Help Needed to Understand

Coming from the perspective of someone who was raised in an abusive environment, it is NEVER okay to leave a child in an abusive environment just because the abusers are blood-relatives. I grew up in that environment, and it has taken an enormous amount of work to overcome the aftereffects of the abuse. As an adult, I still have to deal with the baggage of how much contact to allow with abusive relatives. I get no comfort whatsoever in knowing that my abusers shared the same genetics. - Faith

OK, I found this on the Hague Treaty "The goal of the Convention is to protect the children, birth parents and adoptive parents involved in intercountry adoptions and to prevent abuses." [URL="http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/convention/convention_2290.html"]Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000: Background[/URL] "Convinced of the necessity to take measures to ensure that intercountry adoptions are made in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights, and to prevent the abduction, the sale of, or traffic in children," [URL="http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php?act=conventions.text&cid=69"]HCCH | Full text[/URL] Hmmm.... I haven't looked at the Hague treaty (very much) up to this point because it doesn't impact Ukrainian adoption. Ukraine hasn't signed the treaty.

My question was a follow to one in the comment immediately preceding that said that foster adoption was the least likely to have "minimized, trivialized", etc. birth parents. It was not a stand alone.And I'm sorry, Angela, but the Hague does not answer all my questions. Not by a long shot.

I think your question can stand alone. It is something that Ukraine is greatly struggling with right now. They have been making many changes to their family law/foster care/orphanages/social services in the last 2 years. I should mention that UNICEF is pushing the Ukrainian government in certain directions. I really don't like how UNICEF thinks or operates (ugh!)And Ukraine has started to make a very small dent on trafficking. One of the recent rumors to make the rounds (inside of Ukraine) is that single people (like me) adopt children to use them as sex slaves. [FONT="]Unfortunately [/FONT]this rumor started out as a news story and got distorted. A single American father was recently convicted of sexually abusing 3 of his sons. They were adopted from Ukraine.Ukraine is looking at ratifying the Hague Adoption Treaty. I just don't see how the Hague Treaty would really provide protect the children better. (but I keep being told that it will solve many problems/abuses.) I could just be ignorant on this subject... I will keep reading.They are doing better now than last year in terms of child protection. But then there are issues like... the government is paying women to have babies. The population is decreasing.There are programs like MAMA ([URL="http://ukraine.usaid.gov/success_full.shtml?p=449"]USAID/Ukraine - News & Events > Recent Events[/URL]). Ukraine is trying to get parents not to abandon their newly born HIV babies.Anyway, I will go read some more. I am sure there are many blogs on Ukrainian children protection. I just need to get my thoughts organized.