David Mico Discusses The Role of The U.s. Central Authority during National Adoption Month

My name is David Mico. I am the Chief of the Adoptions Division in the Office of Children's Issues. The Hague Adoption Convention entered into force for the United States in April of 2008. It applies to the United States and 89 other countries partnered under the Convention. We believe that it provides the best tool to strengthen the protections available to children, birth parents, and adoptive parents involved in the intercountry adoption process. It provides a framework for partner countries to strengthen the protections available to children and to ensure that every adoption that takes place is in the best interests of the child. The Department of State serves as the United States Central Authority for the Hague Adoption Convention. In that role, we have several important functions that we play. First, we serve as point of contact for the governments of other Convention countries on all matters relating to intercountry adoption policy, procedure, and coordination. We also certify that every intercountry adoption that takes places involving the United States meets the standards of the Convention and the requirements of U.S. law and regulation. By monitoring the accreditation of adoption service providers involved in the intercountry adoption process, we ensure that the United States is doing everything it can to meet its Convention obligations. We also maintain a Complaint Registry so that organizations or people involved in the intercountry adoption process can report problems they encounter during that process. One of the most important functions that we have is providing information to the public and adoption service providers about adoption procedures in other countries as well as informing those countries about adoption procedures in the United States. We do publish a great deal of information about intercountry adoption as well as statistics and produce an annual report to Congress. Those are available on our website at www.adoption.state.gov. We promote the Hague Adoption Convention by encouraging countries not yet member to the Convention to join, showing the benefits that we think the Convention brings and also by working with them to strengthen their systems so that they meet Convention standards. We also work with our partner countries to strength their systems so they can better meet their obligations under the Convention. Every child deserves to grow up in a loving home and I am proud of the work we do to that end.