ROMANIA: GOR ADOPTIONS OFFICE MOVES TO PREVENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BUCHAREST 000665

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE BILL SILKWORTH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/20/2016
TAGS: SOCI PHUM PGOV CASC PREL SIPDIS RO
SUBJECT: ROMANIA: GOR ADOPTIONS OFFICE MOVES TO PREVENT
PENDING INTER-COUNTRY ADOPTIONS

REF: A. A) BUCHAREST 0576

B. B) BUCHAREST 0536

Classified By: CHARGE MARK TAPLIN FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) & (D).


1. (SBU) Summary. On April 17, the Romanian Office for
Adoptions (ROA) publicly announced that no inter-country
adoptions would result from the government's review of the
petitions by foreign families to adopt Romanian children
filed before the January 1, 2005 ban on inter-country
adoption took effect. We do not consider this announcement to
be the final word on the matter, and propose a range of
actions to encourage the Government of Romania (GOR)
eventually to allow some of the adoptions to proceed. End
summary.


Working Group Completes "Review"
--------------

2. (U) On April 17, the Romanian Office for Adoptions (ROA)
publicly announced the results of the Working Group that
reviewed the petitions by foreign families to adopt Romanian
children filed before the January 1, 2005 ban on
inter-country adoption took effect. The Secretary of State
of the ROA, Theodora Bertzi, made clear to the press that
none of the 1,100 pending cases would be resolved through
inter-country adoption. Bertzi has further instructed child
welfare departments at the county level to prohibit contact
between children in the protection system and foreigners,
except for those who are their relatives up to the fourth
degree; adopted siblings of the children in question; or
those who an independent child psychiatrist has determined
have bonds of affection such that cutting the contact would
be harmful to the Romanian child.


3. (U) On January 18, Bertzi gave an interview to the
Romanian newspaper "Adevarul" in which she stated "most" of
the 178 cases of international adoption for which her office
lacks the post-adoption reports required by Romanian law
involve U.S. families. In the article, Bertzi expressed
concern about the case of William Peckenpaugh, the American
who was convicted in Oregon in 2005 and sentenced to 30
years, imprisonment for the sexual abuse of the Romanian boy
he adopted. Her remarks seemed intended to bolster the
unfounded argument of opponents of inter-country adoption
that children adopted abroad, once out of the control of the
Romanian government, are at higher risk of abuse and
exploitation.


4. (U) Post,s analysis of the Working Group report
indicates that it is designed primarily to cater to vocal
opponents of inter-country adoption in the European
Commission (EC),in advance of the May 15 EC report that is
expected to confirm Romania will join the European Union on
January 1, 2007. We suspect that the report was also issued
to stave off any pro-adoption recommendations that might
result from the European Parliament's April 25 adoption
meeting in Brussels.


Best Interests of the Children?
--------------

5. (SBU) The results indicate on their face that the Working
Group did not place the best interests of the children as its
the highest priority, but rather applied a selective mix of
interpretations of current legislation, past legislation and
previously confidential guidelines in matching the
preordained political decision not to allow inter-country
adoptions. The April 17 ROA press statement claimed the case
review was complete in November 2005. In contrast, GOR
officials told the Ambassador, PolChief and Consul General as
late as January 2005 that the review was still underway.
Bertzi appears to be seeking to justify her public statement
on December 7 -- one day after Secretary Rice,s visit to
Bucharest -- that no inter-country adoptions would be
approved.


6. (U) The Working Group report consigns hundreds of
children to non-permanent "substitute" families. Post
discounts Bertzi,s public and private claims that Romania
can find domestic solutions for all of its orphans and
abandoned children. Contacts among Romanian NGOs and local
officials further confirm what post officers have observed
first-hand in Romanian child centers in recent months, namely
that at least hundreds of children remain in institutions or
group homes, many in substandard conditions of physical and
emotional care (reftel B).



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It's Not Over Until It's Over
--------------

7. (C) Now that Romania appears poised to receive a green
light for EU accession in January 2007, there may be
political space for the GOR to reconsider at least a limited
number of "pending" cases. Some contacts in other concerned
embassies and NGOs in Romania believe the GOR will not risk
moving forward before the actual accession date. On the
other hand, Bucharest is already showing signs of factoring
in a positive decision on EU membership in other political
calculations. The argument that accession is in any respect
hanging in the balance over the adoptions issue will be
utterly hollow once the spring EU accession review report is
released in mid-May. Thus, we believe there remains some
potential for the GOR to adopt a different political tak on
the pending cases and to look for ways to rlease a limited
number of children under some kid of "review of the review"
process. The GOR miht defend such a change in policy as
being based n new information or changed circumstances in
spcific cases. With both the Romanian President, an
increasingly, the Prime Minister, expressing inerest in
visiting the United States before the ed of the year, we may
find some useful leverage in the months ahead.


The Road Ahead
--------------

8. (SBU) In light of the above, we recommen continued
engagement on this issue. Without rasing the expectations
of potential adoptive parets unreasonably, we should operate
on the basis that there is nothing necessarily final in
Bertzi' "final" report on the pending cases. Furthermore
the stark reality is that some of the children emain in
circumstances that fall well short of acceptable child
welfare standards, whatever statements some GOR officials
make to the contrary.


9. (C) We plan to undertake the following steps:

a. Consul General will respond the week of April 24 to
Bertzi,s letter that transmitted to the Ambassador a copy of
the Working Group report. The CG will state that we consider
the case review to have lacked transparency and not to have
been based on the best interests of the children; and request
the opportunity to review selected cases with an independent
child welfare expert. (This review could include any of the
94 petitions filed by American families that the ROA
announced on November 3, 2005 were not eligible for
inter-country adoption. At the time of that announcement, it
remained arguable that the Working Group review was credible.
Subsequent developments made clear that the results were
preordained, bringing the November 3 results back into
question.) We plan to show this letter to the embassies of
France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Israel to encourage them to
take similar steps.

b. On April 25, a hearing on Romania,s inter-country
adoption policy is scheduled at the European Parliament in
Strasbourg. Post anticipates a contentious debate, involving
pro- and anti-adoption Parliamentarians, among the latter the
Liberal MEP and former Rapporteur for Romania Baroness Emma
Nicholson. American families seeking to adopt, and Romanian
NGO representatives, are scheduled to speak. Post believes
close monitoring of the hearing is important as a sign of
continued USG engagement, and to allow a current assessment
of EP sentiment on the issue. The active involvement of our
colleagues at USEU Brussels has helped to change the policy
environment on the pending cases outside the borders of
Romania, and we will now accelerate our own efforts to
challenge the GOR status quo on the basis that no European
consensus on this issue now exists and, as observed above,
there are no implications for EU accession.

c. In late May, USAID Bucharest will sponsor a conference on
progress made by the US-funded child welfare program and next
steps to reform the sector. We plan for the Ambassador to
make a speech at the event including a more forward-leaning
assessment of the current child welfare and adoption system
in Romania than he has offered to date in public. The
conference has been timed to follow a positive announcement
about Romania's 2007 accession date.

d. In June, post would propose a letter from a high-ranking
USG official to the GOR, once again urging reconsideration of
the Working Group results and a legal framework to allow
inter-country adoption where called for.


10. (C) Given the importance of not raising false hopes
among the American families whose adoption petitions are at

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stake, post recommends making clear to them we have no
assurance our efforts will succeed, but that in a rapidly
evolving adoptions policy climate in Brussels and Strasbourg,
we should not give up the ship just yet.

TAPLIN