Ukraine's legislature has rejected the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption (also known as Hague Treaty on Adoption or just "Hague").

ForUm has a short news piece about the voting.

I believe it was a vote against adoption agencies. Only 22% of the deputies (think of them... more

A Ukrainian human rights group has started an annual anti-award program they call Thistle Awards. They are trying to call attention to the most brutal violators of human rights.

First place winner: Prosecutor General’s Office for restricting access to information on natural disasters and accidents.

Runner up: Government Department that runs the prisons for the high number of... more

I wrote about single men and women adopting from Ukraine a couple of weeks ago. Things aren't looking good for singles...

According to Ukrainian family law (as it exists now - Article 213 of the current Family Code), married families are given preference over single men and women. This isn't a new law. And the law actually states that if 2 families want to adopt the same child... the married couple... more

I stopped posting links to blogs in November because the brouhaha over hosted children.

Hosting programs were almost shutdown. Some government officials believe the hosting programs were trafficking children.

Just use the phrase "trafficking children" around a Ukrainian politican and he will get twitchy. This is due to the past baby... more

This doesn't directly impact Ukrainian adoption. Ukraine has not signed the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption (also known as Hague Treaty on Adoption or just "Hague").

The United States is getting ready to implement this treaty. It will only impact families who are adopting from countries who signed the Hague too.

I have had several people tell me it won't impact independent adoptions. But I really don't know if this is true. About 50% of Ukrainian adoptions (by Americans) are done without an agency. This is why... more

Yuri Pavlenko was dismissed (his resignation was accepted) by the Rada (Ukrainian legislature) on November 29 2006. He was the Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports. All adoption processing is done under this Ministry.

Mr Pavlenko seemed to be anti-international adoption because of his focus on domestic adoption.

He was replaced... more

For anyone looking for Ukrainian Christmas items... This blog is for you.

There is a new charity called Orphan's Bright Star. They are working with 5 Ukrainian orphanages;

Chinadievo children's home Dnepropetrovsk baby orphanage Kremenchuk baby orphanage Svalyava baby orphanage Zhitomir baby orphanage Zhitomir internat

Right now they are... more

Picture Credit: This is a self portrait. I aimed the camera at my face. Then I took pictures until I had one properly framed (AKA my face was in the pictures all the way. It was very entertaining.) :))

I started blogging for adoption.com back in Feb 2006. This is my 275 blog. There isn't anything magical about the number 275, but I thought it was time to introduce myself again.

My name is Angela. I am blogging on ... more

A Ukrainian delegation was in the United States during the week of November 12. Background on this delegation and my information sources are here.

I missed this tidbit of information...

The SDA will start taking new dossiers in Jan 2007. This will probably be after the holidays. From the US Embassy in Kyiv's holiday list.

... more

Here is a time line to give context to what the Ukrainian delegation said:

June 18-24, 2006: JCICS representative visited Ms Volynets, director of the SDA. She was concerned with the murder of internationally adopted children.

She was talking about Peggy... more