New Guatemalan Adoption Decree Brings Hope to Some Waiting Children and Families: Guatemala900 Executive Committee Requests Timeline and Transparency Clarification for all Stalled Adoption Cases.
A message from the Guatemala 900 Executive Committee :Just before the new year the U.S. Department of State, Division of Children’s Issues announced the creation of a new agreement with the Guatemalan Central Authority on Adoptions (CNA). The agreement brings hope for some families and children who have been waiting for over 4 years by creating a new Guatemalan CNA process for approximately 40 selected adoption cases that were started before 2008. The new procedure will require waiting families to submit additional documents and undergo an “in country empathy study” that then must be adjudicated by USCIS and the Guatemalan authorities. A subset (6 or 7) of the CNA cases will be used as “pilot” cases and will be the first to navigate the new process. As we understand, no additional cases will be started until the pilot cases are all complete.
The Guatemala900 believes that there are hopeful signs with this new agreement. It is certainly good news for some of the children who have been wrongfully detained outside the care of a permanent family for the first 4+ years of their life, as there now exists a path for them to be adopted. We are encouraged by the fact that meaningful communication between the U.S. Department of State and the Guatemalan CNA helped enable the creation of this new policy. This is also potentially good news for the approximately 350 additional stalled cases waiting in the wings outside the CNA (at the PGN, MP, and Guatemalan Courts), as it could serve as a future path for them as well.
The Guatemala900 Executive Committee respectfully requests clarification on a timeline and transparency for the new plan and for all in-process cases that continue to stagnate within all Guatemalan authorities.
These children continue to suffer outside the security of a permanent family for their 5th year (at a minimum) and according to expert pediatricians, have already experienced significant developmental delays that are most likely permanent. The science says that children continue to lose one IQ point every month of institutionalization, and many are developing significant behavioral and attachment disorders that may be irreversible. Any plan that lacks an aggressive timeline does not acknowledge or respect these serious developmental consequences that the waiting children continue to endure.
Lack of transparency has plagued the adoption process since the system came to a grinding halt without an interim plan for the children whose cases had been initiated prior to January of 2008. A definition of all new and current adoption processes as well as necessary milestones to complete the process must be identified. They must be transparent and accessible to waiting families. The possibility that children will continue to lose months or years of their family life because there is no tangible way to verify their case is reaching milestones in a timely manner is a very serious issue that must be addressed by all parties immediately.
As human beings, we are hard wired to be part of a family. Every one of the approximately 400 children who have been denied their intrinsic right to a loving, permanent family needs our attention now! They must be served with a transparent process and an expeditious deadline!
Freedom Now…Family Now!
*Views expressed by the Executive Committee are not necessarily shared by all waiting families affiliated with Guatemala900


