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By MAURA HARTY
Nearly everyone has family members or friends who are adoptive parents or adopted children. There are 150,000 adoptions in the United States every year. Though most of these are domestic adoptions - only 14 percent of adopted children are foreign-born - the astonishing fact is that Americans adopt more foreign children every year than all the other countries in the world combined.

As a U.S. citizen, I am proud of what that says about Americans' generosity and open hearts.

As the person responsible for ensuring that these adoptions comply with the laws of the child's country of birth and with U.S. law, I am dedicated to securing the integrity of the process. This month, the United States is joining a community of nations that has pledged adherence to the highest ethical and procedural adoption standards. U.S. ratification of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption is a historic milestone that will benefit thousands of orphaned children around the world and American families seeking to adopt them.

The convention establishes internationally accepted safeguards to ensure that intercountry adoptions occur in the best interests of children. It affirms the principle that such adoptions are an essential way to provide permanent, loving homes to orphans who have not been adopted within their extended families or local communities. It promotes transparency and ethical practice.

The United States traveled a long road to reach this milestone. Our country was one of the first to sign the Hague Adoption Convention, in 1994. In 2000, Congress passed the Intercountry Adoption Act, the legislation that has guided our efforts. On Nov. 16, the president signed the ratification documents, which I have just deposited in the Hague.

Ratification is the culmination of 14 years of effort by my colleagues in the Department of State, as well as the steadfast support of hundreds of others in Congress, in other government agencies and in the adoption community. The process took longer than expected. We have moved toward this goal deliberately, but unceasingly, because we had a moral imperative to get it right. Joining the convention has been worth the effort and the wait.

What difference will this make? Here are some of the safeguards and why they matter:

• Federal certification of U.S. adoption service providers working in convention countries, and a complaint registry that will enable us to monitor and enforce compliance with convention standards.

• Required procedures and safeguards designed to keep adoption a not-for-profit activity whose sole purpose is to identify loving homes for children who need them.

• Training, best practices and other support for adoption officials, social workers and judges in source countries.

• Moral authority to encourage additional countries to accede to the Hague Convention.

The Hague Adoption Convention fits seamlessly into the United States' broader commitment to establish a global framework to protect children. With our partners in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, we work to secure the return of children who are victims of international parental child abduction.

A new Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support was adopted Nov. 23, and I am proud to say that the United States was the first country to sign it.

Reaching this milestone on the Adoption Convention is truly a reason for celebration and for renewing America's commitment to children. As we implement the convention, we reaffirm our goal to help children in need of permanent families find secure and loving homes, wherever that may be. The United States will continue to work with our many convention partners to build a better future for the world's children.

Maura Harty is assistant secretary of state for consular affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

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