Development of Foster Care Projects

Park Chung-hee, Chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction who seized power in a military coup d'etat in

1961, emphasized that Korean children must be brought up at home rather than in an orphanage, and developed a domestic

adoption project and a long-term foster care project.

Child Placement Service changed its Korean name in August 1961 (but kept its English name), launching a campaign, Foster One

Orphan per Family, as an independent effort of Korea's child welfare projects, which in fact, had depended heavily on international

aids.

The effort, however, failed to produce satisfactory results because of its inherent vulnerabilities, such as an over emotional project

development, and lack of a professional service system and lack of foster parents’ awareness.

Due to these reasons, the long-term foster care project of Child Placement Service ended as a failure after a number of trials

and errors. However, it created the momentum to revive the significance of foster care, later serving as a catalyst that would vitalize

a temporary foster care project before adoption.

Furthermore, the government enacted and revised adoption-related laws and policies that gave priority to domestic adoption,

which in turn discouraged intercountry adoption. As a result, by the mid-1960s, the number of domestic adoption ended up

exceeding intercountry adoptions.

The Establishment of Korea Social Service

Baek Geun-chil, the second president of Child Placement Service, established Korea Social Service in 1964 and carried out

consulting service, adoption service, and sponsorship projects for mixed-race children, war orphans, children from low-income

families, children from broken families, and phsically- or mentally-challenged children in Korea.

Korea Social Service developed a variety of services for child welfare by systematizing child welfare projects to provide healthy

homes for children who did not have homes or could not be fostered by their parents.

The Enactment of Act on Special Cases Concerning Orphan Adoption

The Act on Special Cases Concerning Orphan Adoption was enacted in 1961 to protect adopted orphans and children with special

needs. The Act provided legal standards for intercountry adoption of children with special needs and the purpose

(Article 1) was 'to seek enhancement of welfare for orphans by providing simple measures for

foreigners to adopt Korean orphans.'

Then, there were many adverse effects coming from private adoptions, due to lack of organizations or policies responsible for

intercountry adoption. In 1966, the government made it a rule to enable only authorized organizations to carry out intercountry

adoptions.

The government also introduced a number of laws related to child welfare, such as Law Concerning the Duties of Guardians for

Orphans and Child Welfare Law.

※ International Social Services (ISS)

The International Social Services is an international organization with its headquarters located in Geneva, Switzerland, and it was

authorized by the Korean government in 1957 to carry out activities related to intercountry adoption.

There are three branches worldwide, and the Korean branch withdrew from Korea in 1967 due to operational problems,

handing over all relevant duties to Child Placement Service.

The ISS mostly took care of intercountry adoption, settlement of refugees, international marriages, family counseling, adoption

problems, mediation and solutions.

The Establishment of Eastern Social Welfare Society

Kim Deuk-hwang, the first president of Eastern Social Welfare Society, established a Christian Crusade in Korea in July 1971,

and began adoption services with authorization of the government in 1972. He established Eastern Child Welfare Society in

1976, forming the current structure of Social Welfare Society, Holt Children's Services, Korea Social Service, and Eastern Child

Welfare Society to start vigorous adoption services.

An increase in intercounty adoption

In the 1970s to 1980s when people were confident that the economy had grown to a certain level and that they had overcame

almost all the wounds from war, the number of intercounty adoptions rather rapidly increased.

7,275 children were adopted overseas in the 1960s, which soared by 6.6 times to 48,247 in the 1970s and

by 8.9 times to 65,321 in the 1980s. As the success of the economic development plan that had started from

1962 achieved economic growth, aid from foreign private organizations gradually decreased.

As a result, it was insufficient to cover the child welfare budget, which had depended on overseas aids, with

domestic support. The government presented an outline for child welfare reform in 1972 and reformed child welfare facilities

accordingly. Therefore, the number of child welfare facilities, such as childcare centers, dropped in the mid-1970s,

leading to a greater number of children with special needs in intercountry adoption

< No. of Child Welfare Facilities from 1970 to 1980 >

Opening of Intercountry Adoption, as a way to Increase Emmigration and Activate People-to-People Diplomacy

In the 1980s, the government decided to fully open intercountry adoption to increase emmigration and activate people-to-people

diplomacy, withdrawing the quota system and the intercountry adoption suspension plan that had been carried out to stimulate

domestic adoption. With the opening of intercounty adoption, the number of children adopted to overseas homes rapidly increased,

which led to competition among adoption agencies to secure the sufficient number of prospective adoptive children.

However, not long after the announcement of full opening, the government gave an administrative instruction to refrain from carrying

out intercountry adoption around the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, considering international

attention to this issue. These measures by the government did not fully regulate international adoption, but were rather

implemented occasionally when they might give a negative perception overseas.

Hosting the Olympic Games and the Change of the Adoption Policy

With the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, many countries around the world started to show interest in Korea. In the

meantime, the foreign press focused on the increasing number of children adopted overseas and the continued overseas adoption

despite Korea's eye-opening economic growth and the hosting of the Olympic Games. They pointed out that Korea was "the world's

top orphan exporter," criticizing that Korean children given up by single mothers made up 60% of foreign children sent to the

U.S. in the form of adoption, the number of which exceeded 6,000 a year.

