have been answered. God is a good God. Thank you God for all the wonderful people knowledgeable in the laws of our two countries, the right of us, Your people, and Your children, that we will now again be able to provid a safe, loving, Christian home to.
Thank you Susana Luarca for the great news!
Thanks to Susan and all the other attorneys that have worked so hard and have been so diligent in their efforts to make sure that all the adoptive families are treated in a legal, fair, and humane manner!! Our prayers are with you and all the others that have made a difference. A special prayer to all those children waiting for their new families...hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer. Again...heartfelt thanks from all us!
Posted by: Robin T at August 15, 2003 10:01 AMThank God for some of you, but some of us pre-March 5th are still wondering if we are targets of retribution since clarification seems to apply only to post March 5th cases.
Posted by: Erik at August 26, 2003 02:57 PM