On 5 July 2023, the National Assembly Committee on Labour, Social and Demographic Policy voted FOR the draft law amending and supplementing the Family Code, aimed at reforming the adoption system in particular:
– improving and speeding up the adoption process, given the large number of children, including children with disabilities, in residential care;
– establishing a national electronic information system for full adoption, replacing the paper registers in the Regional Social Assistance Directorates, and ensuring selection among all applicants for adoption;
– removing ‘important circumstances’ from the text of Article 105 in order to protect the right of the adoptee to information about his or her background;
– regulating guardianship/custody for minors, respectively unaccompanied refugee children;
– curbing the vicious institution of adoption.
The National Network for Children and our Legal Aid Network attended the meeting of the Committee on Labour, Social and Demographic Policy and argued in favour of the Bill. SOS Children’s Villages Bulgaria, National Association for Foster Care, For Our Children Foundation, Know-How Center for Alternative Care for Children – NBU and Bulgarian Association of Adoptees and Adoptive Parents – BAOO also defended the bill. We are eternally grateful to all of them for their efforts.
A vote on the bill is due in the Committee on Legal Affairs (lead committee) and subsequently in the plenary.
