Inter-Country Adoption in Cambodia

Since 2001, many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia, have banned their citizens from adopting children from Cambodia. Weak laws and lax enforcement created a grave human trafficking problem. The Royal Government of Cambodia has since instituted reforms to prevent child trafficking and to comply with Cambodia’s obligations under the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-Country Adoption. The Convention requires the establishment of one or more Central Authorities per country to manage inter-country adoptions.

On December 3 2009, Cambodia passed its Law on Inter-Country Adoption to protect the basic rights and interests of children adopted by foreign citizens. One major change from the former adoption practice is that all inter-country adoptions must now be handled by authorized adoption agencies under the auspices of the Central Authority. Unauthorized private companies or orphanages can no longer process inter-country adoptions directly. The procedure under this new Law can be summarized as follows: