In 1985, the U.N. Economic and Social Council determined that a group of experts with experience in family and child welfare should prepare a draft declaration and guidelines for governments on the foster placement and adoption of children. A draft had been considered by the General Assembly since 1979 and had been on the agenda of the Sixth Committee (Legal) since 1982. In 1985, the Assembly decided that the Sixth Committee should hold informal consultations to achieve agreement on the remaining issues, in particular the question of “the sole criterion” in Article 5 and the principle relating to the problem of child abduction for illicit placement. This was done, and the Declaration was adopted at the General Assembly's forty-first session.