The Congress has approved a law meant to speed up the adoption process by coordinating actions between the National Children’s Trust and the Judiciary.
This comes after a paradigm shift towards the best interest of the kids and adolescents. The socio-legal situation of a minor under the care of PANI currently takes way too long to be resolved.
When looking at what’s best for the minors, we see a clear need to reduce the waiting time by quickly processing the declaration of abandonment when it is warranted. Many kids and adolescents have been in an unofficial state of abandonment for many years by the time a judge gives the declaration of abandonment which allows them to then be adopted.
It can take years to find the best family for each child, especially those with siblings or with special needs, but it shouldn’t take years to be able to start the process, which is dependent on the declaration of abandonment. Once PANI decides it is not possible for a child to return to their biological family, a family judge should be able to legalize this decision quickly.
Over the last few years, there have been between 118 and 154 minors per year placed in adoption while many more wait in orphanages for their legal situations to be resolved. One of the goals of the new law is to raise the number of children and adolescentes put in adoption.
