Ukraine signs European Convention on the Adoption of Children

On 28 April Ukraine signed this Convention which ensures that national law on the protection of children applies not only to adoptions of children from the Parties but also to those of children from other States.

It contains a core of essential provisions on adoption practice which each Party undertakes to incorporate in its legislation, and a list of supplementary provisions which are not mandatory. Under the Convention’s essential provisions, adoption must be granted by a judicial or administrative authority, the decision to authorise the adoption of a child must be freely accepted by the parents and the adoption must be in the interest of the child.

According to the Minister of Justice Mykola Onishchuk, who signed the Convention on behalf of the Ukrainian Government, after the relevant formalities, modern standards on adoption will be introduced

The Convention ensures procedure for exchange of information between the Contracting Parties in order to make all necessary checks regarding the future adoptive parents, their state of health and social environment. To do this, the Government appoints a national body which is to receive the relevant requests for information.

The Convention contains provisions on whether a child would receive the citizenship of his or her adoptive parents, a ban on restricting the number of adopted children and the procedure for cancelling adoption. There are also provisions allowing for the introduction of a trial period to precede adoption, as well as on the principles of access to information and on revealing information about the adoptive parents, the adoption, the biological parents, etc.

From the Ministry of Justice Press Service and the notes to the Convention itself