Belize is a Hague Convention compliant country as is the US so the adoption must follow the requirements of the Hague Adoption Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The following information about adoption from Belize is from the Department of State, updated July 2008.

Belize does not allow private adoptions so children can only be adopted through the judicial process. Prospective adopting parents who reside in Belize adopt through the Belize Family Courts. If the prospective adopting parents reside outside Belize, the adoption is processed through the Supreme Court of Belize. In 2009, 6 children were adopted from Belize and the same number in 2008.

The adoption process of a child from Belize must be completed in the country of the prospective parents because “Belize does not grant custody of its children for emigration and adoption outside of Belize. However, the Chief Justice of Belize has determined that the “Provisional”, “Interim” or “Preliminary” Adoption decrees often issued by the Supreme Court can be considered permission for the prospective adoptive parents to take the child out of Belize and to pursue a concurrent adoption process in accordance with the laws of their own country” (special provisions apply for anyone who initiated an adoption before April 2008).

Who Can Adopt?

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Russia and the United States are moving closer toward working out an agreement so that adoptions can resume. According to an Associated Press article, the hope is that an agreement will be reached by mid-June. It’s a shame that waiting children and families will have wait to another month, but the news could have been another year … or forever.

Russia halted adoptions to the United States last month after an adoptive grandmother put a seven-year-old adoptee named Artyom Savelyev back on a plane to Russia alone, leaving roughly 3,000 hopeful adoptive families in limbo until the two countries can agree upon certain terms. According to this article, Russian officials want more control over the living conditions of Russian adoptees after they move to the United States.

I am deviating from my usual Trauma Thursday format to cover breaking news … Russia has suspended adoptions by Americans pending reaching an agreement on adoption procedures. You can read the fully story here.

The suspension was prompted by adoptive mother Torry Hansen’s decision to return her seven-year-old adopted child Artyom Savelyev to Russia. You can read my blog entry here for the details. In short, this is one big, fat mess for any American who is currently in the process of adopting a child from Russia.

According to the Associated Press article, Russian authorities were “incensed” that the seven-year-old boy was flown back to Russia unsupervised by his adoptive family with nothing but a note explaining why he was being returned to his country of birth. The article goes on to state that the Russian authorities are “outraged” that the United States has not filed charges against Ms. Hansen or her grandmother. Under current laws, the Russian government has no way to prosecute either woman.

Adoptions to the United States from other countries dropped drastically again last year. As a matter of fact the number of intercountry adoptions was the lowest it has been in the last ten years. Only 12,753 children were adopted to the US through intercountry adoption in the government fiscal year which runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009.

ANNUAL TOTAL OF ADOPTIONS FROM 2003-2009

The top five countries were China, Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea, and Guatemala. There are still children in Guatemala whose adoptions were initiated before intercountry adoptions were halted in Dec. 2007. The numbers from Guatemala will only continue to decline. The same holds true for China  where new adoption restrictions are making it much harder for US citizens to adopt. I project that the numbers from Ethiopia will continue to increase for another couple years until UNICEF gets involved, and then the adoption doors will be slammed shut.