BTA. Parliament Eases Adoptees' Access to Adoption Records

SOFIA, DECEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS/BTA. Parliament adopted conclusively revisions to the Family Code that ease adoptees' access to their adoption records. The revisions scrap the requirement for "significant circumstances" that can start the procedure for granting adoptees access to the information about their biological parents and broadens the scope of people who can request disclosure of this information.

The information can now be requested by the adoptee, the adoptive parents, the heirs and spouse of the adoptee.

Adoptees who are 18 and older, their heirs and spouse can ask the regional court that has allowed the adoption, to grant them access to the information about their origin. The regional court will make a decision at a hearing behind closed door after notifying the biological parents of the adoptee's request and after hearing the position of a prosecutor.

The MPs also decided that not-for-profit organizations holding a permit from the Labour and Social Minister, can consult the adoptee and their biological parents as they establish contact.

The revisions also provide for the creation of a National electronic information system on adoptions and an electronic platform for prospective adopters.

(This information is being published according to an agreement between Armenpress and BTA.)