Adoption (Intercountry) Regulations 1998

Reprint
as at 4 December 1998

Crest

Adoption (Intercountry) Regulations 1998

(SR 1998/428)

Michael Hardie Boys, Governor-General

Order in Council

At Wellington this 30th day of November 1998

Present:
The Right Hon Jenny Shipley presiding in Council

Note

Changes authorised by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 have been made in this reprint.

A general outline of these changes is set out in the notes at the end of this reprint, together with other explanatory material about this reprint.

These regulations are administered by the Ministry of Justice.

Pursuant to section 24 of the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997, His Excellency the Governor-General, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, makes the following regulations.

Regulations

1 Title and commencement

  • (1) These regulations may be cited as the Adoption (Intercountry) Regulations 1998.

    (2) These regulations come into force on 1 January 1999.

2 Interpretation
3 Functions of Central Authority that may be delegated to New Zealand accredited bodies

  • (1) The New Zealand Central Authority may delegate to public authorities or New Zealand accredited bodies the functions of a Central Authority as set out in the Convention under—

    • (a) Article 9:

    • (b) paragraph 1 of Article 15:

    • (c) Article 18:

    • (d) paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 19:

    • (e) Article 20.

    (2) Although the New Zealand Central Authority is able to delegate the functions in paragraph 1 of Article 15, the following tasks relating to those functions must be retained and must not be delegated by the New Zealand Central Authority:

    • (a) obtaining medical reports in respect of prospective adoptive parents:

    • (b) making inquiries of the Police as to whether anything is known about the character of the prospective adoptive parents:

    • (c) making inquiries of any referees as to the suitability of the prospective adoptive parents to adopt a child.

4 Separation of delegated functions

  • If the functions of a Central Authority as set out in paragraph 1 of Article 15 are delegated to an accredited body under regulation 3, the New Zealand Central Authority must not delegate any other functions of a Central Authority to that body.

5 Competent authorities for purposes of Convention

  • (1) The New Zealand Central Authority is the competent authority in relation to New Zealand for the purposes of Articles 4, 5, 12, 23, 29, and 34 of the Convention.

    (2) The Director-General and the New Zealand Central Authority are the competent authorities in relation to New Zealand for the purpose of Article 11 of the Convention.

    (3) The Director-General and the New Zealand Central Authority and any public authority or New Zealand accredited body that is performing, under a delegation under section 6 of the Act, functions in relation to an intercountry adoption, are competent authorities in relation to New Zealand for the purposes of Articles 30, 33, and 35 of the Convention.

Marie Shroff,
Clerk of the Executive Council.

Explanatory note

This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.

These regulations, which come into force on 1 January 1999, provide for the delegation of some of the functions of the New Zealand Central Authority under the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption to public authorities and New Zealand accredited bodies. New Zealand acceded to the Convention on 18 September 1998. The Director-General of Social Welfare is the person with the authority to make the actual delegations.

The following functions may be delegated under regulation 3(1):

Article 9

  • collecting, preserving, and exchanging information about the situation of the child and the prospective adoptive parents, so far as is necessary to complete the adoption

  • facilitating, following, and expediting proceedings with a view to obtaining the adoption

  • promoting the development of adoption counselling, and post-adoption services in New Zealand

  • providing general evaluation reports about experience with intercountry adoption

  • replying, in so far as is permitted by the law of New Zealand, to justified requests from other Central Authorities or public authorities for information about a particular adoption situation:

Article 15

  • preparing reports, including information about applicants' identity, eligibility and suitability to adopt, background, family and medical history, social environment, reasons for adoption, ability to undertake an intercountry adoption, as well as the characteristics of the children for whom they would be qualified to care:

Article 18

  • taking all necessary steps to obtain permission for the child to leave their country of origin and to enter and reside permanently in New Zealand:

Article 19

  • ensuring that transfers take place in secure and appropriate circumstances and, if possible, in the company of the adoptive or prospective adoptive parents

  • if the transfer of the child does not take place, the sending back of the reports referred to in Articles 15 and 16 to the authorities who forwarded them:

Article 20

  • keeping Central Authorities informed about the adoption process and the measures taken to complete it, as well as about the progress of the placement if a probationary period is required.

