Hague Evaluation

ROMANIA

Often pointed to as a country with an infamous international adoption moratorium, Romania had a number of serious human rights violations of child trafficking dating back over several decades, including a major adoption boom in the 1980s. When the nation attempted to join the European Union, great pressure was exerted upon the country to enter a self-imposed moratorium. Unfortunately the EU pushed hard for and leveraged a moratorium without offering any real financial help for adoption systems reform or assistance in managing problems of institutionalized children. Critics of the moratorium assert that institutionalized children's human rights as they have little or no hope for a family life. Romania is not a Hague-signatory nation and it is not uncommon for people to confuse the Hague Convention with the current moratorium. However, it has no bearing on the current situation in the nation.

RUSSIA

Because Russia has not implemented the Convention, we will not go into great detail about the problems there which are speculated to be deeply rooted in organized crime. Because it is well-known that many prospective families are expected to carry in large sums of US money (crisp $100 bills) for pay-offs, we are left to wonder why the US Department of State has continued to issue orphan visas for this nation while targeting Guatemala, Vietnam and other nations as problematic. In fact, the chaos in Guatemala and Vietnam may have actually masked problems in nations like Russia.

UKRAINE

(under development)