Russian-Italian Bilateral Adoption Treaty

This week, the Russian State Duma received a request from the Russian Government to ratify a bilateral adoption treaty signed late last year with Italy. The State Duma, which must ratify the treaty in order for it to gain legal force, is likely to vote on the matter sometime next month. According to documents on the State Duma's public document database, it has been recommended by the Committee on Family, Women, and Children's Matters for ratification.

Although this treaty affects only adoptions completed between Russia and Italy, it carries important implications about the direction that Russian officials want to take with adoptions to all other countries. Vocal State Duma deputies have previously indicated that they want to see such bilateral treaties worked out with each foreign country to which Russian children are adopted, including the United States. U.S. officials, on the other hand, have said that they want Russia to ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which is a multi-lateral treaty signed by Russia years ago but never ratified. The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption was implemented last year by the U.S., and governs adoptions only between countries that have fully implemented it.

Russian officials have claimed that the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption does not go far enough to protect the interests of Russian children adopted to other countries. Some of the provisions of this Russian-Italian adoption treaty, as reported by Zakonia, a Russian legal news source, appear to reveal what that means:

• Children may only be adopted when an authorized adoption organization (agency) serves as a guarantor of the children's rights, except in cases of adoption by relatives.


• In cases where the child cannot be kept in the original adoptive family, the responsible adoption organization must make an effort to place the child into a different family, or, as a last resort, return the child to Russia.


• Prospective adoptive parents of a Russian child must receive training and psychological screening prior to adoption.

With the exception of the training and psychological screening, which are already a part of the process for almost all U.S. adoptions from Russia due to the Hague Convention adoption agency accreditation requirements, these new rules being implemented between Russia and Italy appear to provide for a higher possibility of enforced intervention in cases of disruption, abuse or neglect of adopted Russian children.

I'll keep an eye on the treaty as it passes through the State Duma and will report on its ratification when it happens.