Guatemala Adoption Crisis

Endemic poverty, high fertility rates, and the stigma of unwed motherhood are the major reasons that children in Guatemala are available for adoption. The program has been attractive to Americans because children may become available for adoption at very young ages and infants available for adoption are often cared for by foster families. Adopting parents often receive extensive information about the birth family, including names and photos and the travel time is usually brief. In 2007, there were 4,728 successful adoptions from Guatemala, from the US alone. This number has dwindled to almost none this year because Guatemala signed on to an international convention that greatly complicates the adoption process.

The "Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption" entered into force with respect to the United States on April 1, 2008. Newly initiated intercountry adoptions between the United States and other Convention countries must comply with the Convention’s standards. Many countries have signed onto the Hague Convention, in the hopes of reducing child trafficking and other criminal actions. Signatories to the convention must meet strict international rules and procedures that smaller and poorer countries (such as Guatemala) have difficulty meeting. Under the new legislation, the adoption process is controlled by a Central Authority, the National Council on Adoption (CNA), which oversees adoption service providers. The Government of Guatemala has had insufficient time to build the capacity to implement the reform legislation. Over two thousand cases have been put on hold this year and one family's story is detailed in this article. The US State Department has issued a warning that advises potential adoptive parents and adoption service providers not to initiate new adoptions from Guatemala because the Department cannot process such adoptions from Guatemala to completion at this time. Until Guatemala can dedicate the resources to comply with the new convention, adoptions will continue to suffer.