ADA STORY ON GUATEMALA ADOPTION SITUATION
Here's a story from the ADA Website that does a good job providing some background to the situation in Guatemala:
ADA
June 11, 2007
THE ROLE OF THE PGN IN THE ADOPTION PROCESS IN GUATEMALA
The adoption process in Guatemala is rather simple. Over the years, the Social Workers for the Family Courts and the Procuraduria General de la Nacion (PGN) which is the equivalent of the State Attorney, have introduced new requirements that have been added to the process. According to the law that rules the notarial process of adoption, the requirements are: the birth certificate of the child, the marriage certificate of the adoptive parents if the child is being adopted by a couple, two witnesses of the moral and financial capacity of the adoptive parents, and a home study with a favorable opinion of a Social Worker, appointed by a Family Court.
The PGN has three days to give an opinion about the adoption. We all know that the PGN is taking months to give an opinion and to return the file to the notary, most of the times with objections for any number of reasons. Some of those objections are valid. Most of them are not. The rate of approval of cases by the PGN this year is twenty four per cent of the cases submitted. Last year it was ninety six per cent. The law is still the same and the adoption lawyers have not suffered of collective amnesia, therefore, the reason for all those rejections must be found elsewhere.
When Josefina Arellano became the director of the section of the PGN that deals with abandoned children, she realized that nobody cares for that kind of children. That the spotlight is on the adopted children. Ambitious and eager to promote her image as someone who has in her hands the destiny of the children, Arellano has been doing whatever it takes to control the process of adoption. Since she declared herself as the chief of the adoptions office and the international press has been quoting her, Arellanoa’s power has been growing enormously. She is in the newspapers, in the TV news, in the radio interviews, stating as a fact that all children who are being adopted were made for that purpose, and that Guatemala has become a children factory, ignoring the poverty of the people who cannot support their children and choose to relinquish them instead of letting them die as many others, for lack of proper nutrition or medical care.
The truth is that Josefina Arellano has nothing to do with adoptions and that she should be doing what her job really is: helping the abandoned children to solve their legal situation as fast as possible, to be able to find a permanent family before they are too old to be adopted.
To dispel any doubts about the origin of the child, the positive result of a DNA test was included among the documents presented for PGN approval of the adoption. As the anti adoption forces have tried and failed to pass a law that would make adoptions impossible, the requirements of the PGN have been increasing. Every month there is a new one. Among them, there are: the declaration of heterosexuality of single parents, the appointment of a legal guardian in case something happens to the adoptive parents, documents to state the identity of the director of the hogar or the foster mothers who are taking care of the children being adopted, birth certificates in photocopy, not literal transcriptions, birth certificates of the birthmothers and of their document of identity, updated medical certificates of the children being adopted, and many others.
When the PGN does not approve the adoption, the law states that the process must be presented to the Family Court, so the judge decides whether or not to approve the adoption. The decision of the judge can be appealed before the Court of Appeals of Family jurisdiction. The judges do not like to be burdened with adoptions, considering that the child support and alimony cases take priority and that adoptions are something that should be dealt by the lawyers with the PGN.
In order to explain to the seven Family Judges of the Family Court the situation of the adoptions and the PGN, the ADA President and Vice President had meetings with each of the judges to explain to them the situation of adoption processes that have been rejected by the PGN for reasons that have no legal grounds. Another of those reasons of rejection is that the PGN did not interview the underage birth mother of the child being adopted. The PGN, following the instructions of Josefina Arellano, refuses to give an approval on such cases. The judges have been approving those cases, ruling that the interview of the birth mother is not a legal requirement.
Some of the judges have understood the need of their intervention on those cases. Others have opposed having to rule on adoptions. But eventually, all of them will have to understand that the role of the judge is to rule on the cases of adoptions, when the demands of the PGN have no legal grounds or are unreasonable.
The US DOS (Department of State) has expressed their concern because the Guatemalan adoptions do not have enough state oversight. Bringing the adoption processes to the Family Judges supplies the oversight that the DOS deems necessary and prevents the PGN from abusing their power by demanding the fulfillment of requirements that they make up, and are not based on law.
Some weeks ago, criminal charges were brought against the PGN officers, Arellano among them. The judge has ordered the District Attorney to investigate the charges, admitting the accusation. We are confident that justice will prevail because to prevent a child from joining a loving forever family for groundless reasons, should be treated with the same severity as kidnapping, because the pain inflicted on the waiting family and the harm done to the child are as severe as those caused by such a coward felony.
