Call for Action...2007 Haitian Adoptions

Following are the number of Haitian children who joined their adoptive families in 2007 compared to 2006. So far, by my calculations (and I am still waiting for formal statistics from the US Government and Canada - I have Quebec's statistics, but am missing the other Canadan stats. though I am presuming about 44 children for the other Canadian provinces) in 2006 - 1059 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families, however in 2007, only 724 adopted children from Haiti joined their forever families.

That is a 32% decrease of Haitan children joining their families. This decrease is not because there are less families trying to adopt abandoned or orphaned Haitian children, this decrease reflects how many children's adoptions are stuck within the Haitian system (IBESR, Parquet and ultimately Ministry of Interior).

If the adoption process had been continuing in a smooth manner, and using the statistics of increased adoptions of about 20% per year, it is my estimation that about 1200-1300 children total would have come home to their forever families in 2007. This means that about 500 children's adoptions are stuck somewhere in the adoption process.

France:
2006 - 571 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 403 adopted children from Haiti (168 fewer - 30% decrease)
Source: http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/IMG/pdf/chiffres_adoption_2007.pdf

USA:
2006 - 309 adopted children from Haiti
2007 - 195 adopted children from Haiti as of Dec. 15, 2007 (114 fewer - 37% decrease)

Canada:
2006 - 123
2007 - ??? ** Can you help get me the official statistics?
2007 - 44 *Quebec statistics (66 in 2006)http://www.adoption.gouv.qc.ca/site/fr_statistiques.phtml

The Netherlands:
2006 - 41
2007 - 28 (13 fewer - 32% decrease)
Source: www.wereldkinderen.nl/site.php?=47
www.stichtingflash.nl/wachtlijstenoverzicht.phtml
http://www.nederlandseadoptiestichting.nl/

Spain:
2006 - 15
2007- 10 (*Spain abandoned Haitian adoptions, however approximately 20 families who started the adoption prior to Spain's closing its doors to adoptions in Haiti are still waiting for their children.) (5 fewer - 33% decrease)

As we know, UNICEF is putting a lot of pressure on the Haitian government, telling them that too many children are being adopted internationally. (I was told the same thing by the UNCEF representative in Haiti during a face to face meeting in December 2007.)

Thus, the Haitian response has been to make the adoptions more difficult. For example, Gassant in Parquet is refusing to sign adoption decrees and the Ministry of Interior was not authorizing adopted children's passports.

UNICEF should be really proud of itself because less children are leaving the country.

BUT, did they solve the problem of the Haitian children? Many of the children have adopting families and they continue to live in orphanages, institutionalized.

Many other children continue to live on the streets, hungry and sick, many dying. There is no assistance that is being provided to make those children's lifes better.

This has to change and it is going to take an international effort of people who care for the children of Haiti to come together and expose what is really happening in response of the UNICEF pressure on the Haitian government.

I had a meeting with Mario Joseph, leading human rights lawyer in Haiti. He agreed to assist in this effort. I briefed him on what is happening in Parquet with Mr. Gassant's refusal to sign adoption decrees of families seeking to adopt Haitian orphans/abandoned children who have biological children. (Actually, he is not even signing adoption decrees for families with no biological children.)

In order to assist in highlighting the plight of the Haitian children who are stuck in limbo because of Mr. Gassant's actions, Mr. Joseph needs the cooperation of families and their orphanages/ orphanages' lawyers. He needs to highlight individual cases to Mr. Gassant in order to question the legality of his actions (or inactions).

He plans to hold a meeting with Mr. Gassant and if there is no result in response to the meeting, he plans to go on Haitian radio and TV to address the problem and to expose what is happening.

I know that some families and orphanages might be afraid to take this action, but without action, we are at a literal stand-still in Parquet.

MOI's issue in signing passport authorizations used to be a problem, but it is running much smoother now and that is in part because of the grassroots effort of adopting families.