A. Do’s and Don’ts for you as a prospective adoptive parent:
1. NZCA Approval Required
Before a child can be adopted from one country to live in another, the Convention requires that the governments in both countries agree to proceed with the adoption. As a New Zealand resident, this means you must have the permission of the NZCA (after approval from Adoption First Steps or Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children) as well as the overseas country in order to adopt. You can only adopt in countries that the NZCA approves for you. The Convention does not apply when the other country is not a party to the Convention, but NZ will follow the principles and standards of the Convention as far as possible, especially with regard to the permission of the Central Authorities.
2. No contact with orphanages until after approvals given.
Article 29 of the Hague Convention states: There shall be no contact between the prospective adoptive parents and the child’s parents or any other person who has care of the child until the requirements of Article 4, sub-paragraphs a) to c), and Article 5, sub-paragraph a), have been met. Article 4 relates to the obligations of sending countries establishing the eligibility of the child for international adoption. Orphanages and foster parents have children in their care that are waiting to be adopted and may not yet have the approval of both Central Authorities. The process set out in Article 4 that must be followed before it is established that a child is available for international adoption is a lengthy one, requiring the Central Authorities to take all necessary steps to ensure that the legal obligations under the Convention have been met. During this process, any contact between a prospective adoptive parent and an orphanage or foster parent would be in breach of the Hague convention. Article 5 relates to the obligations of receiving countries establishing whether the adoptive parents are suitable to adopt. Article 5 prohibits contact between an orphanage or foster parent and a prospective adoptive parent who has yet to be approved by the Central Authority in their country of residence as eligible and suited to adopt
This means that as a prospective adoptive parent you cannot directly contact orphanages or foster parents to carry out an adoption yourself but must work via the NZCA and/or an accredited agency for each part of the adoption. After all approvals are given, you may certainly keep in contact with the orphanage/foster parent.
B. Benefits for you as a prospective adoptive parent:
The Hague Convention-
- Recognizes intercountry adoption as a means of offering the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family has not been found in the child’s country of origin and requires all concerned to act expeditiously. This establishes intercountry adoption as a valid option for children, provided the standards of the Convention are met, and requires those involved to act promptly whilst carefully;
- Requires that countries establish a Central Authority to cooperate with other Central Authorities, and to ensure the Convention operates effectively. This means the NZ Government has a responsibility to put the Convention into practice in NZ via the NZCA;
- Requires non-government adoption agencies to be accredited and monitored. This means you can engage the help of an independent non-government adoption agency such as ICANZ or AFS with confidence that the organisation has met the standards of the Convention and operates using sound professional practices;
- Establishes a set of internationally agreed minimum requirements and procedures uniformly to govern intercountry adoptions. This gives you, the adoptive parent, the security of knowing the governments concerned approved the adoption and did their best to ensure the child was legally able to be adopted, that no financial inducement was provided to birth parents or anyone caring for your child;
- Provides a means for ensuring that adoptions will be recognized in NZ and other party countries. This ensures your child will be allowed into NZ, gain NZ Citizenship and the adoption will be recognised by other countries as well.;
- Requires that countries placing children for adoption internationally must provide adopting parents with information and maintain background information and adoption records. This gives you assurance that the overseas CA will provide relevant information, and gives your child access to information in the years ahead.