Russian and U.S. State Department officials have scheduled a July meeting in Washington to hash out issues surrounding Americans adoption of Russian children, one year after a Loudoun County man left his adopted Russian son in a hot car to die, sparking international strife.
Russians have been outraged since 21-month-old Chase Harrison died in July 2008. After his adoptive father, 49-year-old Miles Harrison, was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter in December, furious Russian lawmakers threatened to ban adoptions to the United States.
Cooler heads prevailed in March when the Russian Duma passed a resolution urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to sign a bilateral adoption agreement with the United States. But State Department officials say they want Russian lawmakers to approve an international agreement that protects the rights of adopted children in the nearly 70 countries that have joined the pact.
When they meet in July, Russian officials are expected to push for the bilateral treaty. Michele Bond, deputy assistant secretary of state for Overseas Citizen Services, said the United States wouldn’t change its position, but would address Russian concerns.
Bond, and U.S. and Russian adoption officials started that discussion Thursday while attending a Russian media-sponsored panel in Washington.
During the panel, Elena Mizulina, who handles adoption issues for a Duma committee, continued to harp on the 15 Russian-born children who have died at the hands of their American parents in the past 17 years.
“The death of Russian children as a result of violence has led to the decrease in adoptions,” Mizulina said, referencing a recent drop in the number of foreign parents adopting Russian children.
When Mizulina was asked how many Russian children adopted by Russian families died each year, she first said the government didn’t track it.
Mizulina then estimated: “Several hundred per year.”
She said U.S. adoption agencies weren’t meeting a new requirement that foreign parents who adopt Russian children must send annual reports on the children.
Bond said most parents send the reports, but they’re often lost when they reach Russia.
Sometimes U.S. adoptive parents do fail to file the reports, Bond said. In those cases, agencies need to leverage the contracts they have with parents by filing lawsuits or demanding up-front cash payments to be returned only when the contracts are fulfilled.