Regulation 3 also prohibits the delegation of certain functions. These are set out in regulation 3(2).

Where an assessment or report-writing function has been delegated to an accredited body, regulation 4 provides that no other Convention functions may be delegated to that body.

As the Convention contains a number of references to a “competent authority” or “competent authorities”, regulation 5 defines, in relation to New Zealand, which persons and bodies are competent authorities for the purpose of the Convention.

Issued under the authority of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989.

Date of notification in Gazette: 3 December 1998.

Contents

  • 1General

  • 2Status of reprints

  • 3How reprints are prepared

  • 4Changes made under section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989

  • 5List of amendments incorporated in this reprint (most recent first)

Notes
1 General

  • This is a reprint of the Adoption (Intercountry) Regulations 1998. The reprint incorporates all the amendments to the regulations as at 4 December 1998, as specified in the list of amendments at the end of these notes.

    Relevant provisions of any amending enactments that have yet to come into force or that contain relevant transitional or savings provisions are also included, after the principal enactment, in chronological order.

2 Status of reprints

  • Under section 16D of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989, reprints are presumed to correctly state, as at the date of the reprint, the law enacted by the principal enactment and by the amendments to that enactment. This presumption applies even though editorial changes authorised by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 have been made in the reprint.

    This presumption may be rebutted by producing the official volumes of statutes or statutory regulations in which the principal enactment and its amendments are contained.

3 How reprints are prepared

  • A number of editorial conventions are followed in the preparation of reprints. For example, the enacting words are not included in Acts, and provisions that are repealed or revoked are omitted. For a detailed list of the editorial conventions, see http://www.pco.parliament.govt.nz/editorial-conventions/ or Part 8 of the Tables of New Zealand Acts and Ordinances and Statutory Regulations and Deemed Regulations in Force.

4 Changes made under section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989

  • Section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 authorises the making of editorial changes in a reprint as set out in sections 17D and 17E of that Act so that, to the extent permitted, the format and style of the reprinted enactment is consistent with current legislative drafting practice. Changes that would alter the effect of the legislation are not permitted.

    A new format of legislation was introduced on 1 January 2000. Changes to legislative drafting style have also been made since 1997, and are ongoing. To the extent permitted by section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989, all legislation reprinted after 1 January 2000 is in the new format for legislation and reflects current drafting practice at the time of the reprint.

    In outline, the editorial changes made in reprints under the authority of section 17C of the Acts and Regulations Publication Act 1989 are set out below, and they have been applied, where relevant, in the preparation of this reprint:

    • •omission of unnecessary referential words (such as “of this section” and “of this Act”)

    • •typeface and type size (Times Roman, generally in 11.5 point)

    • •layout of provisions, including:

      • •indentation

      • •position of section headings (eg, the number and heading now appear above the section)

    • •format of definitions (eg, the defined term now appears in bold type, without quotation marks)

    • •format of dates (eg, a date formerly expressed as “the 1st day of January 1999” is now expressed as “1 January 1999”)

    • •position of the date of assent (it now appears on the front page of each Act)

    • •punctuation (eg, colons are not used after definitions)

    • •Parts numbered with roman numerals are replaced with arabic numerals, and all cross-references are changed accordingly

    • •case and appearance of letters and words, including:

      • •format of headings (eg, headings where each word formerly appeared with an initial capital letter followed by small capital letters are amended so that the heading appears in bold, with only the first word (and any proper nouns) appearing with an initial capital letter)

      • •small capital letters in section and subsection references are now capital letters

    • •schedules are renumbered (eg, Schedule 1 replaces First Schedule), and all cross-references are changed accordingly

    • •running heads (the information that appears at the top of each page)

    • •format of two-column schedules of consequential amendments, and schedules of repeals (eg, they are rearranged into alphabetical order, rather than chronological).

5 List of amendments incorporated in this reprint (most recent first)