GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has announced plans to commence the process of other countries being able to adopt children here by June this year.
“We are hopeful that international adoption will commence by mid-year, and we are working feverishly towards that date,” said Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr. Vindhya Persaud in a recent interview with the online publication Guyana News Room.
In August 2021, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Adoption of Children Act to align Guyana’s law for international adoption with the Hague Convention.
The Convention ensures that inter-country adoption occurs in the child’s best interest and concerns the child’s fundamental rights.
. By this Convention, Guyana’s revision allows for greater international cooperation to protect children from challenges such as abduction and trafficking.
The new section of the Act, 35 (F), automatically recognizes adoptions certified by another central authority.
Additionally, new section 35 (G) provides that an adoption certificate issued in a Convention country is evidence that the Central Authorities of both countries agreed to the adoption.
As such, it will allow countries to recognize that the adoption was carried out by the Convention and the law of the land that issued the adoption certificate.
Before the passage of the amendments, international adoptions were placed on hold.
According to Persaud, efforts are being made to present several other pieces of legislation about the Hague Convention before the National Assembly.
“We are encouraging people to adopt more children so that they have safe and permanent, loving homes. Foster care is the transient phase of that. We are also encouraging people to come onto our foster care program, and hopefully, the children will get permanent homes after that,” she said.
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