US embassy cable - 05YEREVAN2113

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 002113 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR IIP/G/EUR-KELLISON, LSCHWARTZ; IIP/T/DHR- 
JJASIK; EUR/PPD-JBASEDOW; CA/ACS/CI-MDERKS 
 
E.O. 12958; N/A 
TAGS: KOCI, OIIP, SCUL, KPAO, AM, PHUM 
SUBJECT: ARMENIAN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS: 
CURRENT PROCESS, OFFICIAL OPINIONS, POSSIBLE CHANGES 
 
REF: A. YEREVAN 522, B. YEREVAN 2042 
 
1. "It is better for a child to die in Armenia than to be 
adopted abroad."  While international adoptions are legal in 
Armenia, this pervasive negative attitude makes legislators 
and government officials nervous, giving rise to a lack of 
transparency in the process which in turn creates an 
environment where fraud flourishes.  When Emboffs brought 
cases of apparent fraud to the Justice Ministry and pointed 
out shortcomings in Armenia's system, Justice Minister David 
Harutunian asked for help.  In response, through the Public 
Affairs Section's International Speaker program, post hosted 
U.S. attorney and adoption expert Irene Steffas for a two 
week series of working sessions with government officials, 
lawyers, and non-governmental organizations.  Steffas 
presented a range of choices for the GOAM, all which require 
changes to legislation and a new level of commitment to 
create an environment in which adoptions can take place 
without the involvement of intermediaries and unlicensed 
agencies, which are the main sources of fraud.  End Summary. 
 
International Adoptions in Armenia 
---------------------------------- 
2. American Citizens adopt approximately 40 Armenian 
children per year.  This is a small number in terms of U.S. 
foreign adoptions, but a large percentage of Armenian 
children adopted by foreigners -- usually 70 per year. 
Until this year, Post felt fairly confident in the Armenian 
system.  Although parents were charged "extra fees" at every 
step of the process, it was rational and fairly transparent. 
The Armenian Government at the highest level signed off on 
all foreign adoptions. 
 
3. In early 2005 however, Post discovered that a local 
adoption facilitator had been using unethical methods to 
procure very young children for adoption by American 
Citizens.  The facilitator had placed babies in a private 
orphanage, the primary purpose of which appeared to be to 
keep the children out of the state-run orphanage system 
where they would likely be adopted by Armenian families. 
(See reftel A.) 
 
Presenting the Fraud to the MOJ 
-------------------------------- 
4. Post brought concerns about unethical facilitators and 
private orphanages to the Minister of Labor and Social 
Security (responsible for regulating orphanages) and to the 
Minister of Justice, chairman of the Adoption Council which 
oversees adoption in Armenia.  Armenian adoption law barely 
recognizes the existence of facilitators, but the Minister 
of Justice understood that foreigners need help negotiating 
the Armenian bureaucracy.  He told us he was just beginning 
to study the best way to regulate facilitators without 
providing additional avenues for corruption.  The Minister 
asked Post to provide a U.S. adoption expert to explain the 
adoption process from the U.S. perspective and to lay out 
different options for legalizing the work of facilitators. 
 
Current Process, Known Problems, Potential Solutions 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
5. In response to the Minister's request for technical 
assistance, Post hosted U.S. attorney and adoption expert, 
Irene Steffas, from November 5-18, for a two week series of 
working sessions with government officials, lawyers, and non- 
governmental organizations. (See reftel 2042.) In Mrs. 
Steffas' expert opinion, many of the current Armenian 
adoption laws "on the books" are good; however, the laws and 
procedures are not always followed, nor are they clearly 
known to the general public. The main hurdle as identified 
by Post is the current lack of inter-Ministry cooperation, 
as adoption responsibilities cut across the Ministries of 
Justice, Health, Labor and Social Issues, and Interior. 
While there is no "silver bullet" to improve the adoption 
process in Armenia, Mrs. Steffas did identify a number of 
areas in need of improvement: 
 
(a) Aim for transparency of fees and the process for 
domestic and international adoptions, with the goal of 
corruption avoidance. She suggested to create a publicly 
available booklet listing the laws, process, and fees. 
 
(b) Create a complete adoption registry to have clarity on 
the number of children awaiting adoption. Presently, the 
number of children available for adoption is only an 
approximate guess -- 11,000. Children are often identified 
for adoption prior to being on the adoption registry. This 
should be changed so that the parental surrender documents 
allow for the child to be put on the registry and adopted by 
a specific person(s) simultaneously. 
 
(c) Centralize the process for both domestic and 
international adoptions. Currently domestic adoptions are 
done at the state level; only international adoptions are at 
the national level. 
 
(d) License domestic and international adoption agencies. 
Local lawyers that work in the adoption field are also 
recommended to be accredited. 
 
Reaction of Justice Minister 
----------------------------- 
6. During a meeting with CDA and adoption expert Irene 
Steffas, Minister of Justice Davit Harutyunyan emphasized 
his desire to reform and greatly simplify the process of 
adoptions in response to known and potential corruption. The 
Minister stated that "no government civil servant making 
30,000 dram (USD 66) a month will be able to resist slowing 
the paperwork process and trying to get a cut of the 
adoption agency's fees." His reaction to the expert's 
suggestion to accredit foreign and domestic adoption 
agencies was equally strong, "I don't want to create an 
adoption industry - it shouldn't be a business." When asked 
about the problem of hospitals keeping and "shopping" out 
babies, he stated that he was not familiar enough with the 
Ministry of Health's regulations. Despite the Minister's 
differences of opinion with the expert's suggestions, it is 
clear that Minister Harutyunyan is serious about improving 
the process of adoptions in the very near future. 
 
Next Steps 
---------- 
7. We will continue to press the GOAM to develop coherent, 
transparent adoption legislation and policy.  To follow-up 
to the visit of Ms Steffas, we have scheduled a three-week 
International Visitor Program on International Adoption 
Issues, to take place March 11 - April 1, 2006.  This 
program will involve a group of policy makers and children's 
advocates who will try to learn from our best practices how 
they can change Armenia's system.  We will seek to engage 
with USAID's Armenia Legislative Strengthening Project to 
turn the "lessons learned" from this visit into legislation. 
Considering the high level of emotional resistance to 
adoptions here, we expect forward progress to be slow, but 
hope our efforts will keep it moving. 
 
EVANS