The distinguished delegate of the Russian Federation implied that re-adoption and the sale of children were widespread practice in the U.S.
To the contrary, in our experience, the vast majority of adoptive placements result in successful and permanent placement of children into loving homes. As in every country, sometimes the challenges are too big for adoptive families, leading to disruption of placements or dissolutions of adoptions. Decreasing the number of disrupted placements and dissolutions of adoptions is a high priority of the United States.
But when this does happen, the Department of State reports intercountry adoption disruptions and dissolutions to Congress. U.S. States must report intercountry adoption disruptions and dissolutions where a child enters the custody of one of the several U.S. States or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. U.S. accredited agencies and approved persons track and report on the disruptions and dissolutions that occur in their cases. So there is no lack of transparency.
The U.S. government is deeply concerned by any activity that bypasses the legal protections in place for children and places them at risk. When such activity comes to light, state and federal authorities take appropriate legal action, including in some cases criminal charges of kidnapping.
As in every case, whenever a case comes to our attention concerning the welfare of a child adopted from Russia, we will continue to follow up and connect Russian officials with the appropriate state and local authorities, who have primary jurisdiction over child welfare issues.
As delivered by Ambassador Michael Kozak, Head of Delegation, OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Warsaw