Here's a story from the ADA Website that does a good job providing some background to the situation in Guatemala:
ADA
June 11, 2007
THE ROLE OF THE PGN IN THE ADOPTION PROCESS IN GUATEMALA
The adoption process in Guatemala is rather simple. Over the years, the Social Workers for the Family Courts and the Procuraduria General de la Nacion (PGN) which is the equivalent of the State Attorney, have introduced new requirements that have been added to the process. According to the law that rules the notarial process of adoption, the requirements are: the birth certificate of the child, the marriage certificate of the adoptive parents if the child is being adopted by a couple, two witnesses of the moral and financial capacity of the adoptive parents, and a home study with a favorable opinion of a Social Worker, appointed by a Family Court.
The PGN has three days to give an opinion about the adoption. We all know that the PGN is taking months to give an opinion and to return the file to the notary, most of the times with objections for any number of reasons. Some of those objections are valid. Most of them are not. The rate of approval of cases by the PGN this year is twenty four per cent of the cases submitted. Last year it was ninety six per cent. The law is still the same and the adoption lawyers have not suffered of collective amnesia, therefore, the reason for all those rejections must be found elsewhere.
When Josefina Arellano became the director of the section of the PGN that deals with abandoned children, she realized that nobody cares for that kind of children. That the spotlight is on the adopted children. Ambitious and eager to promote her image as someone who has in her hands the destiny of the children, Arellano has been doing whatever it takes to control the process of adoption. Since she declared herself as the chief of the adoptions office and the international press has been quoting her, Arellanoa’s power has been growing enormously. She is in the newspapers, in the TV news, in the radio interviews, stating as a fact that all children who are being adopted were made for that purpose, and that Guatemala has become a children factory, ignoring the poverty of the people who cannot support their children and choose to relinquish them instead of letting them die as many others, for lack of proper nutrition or medical care.
The truth is that Josefina Arellano has nothing to do with adoptions and that she should be doing what her job really is: helping the abandoned children to solve their legal situation as fast as possible, to be able to find a permanent family before they are too old to be adopted.
To dispel any doubts about the origin of the child, the positive result of a DNA test was included among the documents presented for PGN approval of the adoption. As the anti adoption forces have tried and failed to pass a law that would make adoptions impossible, the requirements of the PGN have been increasing. Every month there is a new one. Among them, there are: the declaration of heterosexuality of single parents, the appointment of a legal guardian in case something happens to the adoptive parents, documents to state the identity of the director of the hogar or the foster mothers who are taking care of the children being adopted, birth certificates in photocopy, not literal transcriptions, birth certificates of the birthmothers and of their document of identity, updated medical certificates of the children being adopted, and many others.
When the PGN does not approve the adoption, the law states that the process must be presented to the Family Court, so the judge decides whether or not to approve the adoption. The decision of the judge can be appealed before the Court of Appeals of Family jurisdiction. The judges do not like to be burdened with adoptions, considering that the child support and alimony cases take priority and that adoptions are something that should be dealt by the lawyers with the PGN.
In order to explain to the seven Family Judges of the Family Court the situation of the adoptions and the PGN, the ADA President and Vice President had meetings with each of the judges to explain to them the situation of adoption processes that have been rejected by the PGN for reasons that have no legal grounds. Another of those reasons of rejection is that the PGN did not interview the underage birth mother of the child being adopted. The PGN, following the instructions of Josefina Arellano, refuses to give an approval on such cases. The judges have been approving those cases, ruling that the interview of the birth mother is not a legal requirement.
Some of the judges have understood the need of their intervention on those cases. Others have opposed having to rule on adoptions. But eventually, all of them will have to understand that the role of the judge is to rule on the cases of adoptions, when the demands of the PGN have no legal grounds or are unreasonable.
The US DOS (Department of State) has expressed their concern because the Guatemalan adoptions do not have enough state oversight. Bringing the adoption processes to the Family Judges supplies the oversight that the DOS deems necessary and prevents the PGN from abusing their power by demanding the fulfillment of requirements that they make up, and are not based on law.
Some weeks ago, criminal charges were brought against the PGN officers, Arellano among them. The judge has ordered the District Attorney to investigate the charges, admitting the accusation. We are confident that justice will prevail because to prevent a child from joining a loving forever family for groundless reasons, should be treated with the same severity as kidnapping, because the pain inflicted on the waiting family and the harm done to the child are as severe as those caused by such a coward felony.
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