News and events

The Press-Conference Kazakhstan without Orphans organized by the Welfare Funds Association (WFA) took place in the National Press Club. In 2009 several NGOs of Kazakhstan were united in the WFA to solve problems of orphans. These are the DARA Charity Foundation, Mercy Voluntary Society (Public Charity Foundation), Ayala Private Foundation, Public Association Women's League of Creative Initiative, etc.

The mass media representatives were invited to the meeting to cover the problem on a more widely basis. The Conference agenda was to make changes and additions to chapter Child Adoption of the Code On Marriage (Matrimony) and Family. Problems of orphans and children without parents are extremely important for Kazakhstan, moreover the Kazakh laws regarding this matter have not changed for the decade. The WFA suggested to include the following terms and conditions into the Code:

In Point 4, Article 89 of the Code:

It is not required to carry the consent of parents to adopt a child if they:

"Do not live with a child and deviate from his/her upbringing and support within over six months for excuses that are unreasonable in accordance with the court, if a newborn child was abandoned in a medical establishment and non-married mother or both parents did not submit abdication application executed in written form and in accordance with the procedure established by laws; in case of a foundling; and in other cases when the child is under age of Thirty six (36) months and over three months."

Specificity of the Kazakhstan adoption practice is that adoptive parents are intended to suppress the fact of adoption and want others to deem the adopted child to be their biological child. Thus, the majority of adoptive parents prefer to adopt newborns. In many cases, the abdication applications for abandoned children executed in accordance with the established legislative procedure are not available from non-married mothers or both parents and these children can be adopted only after deprivation of their paternal rights. Nowadays, the Kazakhstani procedure of deprivation of paternal rights takes six months. At the same time, in the USA, for example, this takes ten days.

The abandoned children who do not have the official abdication from parents lose the opportunity to be adopted with every passing day on expiry of six months. The WFA offers to reduce this term to three months. This period is enough to comply with all the formal procedures for primary registration of a child.

In Point 2, Article 85 of the Code:

 "It is not allowed to adopt brothers and sisters by different people, except for cases when such an adoption serves children's interests and children do not know about their blood relation, did not live and were not brought up together, can not live and be brought up together by reasons of their health status."

In accordance with the established practice, the bodies of guardianship and trusteeship in case of delivery of a child who has brothers and sisters over whom the state had earlier established its trusteeship are given the non-adoption status without his/her brothers and sisters on a separate basis. The children whose records contain the non-adoption stamp put by the bodies of guardianship and trusteeship are often not showed by orphan homes to people who want to adopt a child, even if such children did not see and do not live and know about their brothers and sisters. As a result, rights of these children to have family are initially denied.

Of course, in many cases brothers and sisters must not be separated. However there are cases when brothers and sisters are adopted by different people in children's interests. In the course of studying of this matter, we discovered the following practical cases:

1.   There are cases when mother delivers and abandons a disabled child who will be brought up and live in special establishments during all his/her life. After a period of time, she delivers the second lusty child whom she also abandons. Unfortunately, the lusty child will never be able to have family since in accordance with the laws in force an adoptive person must also adopt the older bedridden disabled child. As a rule, potential adoptive parents do not agree with such an adoption.

2.   Some mothers abandon major part of children under trusteeship of the state. There are cases when women abandon several children (e.g., three, five, and more children). All of them will live in orphan homes on terms of the state trusteeship. As a result, all these children are non-adopted on a separate basis since they have brothers and sisters. Indeed, only a few adoptive parents will agree to adopt all the children (e.g., five children).

3.   Some mothers deliver and abandon their children in different cities of Kazakhstan. For example, she abandoned one her child in a Karaganda orphan home, the second one - in Shymkent, and the third one - in Pavlodar. Today Kazakhstan does not apply the practice to unite brothers and sisters in one city. As a result, such children will be brought up in different cities and different orphan homes and they will not know about their blood relation. However no one of them will have the chance to be adopted since they have older brothers and sisters in other cities of Kazakhstan.

Thus, a vast number of children who have brothers and sisters, but with whom they did not live and were not brought up together, can not have family since they have the status of non-adoption on a separate basis and are under trusteeship of the state. However additions to the Code on Marriage (Matrimony) and Family will simplify the procedure of adoption of children by Kazakhstani citizens and will enable to apply the advanced forms of guardianship and patronage. With our joint efforts we will be able to change the present-day situation and help children to find love, care, and primarily their Family!