On February 23, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Parliament of Georgia with a proposal to make amendments to the draft law on adoption and foster care.

The Public Defender stressed the importance of the draft law and reviewed the amendments aimed at improving the legal norms regulating local and international adoption and foster care subprogram.

According to the proposal, in order to bring the draft law in compliance with the international standards, some changes should be made to the following local legislative provisions regulating adoption: child's participation in the judicial decision-making relating to the adoption, the obligation of the responsible individuals to take into account child's best interests and opinion at any stage of adoption; introduction of an improved mechanism for ascertaining the compatibility between adoptees and adopters; definition of the rules of granting precedence to one adopter over another; relation between the child's best interests and the sequence of adoption; definition of the rules for separating children from parents and bringing the draft law in line with Article 1239 of the Civil Code of Georgia.

Increased attention should be paid to the shortcomings in the legislative norms regulating international adoption. In this regard, the following trends are noteworthy: incorporation of the international adoption rule in the national adoption system in compliance with the Hague Convention; definition of criteria of compatibility between the adoptee permanently residing in Georgia and adopter/adopters permanently living in a foreign country; clarification of legal mechanisms for monitoring internationaladoptions.

According to the Public Defender, the rules of definition of beneficiaries of foster care subprogram should also be reviewed. In particular, it is necessary to amend subparagraph “b” of paragraph 1 of Article 70 of the draft law, according to which, the child whose parent is receiving support and the court has appointed an authorized representative of the guardianship-care agency as his/her supporter in terms of parental authority, is subjected to enrollment in the foster care subprogram. Removal of children from their biological families on the mentioned grounds and their placement under stat care does not comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the state's intervention is needed for upbringing a child in the biological family.

The Public Defender calls on the Parliament to carry out the necessary changes according to the abovementioned proposal in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to the draft law of Georgia on adoption and foster care and to define the normative content of the norms regulating adoption and foster care on the basis of child's best interests.