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UKRAINE ADOPTION NEWS

UKRAINE ADOPTION

August 21, 2006

Dear Members of the American Adoption Community Interested in Ukraine Adoption:

With this public notice, we would like to provide updated information about Ukraine Adoption program and address some rumors
that are circulating in the U.S. adoption community.

been scheduled yet. Several adoptive parents have asked about the most recent adoption rumor, according to which no
appointments will be scheduled until the problem of the missing post-placement reports (PPRs) has been resolved.
In fact, the Ukrainian State Department for Adoption and Protection of Rights of the Child (SDAPRC), which earlier this summer
assumed responsibility for intercountry adoption matters within the Ukrainian government, has already completed its schedule of
adoption appointments for September 2006. There are 25 American families on this list. This list is posted in the public area of
invitation letters have already been mailed to the prospective adoptive parents. If you have registration numbers in the
specified range and have not received an invitation, please contact the Adoption Unit of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, which will
confirm with the SDAPRC whether your number is indeed scheduled for September. Adoptive parents who have the registration
numbers outside this range will be scheduled for the coming months. The schedule of adoption appointments for October is not
yet completed.

The high rate of non-compliance with the Ukrainian PPR requirements remains the most serious argument against resumption of
acceptance of new adoption dossiers from non-Ukrainian citizens. We urge all American parents of Ukrainian adopted children to
submit their annual reports to the appropriate Embassy or Consulate General of Ukraine on time. Parents who are delinquent in
submitting prior reports should submit those as well as current and future reports. Please realize that adoptive parents’ failure to
do this endangers the future of the Ukraine-U.S. intercountry adoption program and thus prevents many Ukrainian children in
need from finding loving parents.

The Embassy of Ukraine to the USA(source from Embassy of Ukraine-http://www.ukraineinfo.us/consular/openletter.html

On July 3, 2006 the Minister for Family, Youth and Sports, Yuriy Pavlenko, held a press conference to announce the official
opening of the new Ukraine Adoption authority ( State Department for Adoption and Protection of Rights of the Child
(SDAPRC)).
SDA register 1,200 adoption dossiers from foreign citizens. Of these five biggest applicant-countries 390 are from American
families wishing to adopt in Ukraine,350 are from Spaine,130 are from Italy ,100 are from France ,45 are from Germany.
These registered families will keep the registration numbers assigned by the previous National Adoption Center; cases will be
considered in the order of their registration numbers.

July-August 2006 - international adoptive candidates with already registered dossiers should submit a written statement to
the SDA to confirm a desire to adopt a child from Ukraine (Only original, notarized and apostilled applications, accompanied by
a Ukrainian translation, will be accepted). During the month of August all adoptive applicants, who submitted their written
statements to the SDA in July, should verify their travel dates with the SDA.

September 1, 2006 - the beginning of interviews with scheduled adoptive candidates with the purpose of learning of the
information contained in centralized data bank of children available for international adoption.
Interviews with adoptive candidates will start September 1, 2006 based on official (written) invitation letters from the SDA.

January 1, 2007 -SDA will begin accepting new documents (dossiers) from international citizens that are
interested in adopting children from Ukraine. This applies to ALL intercountry adoptions, including applications for biological
siblings of previously adopted children.

The SDA has translators (English, German, French, Italian,Spanish) on staff. Families' POAs, as well as their translators, that
are not SDA's employees DO NOT take part in the COURSE OF INTERVIEWS with international adoptive candidates.

The SDA received from the former NAC 50,000 total cases:

- 6,520 files of orphans available for domestic adoption only;
- 20,151 files of orphans available both for domestic and international adoption;
- 1,200 dossiers from international adoptive candidates;
- 14,797 completed adoptions by international adoptive parents;

According to the Ministry,

-16% of all children under the age of 5 y.o. and available for adoption have no health issues.
-20% of children under the age of 5 y.o. and available for international adoption do not have other siblings.
-50% of children have other siblings.
-80% of all international adoptive applicants would like to adopt small (under 5) children that are healthy.

On March 25, 2006 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved Resolution #367 creating the new adoption authority under
the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports. The new Ukrainian adoption authority is named the State Department for Adoption and
Protection of Children’s Rights. The text of the Resolution is available in Ukrainian at the Cabinet of Ministers’ website: http:
//www.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/newsnpd. (Please see the unofficial English translation of this document below.)
The Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports has posted a brief public notice regarding the implementation of the Resolution on its
website at: http://www.mms.gov.ua/news/413 (Unofficial translation of this notice is also listed far below.)
The Embassy will continue to track the transition and other adoption-related issues closely, and will provide updates as
appropriate by e-mail and on our web page: http://kiev.usembassy.gov/. Any American adopting parents who would like to be
added to our e-mail list are welcome to contact us at adoptionskievREMOVE@REMOVEstate.gov.

