Tomorrow, the Guatemalan Congress will meet to discuss two adoption proposals. Neither of them, if passed and implemented, would be good news for the future of Guatemalan adoptions. The best information on them is available through the ADA's website. You can find it here: http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/
We believe that it is quite sad that all the human rights organizations can not work towards developing transparent, ethical adoption systems. Not be confused, these types of laws do run contrary to the spirit of the Hague Convention and no matter how their nomenclature may be sugar coated into creating the appearance that children will still have the opportunity to thrive in a family created through adoption, experience from other countries proves that will not be the case. I would be happy to be proven wrong on that but truly doubt it will be the case.
The ADA is poised to fight for the rights of children and birthmothers as well as the Guatemalan Consitution. And as their post points out, this far from a done deal.
Information on the Ortega Law is available through the Guatadopt search option.
We will post things as we learn them.
Posted by Kevin at May 1, 2007 09:23 PMi am anxious that this is the third reading of the ortega law - i am hoping it does not have support in the congress
if it does manage to get passed - how long would it be before it became law? and I agree with Kevin - it is very sad when a 'so called' human rights organisiation tries to use money to dictate the agenda of a country ...
I will be hoping that congress do the right thing for the children of Guatemala
Posted by: MK at May 2, 2007 02:39 AMMK-great questions. I'm wondering the same thing, how long would it take to become law?
Posted by: CamsMom at May 2, 2007 07:41 AMFYI, JCICS has a new article on their website dated today, 5/2. It discusses their meetings in Guat the last week of April. It also discussed the legislation that is going before Congress today. I think it sounds very promising.
Does anyone have any insight into what effect the proposed bills would have on adoptions already in process?
Posted by: josh at May 2, 2007 03:30 PMLook carefully at the 2 articles just put out by ADA and JCIS. THEY DIFFER GREATLT. ADA supports 3635 and say it is Hague compliant. JCIS does not support 3635 and says it is not Hague compliant. JCIS supports 3339, the bill that would ratify the Hague. The ADA is completely against 3339, basically saying to enact it is unconstitutional. Both agree that 3217 (ORTEGA LAW) is terrible and should not be enacted. SO IS 3635 HAGUE COMPLIANT OR NOT? If it passes I suppose it'll be up to DOS to say whether or not it is Hague compliant. THE FACT THAT THESE TWO POWER HOUSE ORGANIZATIONS (ADA and JCIS) DON'T AGREE WORRIES ME.....Let's get some dialog going.
Posted by: KW at May 2, 2007 04:46 PMI don't read that the ADA fully supports 3635. I think they have concluded that they may end up being just these 2 options and prefer that one.
Posted by: GDSinPA at May 2, 2007 07:30 PM