Americans Have Adopted Almost 13 Thousand Russian Children

The USA takes first place in adopting Russian children. Since 2001 Americans have adopted 12,649 children from Russia. Chairman of the Social Policy Committee of the Federation Council (the parliament's upper chamber) Valentina Petrenko revealed this information on Wednesday at a meeting with US senators-members of the US Congress adoption coalition.

Canada ranks next in adopting Russian children, followed by France, Petrenko stated. Since 2001 a total of about 5,000 little Russians have been adopted by Canadians and Frenchmen.

Unfortunately, today there are no effective mechanisms to monitor adopted children's life, she pointed out. "As a result, children are often adopted for further involvement in forced labour and prostitution," she stated. Given this, Petrenko stressed the need to introduce "effective legal mechanisms at the international level to protect children's rights."