My name is… but my ID reads another name, as my parents have adopted me. Many thrilling stories kick off this way. Some 100 – 150 Bulgarian citizens submit applications each year to the district courts, demanding the revealing of their origin and the court rejects 90 percent of those requests. This is what statistics of the National Network for Children shows. One of the reasons: the ineffective regulation of Art. 105 of the Family Code, envisaging the revealing of the secret of adoption only if essential circumstances make it necessary. However, the law doesn’t determine these essential circumstances. The discussion of the problem was kicked off by this organization, along with the Adopted and Adopters Bulgarian Association, the Where Are You National Online Register and also with the partnership of the ministry of justice and with the support of the French embassies. Those essential circumstances are the reason why Mariana Taneberger has been looking for information on her biological mom for 31 years. She has traveled 1,650 km from Nurnberg by car and alone, in order to attend the forum:

“I got an allergic reaction from some household detergent before my departure”, Mariana says. “I had to spend some time with the ER and the attitude of the doctor there turned into my motivation to take off. He asked me on some family history in diseases and I couldn’t answer to that question. After my explanation on the adoption she was surprised to find out that I hadn’t looked for any information. I responded to that with the fact that the history of adoptions was strictly protected in Bulgaria. Then another question followed: “Is Bulgaria an EU member-state?” Only I know what I felt at that point.”

Mariana is a social worker. Her adventure of 1,650 km is in support of the legislative changes, related to the secret of adoption. People, looking for such information often come across problems such as replaced names, dates of birth and even entire files missing, representatives of the Where Are You National Online Register said.Thus obstacles are created for the finding of the biological parent or child, even when the court has ruled positively. “The right of anyone to know his or her roots, also medical reasons related with history of family diseases and a prevention of the chance of marriages between relatives”: these are the main reasons given for the dropping of the adoption secret.

French Ambassador to Bulgaria HE Xavier de Cabanes explained the French model of revealing the origin of the adopted person. He pointed out that the number of international adoptions in France since 2006 had been 3,500, as Bulgarian children were the subject of ¾ of those. ”The French Adoption Agency /AFA/ is the institution that supports the adopted children and accompanies them in the search of their roots, whenever those have expressed their will after the age of 18,” said its Director-General Ms. Beatrice Biondi, a special guest to the forum.

The UN Human Rights Council has already sent a recommendation to Bulgaria for the introduction of a legislation, banning the secret of adoption. The judicial ministry kicks off work on new texts of the Family Code as of next week , said Deputy Minister of Justice Verginia Micheva-Ruseva.

“The ministry of justice and our experts have researched the legislations of other countries, especially of those using the system based on origin. These are the states where more children get adopted, including international adoptions. We have sent letters to the courts for proposals. The working group will have a sitting on July 31. Many amendments to the Family Code are to be made and we hope that the draft bill will enter plenary hall by the end of the year.”

Being a chair of the government on international adoption Deputy Minister Micheva informs that 477 Bulgarian children were adopted abroad in 2014, 173 of those with special needs. That number was 223 over the first 6 months of 2015, 72 of them with special needs.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev