Azerbaijan has shortened the required meeting period between prospective adoptive parents and children without parental care from two months to one month.
President Ilham Aliyev approved the changes to the country’s adoption rules, according to APA.
Under the revised procedure, meetings intended to help the prospective parent and child become acquainted and establish family ties will take place at the institution where the child is staying. The prospective parent must spend at least 20 hours with the child during the one-month period.
Previously, the meetings were organized over two months, with a minimum of 40 hours required in each month. The change therefore cuts the standard meeting period in half and reduces the minimum total meeting time from 80 hours to 20.
Faster Procedure for Children Under 3
For children younger than 3, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection may reduce the introductory period to 10 days and the required meeting time to six hours, based on a social worker’s report.
The previous accelerated procedure applied only to children younger than 1. In those cases, the period could be shortened to 20 days and the required meetings to 12 hours.
Social Worker Oversight
During the standard procedure, a social worker must observe the prospective parent’s interaction with the child for at least 10 hours. Under the accelerated procedure, the social worker must monitor the interaction throughout the established period.
No later than three working days after the meetings end, the social worker must prepare a conclusion on the outcome and enter it into the electronic adoption system.