Adoption Process Faces Challenges as Citizens Complain About Lack of Healthy Children Data

Days ago, Nelli and Garnik Mkrtchyan, citizens of Armenia, reached out to Aurora News, stating that they wish to adopt a child, but are facing artificial obstacles from the municipal authorities in this process.

The citizens specifically pointed out that they are only being shown data on children with serious health issues. “We are only being shown children with serious health problems, besides that they say there are no healthy children in orphanages. It’s not that we are against adopting a child with health issues, but at least it should be a treatable condition,” they expressed.

Aurora News contacted the Yerevan Municipality to clarify whether there are no healthy children in Yerevan’s orphanages.

Below is their response:

“In response to your inquiry, we inform you that according to the adoption procedure established by the government decision No. 269-N of March 18, 2010, citizens permanently residing in the Republic of Armenia apply to the staff at their place of residence to obtain a conclusion regarding the adoption of a child, and after receiving a positive conclusion, they can access data on children available for adoption. The data on children eligible for adoption is posted in the ‘Manuk’ information database and is accessible to all registered persons wishing to adopt.

Nelli and Garnik Mkrtchyan applied to the Yerevan Municipality on January 8, 2019, and received a positive conclusion about the possibility of adopting a child on January 30, 2019. After that, the couple was registered centrally by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. After registration, citizens can apply to the staff or the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to familiarize themselves with the data on the children. During this time, citizens have repeatedly applied to the Family, Women, and Children’s Rights Protection Department of the Yerevan Municipality and have familiarized themselves with the available data of all children eligible for adoption in the database, totaling 263 children, including 208 children aged 3-18, of which 17 are healthy, and 47 children aged 0-3, of which 2 are healthy, along with 8 for kinship adoption. They have signed documents regarding their visits.

As for providing information about children in orphanages in Armenia, we inform you that inquiries regarding this issue should be directed to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, considering that orphanages operate under the authority of the ministry. We inform you that children from parents who have not renounced their parental rights are also cared for in orphanages, and due to the absence of legal grounds, they are not yet registered as children eligible for adoption.

We also inform you that in 2018, 41 individuals wishing to adopt applied to the staff of the Yerevan Municipality and received a positive conclusion, while from January 2019 to date, 18 individuals have done so. Considering that the data on children is also available to individuals registered in the regions wishing to adopt, and the number of healthy children aged 0-3 is quite low, there is significant competition.

We also inform you that on April 11 of this year, the aforementioned couple applied to the Family, Women, and Children’s Rights Protection Department of the Yerevan Municipality and selected a child eligible for adoption, regarding which an inquiry will be made to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to obtain information about the possibility of adopting the child (adoption procedure, Chapter 5, Paragraph 40): For the inquiry regarding the specified child, only five additional applicants have applied to the Yerevan Municipality.”

Just moments ago, citizen Nelli Mkrtchyan informed us that after Aurora News’s inquiry to the municipality, they were presented with data on two healthy children.