$500,000 fine, jail time for persons breaching adoption law

…as Bill passed to bolster protection for children

The Adoption Amendment Bill of 2021, which seeks to increase protections for children through increased vetting of prospective adoptive parents and other initiatives, has been passed by the National Assembly after years of delay.
Presenting the bill to the National Assembly on Tuesday was Minister of Human and Social Services, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, who spoke of the necessity of the bill, which she noted will function in accordance with the 1996 Hague Convention.
“In this respect, the Convention provides a remarkable opportunity for the building of bridges between legal systems having diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. It also avoids having to redo the entire process outlined in Section 35 B 2 of the Convention.

“We [all] know that even every well-intentioned legal process like adoption can be manipulated, abused, or exploited by profiteers willing to sell children, unscrupulous persons willing to buy children, and adults seeking to obtain children for baseless or selfish reasons such as sexual, labour, and criminal exploitation.
The main Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), meanwhile contended that it was only under its tenure that Guyana signed on to the 1996 Hague Convention.
While Attorney General Anil Nandlall conceded this, he noted that it was under the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) previous terms in Government that the groundwork was laid for Guyana to sign on to the Convention.
According to Nandlall, Guyana, like any sovereign nation, was allowed time to prepare its legal architecture, which was archaic, before it signed on to the convention. This is the case with several conventions, of which the 1996 Hague Convention is one.
“I hear utterances from the deep recesses at the back. While 99 countries have signed on to this convention, only Haiti, St. Kitts and Guyana have done so in the Caribbean. We in Guyana had to first remove from our law the entire legislative architecture before we could sign on to this convention.
“I concede that it was signed on by the APNU/AFC; nothing wrong with recognising that. But, as usual, you failed or neglected to complete the process, and that is what we’re doing now. And it is not because the PPP absented from Parliament, it is because you were defeated democratically by a No Confidence Motion and thrown out the Government,” Nandlall said.
The bill includes a penalty of $500,000 fine and six months’ imprisonment for persons who breach its provisions. It also includes provisions for the accreditation of bodies, including any private adoption body or agency, which would be accountable to a supervising or accrediting authority. It also allows the Minister to establish a central authority, or elect an entity to conduct these functions as outlined in Section 35C. (G3)