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are the Realistic Obstacles in Accomplishing this?
Organizer: Congresswoman Chang, Hyang-sook
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 10:00 a.m.
Place: National Assembly Memorial Hall Grand Seminar Room (http://memorial.assembly.go.kr/)
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.
Expected Participants
A total of six speakers
Two (2) overseas adoptees
One (1) Representative from the Ministry of Health and Welfare
One (1) Official from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family
One (1) Scholar
One (1) Staff member from one of the four main adoption agencies
Audience members - open to the public