President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday apologized for past governments' failure to protect the rights of overseas adoptees and vowed stronger efforts to safeguard them. Lee issued the message on Facebook a day after South Korea formally became a contracting party to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, completing full ratification 12 years after signing the pact. He also acknowledged cases of human rights violations in the process. Lee stressed that the enforcement in July of the Special Act on Domestic Adoption and the Special Act on Intercountry Adoption has provided the domestic legal basis to implement the convention. "Relevant ministries should closely cooperate to safeguard the rights of adoptees and to establish a human rights-centered adoption system, and come up with effective support measures to assist overseas adoptees in tracing their roots," he added.