Influenced by the foreign press, the media in Korea started to raise the issue of intercountry adoption, which increased social

attention. Accordingly, the government decided to encourage domestic adoption by establishing the Adoption Project Improvement

Guideline in June 1989. According to the guideline, the government intended to reduce intercountry adoption every year and

eventually ban it with the exception of mixed-race children or disabled children by 1996. But this plan was withdrawn in 1995 due

to lack of domestic adoption.

The Establishment of Domestic Adoption Agency, Holy Family Child Adoption Center

Holy Family Child Adoption Center is an agency exclusively for domestic adoption established on May 11th, 1989, after the 24th

Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, as a project of the International Eucharistic Congress with the belief that Korean children must be

raised by Korean. While the four previous adoption agencies were launched with the purpose of overseas adoption,

this agency has great significance in that it was launched as an exclusive domestic adoption agency.

The Enactment of Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption Promotion and Procedures

In May 1995, the revised Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption Promotion and Procedures was enacted by correcting the

flaws in the Act on Special Cases Concerning Adoption. For instance, the revised law was aimed at eliminating obstacles to

domestic adoption and making post-adoption services for intercountry adoption compulsory. The government also provided

adoptive families with housing loans, medical expenses, educational costs, and living expenses. However, with the tradition of

valuing blood ties and the reality of keeping adoption secret, the financial support for adoptive families did not act

to vitalize domestic adoption. Consequently, with a new plan to accept intercountry adoption as an alternative for domestic

adoption, the policy to stop intercounty adoption was withdrawn in August 1995.

IMF and Adoption

As Korea suffered a financial crisis in 1998 and was put under the supervision of IMF, children with special needs increased by

40% within a year, reaching 9,000 children. Most of them were from not only out-of-wedlock birth by single mothers but also

broken homes and dysfunctional families. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the number of children with special needs

soared, resulting in a temporary suspension of the intercountry adoption quota system.

The Establishment of Organizations for Adoptees and Adoptive Families

Intercountry adoption that had started since the Korean War sent approximately 150,000 children for adoption (as of 2000,

based on the statistics of the Ministry of Health and Welfare) to 14 countries, including the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia.

Koreans adopted overseas autonomously formed organizations for Korean adoptees in places they grew up with the intention

to find their identities as Korean adoptees. There are already more than 20 organizations around the world. Moreover, as Korea

began to distinguish itself in the international stage since the 24th Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, the number of visits by

Koreans adopted overseas to Korea increased. They come to their homeland to find their identities, roots and families

and to learn about Korean culture and language. This led to the emergence of organizations for post-adoption services of

intercountry adoption since the late 1990s, such as Global Overseas Adoptees' Link (G.O.A.'L) and International Korean Adoptee

Service (InKAS).

Moreover, with the national awareness of Korea's long history of intercountry adoption as well as the changing public opinion on

domestic adoption, Mission to Promote Adoption in Korea was established by domestic adoptive families to promote and enhance

domestic adoption and change the public perception on adoption. In July 1999, Adoption Information Center was established to

provide integrated and professional post-adoption services for domestic and overseas adoptees.

■ Background

The measures to promote domestic adoption (Mar. 30, 2006) had been established before, but the latest measures of

Comprehensive Countermeasures to Promote Domestic Adoption included additional plans, such as adoption holiday system,

relief of qualifications for adoptive parents, and a plan to promote domestic adoption first

■ Basic Direction

● Providing family-centered child protection services by promoting domestic adoption

● Enhancing institutional and financial support for adoptive families

● Reinforcing national promotion activities to improve the public perception

● Establishing systems to provide efficient post-adoption services

■ Main Contents

-Implementation of Family Court Approval System : Reinforcing national responsibility and making adoption procedures

strict by having the court determine the final completion of adoption

-Implementation of Adoption Consideration System of Biological Parents : Providing a week of consideration period

for biological parents after the child's birth to preferentially consider the natural family protection for the benefits of the child

-Reinforcement of Qualification of Adoptive Parents : Those with criminal records, such as child abuse, family violence,

sexual violence or drug addiction(e.g. alcohol), are prohibited from being adoptive parents, and those who will be adoptive parents

must attend classes offered by adoption agencies before adoption

-Giving the status of Parental Adopted Child: The adoptee approved by the court is given a legal position equal to

a biological child by the civil law, reinforcing the legal status of adoptees

-System to Promote Domestic Adoption First : Promotion of domestic adoption in order to encourage domestic adoption

-Support of Family Search : Guaranteeing the claim of adoption information disclosure for adoptees

(Procedure) Apply to authorized adoption agency or Korea Adoption Services → Receive agreement of biological parents on

disclosure of adoption information → Disclose adoption information

-Establishment of Korea Adoption Services : Key organization for promotion of domestic adoption and rendering of

post-adoption services

-Signed the Hague Adoption Convention

On May 24th, 2013, the Minister of Health and Welfare signed the Hague Adoption Convention in the Netherlands. The signing

ceremony took place in the Netherlands Prime Minister's office (Binnenhof).

It was determined that Korea had secured legal and institutional grounds to join the convention as the adoption system changed

fundamentally by extensively revising the Special Adoption Act and the civil law. Thus, to declare the Korean government's

commitment to the international society, the signing of the convention was carried out as a major project of the new government