Unofficial Translation of New Adoption Resolution
http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/newsnpd
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Resolution № 367

March 25, 2006

Regarding the Creation of the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine orders the following:

1. To create the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights as a governmental state executive authority.
2. To approve the enclosed Regulations on the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights.
3. To amend the Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers (see enclosed).
4. To cancel Resolution #380 from March 30, 1996(On the National Adoption Center).
5. The State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights is located at #14 Desiatinna Street, Kyiv.
6. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine must do the following:
- dissolve the National Adoption Center (NAC);
- within the period of one week, the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sports, should
develop a transition plan for the transfer of all paper and electronic data from the NAC to the State Department for Adoption and
Protection of Children’s Rights
7. This Resolution becomes effective on the date of its publication

Prime Minister Y.Yehanurov
Approved by Cabinet of Ministers

Unofficial Translation of the Public Notice
from the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports
http://www.mms.gov.ua/news/413

In addition to adoption and guardianship issues, child placement to family-type orphanages and foster families, the Department
will also be responsible for protection of children’s rights, freedom and interests, and prevention of children’s neglect and
homelessness.
This Resolution has also approved the Department’s Regulations. It also states that the Ministry of Education and Science of
Ukraine must dissolve the National Adoption Center, whose functions are being transferred to the newly created Department.
Within a month, the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports must decide the
question regarding transfer of adoption documentation from the National Adoption Center (Ministry of Education and Science of
Ukraine) to the State Department for Adoption and Protection of Children’s Rights.
The transfer is expected to start on April 3.
The Department will be open and become fully operational on May 3 -- by which time it should be completely staffed.
The Department will be headed by the Director, who will have three Deputies, including the First Deputy. The candidates for
Deputy positions will be submitted by the Minister for Family, Youth and Sports and must be approved by the Cabinet of
Ministers. The same procedure must be followed for dismissal.
The Director is likely to be appointed in a week.
Source from .usembassy

March 3, 2006
the thousands of U.S. families who have experienced the joy of giving a permanent home to a Ukrainian child in need, you can
play a role in ensuring that other American prospective adoptive parents and Ukrainian children will continue to have the same
opportunity that you had to become a family.

As many of you are likely aware, in September 2005, the Ukrainian National Adoption Center (NAC) stopped accepting new
applications from prospective adoptive parents from the United States and five other countries, on the grounds that too many
previous adoptive parents from these countries had failed to comply with Ukraine’s mandatory post-placement reporting ("PPR")
requirements. In November, the NAC eased this ban somewhat when it began once again accepting applications from
prospective parents who wanted to adopt children over age 10, children whose biological siblings the same U.S. petitioners had
already adopted, and children with identified special needs. Apart from these limited categories of children, however, the ban on
new applications would remain in effect for each country until the parents achieved a 100% compliance rate in submitting their
delinquent post-placement reports.
Recently, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty met with Ukrainian Minister of Family, Youth and
Sports Yuriy Pavlenko to discuss this issue, on which the Government of Ukraine places a great deal of importance. Minister
Pavlenko said that Ukraine is missing reports on nearly 900 children adopted by U.S. citizens between 1996 and 2004. Minister
Pavlenko, whose ministry is scheduled to take over responsibility for adoption processing on May 1 of this year, noted that he
will be unable to reinstate the United States for all adoptions until past American parents whom Ukraine views as delinquent
have filed their missing reports.
The U.S. Government does not have the legal authority to compel U.S. citizens to comply with foreign laws. No U.S. official is
going to come to come to your home and force you to send in your post-placement reports. Nor is any Ukrainian official going to
take your child away if you don’t. You adopted your child under Ukrainian law, and you are his or her parents. And in most
cases, your child has obtained U.S. citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000. Nothing can change that.
It is very important, however, that all American parents of Ukrainian adopted children realize that the high rate of non-
compliance with the Ukrainian PPR requirements you agreed to when you adopted your child is having a very real and negative
effect on the ability of other families to do the same. That is why the Bureau of Consular Affairs has launched a broad-based
campaign, working with the Ukrainian Embassy here in Washington, U.S. adoption agencies, social workers and others to
encourage all parents to submit missing post-placement reports. With all of us working together, we hope to ensure the
continuation of intercountry adoption from Ukraine, which all of us must agree is an important goal for the thousands of
Ukrainian children waiting for permanent families.

Source from usembassy

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