G.O.A.’L invites you to:
National Assembly Seminar for Policy making:
Why should we discontinue overseas adoption out of Korea? What are the realistic obstacles in accomplishing this?
Organizer: Congresswoman Jang, Hyang-sook
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 – 10:00 a.m.
Place: National Assembly Memorial Hall, 1F. Grand Seminar Room (http://memorial.assembly.go.kr/)
Schedule:
Part I. 10 a.m – 10:30 a.m.
Opening Address: Chang, Hyang-sook (Congresswoman)
Welcoming Address: Kim, Deuk-kyu, Kim, Choon-jin (Congressmen)
Introduction of Guests
Part II. 10:30 a.m -12:30 a.m.
Moderator: Kim, Do-hyun (KoRoot)
Interpreter: Han, Ji-sun (G.O.A.’L Volunteer)
Speakers:
Boonyoung Han (Danish Adoptee) – “My own experience in Korea and Opinion about International adoption policy”
Jae Kauffman (American Adoptee, ASK member) – “Moving away from overseas adoption towards domestic solutions”
Discussants:
Hong, Seung-joon (Representative of Anti Baby Export Civil Movements)
Shin, Young-chul (Director, Department of Children and Population Policies, Ministry of Health and Welfare)
Yang, Seung-joo (Director, Department of Family Policies, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family)
Kim, Don-young (Manager, Department of International Cooperation, Holt Childrens’ Services, Inc. )
Part III. Further Discussion with Audiences. (12:30- 13:00)
Purpose
For the last 40 years, South Korea has lived with the stigma as a child-exporting nation, is still sending many of its children overseas for adoption. South Korea is the only OECD country that keeps sending children for overseas adoption. Even though South Korea’s Gross National Income per capita is more than US$12,000, its level in terms of adoption and social welfare issues is actually same as those nations with a GNI per capita of US$3,000.
There were 13,857 South Korea children adopted between 2002 and the early half of 2005. Among them, 8,204 children were sent for adoption internationally, comprising 59% of the total number of adoptions.
During the annual Inspection of Governmental offices by the National Assembly this year, many congressmen made inquiries on current adoption policies. Kim Geun Tae, the Minister of Health and Welfare, answered that overseas adoption will be banned in the near future.
With regards to these facts, we would like to raise awareness on the reasons why South Korea should stop overseas adoption, and to find out what difficulties exists in the process to implement this policy by discussing this topic with specialists and the people in-charge of making these decisions.
