[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H2884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        UNIVERSAL ACCREDITATION

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month we witnessed the tragedy 
of an inter-country adoption gone wrong when a 7-year-old boy was 
forced back, alone, to Russia. Last year over 12,000 children from 
around the world were adopted by American families, yet only a fraction 
of these adoptions were processed by accredited adoption agencies. The 
others occurred under an unregulated process that may not have the best 
interests of the families or the child in mind.
  Just over 2 years ago, the United States became a full member of the 
Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption. Under the Convention, the 
United States requires that inter-country adoption service providers be 
accredited to improve transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, 
these rules only apply to adoptions from countries that have signed the 
Convention. Adoption agencies who work for non-Convention countries do 
not need to meet the accreditation requirements, and these agencies 
continue to conduct unregulated adoptions, creating a double standard 
for the treatment of children and families.
  We must strengthen the adoption practices by requiring accreditation 
for all countries' adoption service providers. Universal accreditation 
will create an adoption process that is lawful, safe for the child, and 
respectful to the families involved.

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