Counselling should be made available to prospective adoptive parents, adopted children and biological parents who surrender their child for adoption.

New Delhi: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has written to its state counterparts asking that the counselling services for adoption be institutionalised.

The CARA has written to all SARAs asking that empanel qualified counsellors be hired at the district and state level. 

Counselling, the directive said, should be made available to prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), adopted children and biological parents who surrender their child for adoption. 

These counselling provisions, which are to be made available at the pre-adoption, adoption, and post-adoption stages, are prescribed under the Adoption Regulations, 2022. 

“The Adoption Regulations, 2022 contain specific provisions requiring the delivery of structured and

need-based counselling services at each stage of the adoption process. These include, but are not 

limited to, Regulation 10(7), Regulation 30(4)(c), Regulation 30(4)(e), Regulation 7(11), Regulation 30(2) (c), Regulation 14(4), Regulation 1 (6)(b), and Regulation 21(6) 

of Adoption regulation 2022 which collectively envisage a holistic support system for all relevant stakeholders,” a communication by CARA CEO Bhavna Saxena, dated July 7, states

Counselling, in the adoption process, is mandatory during the pre-adoption state to prospective adoptive parents, and is important to draft the Home Study Report without which adoptions cannot take place. 

The bench also refused to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction to allow the adoption and said there is no "fundamental right" of the petitioners to adopt an American child.

Mumbai: An Indian does not have the fundamental right to adopt a child of American nationality even from among relatives when the child is neither "in need of care and protection" nor in "conflict with law", the Bombay High Court has said.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale on Wednesday refused an Indian couple's plea to adopt their relative's son, who is a US citizen by birth. The child in the present case does not fall within the definition of either 'child in need of care and protection' or a 'child in conflict with law' as per provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Adoption Regulations, the HC said.

"There is no provision in the Juvenile Justice Act nor the Adoption Regulations providing for adoption of a child of foreign citizenship even between relatives unless the 'child is in need of care and protection' or a 'child is in conict with law'," it stated

The bench also refused to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction to allow the adoption and said there is no "fundamental right" of the petitioners to adopt an American child. 

Neither is there any violation of any fundamental right of the child of American nationality to be adopted by an Indian citizen, it added. 

The couple will have to complete all necessary formalities of adopting the child from the US as per American laws and procedure, only after which they can go ahead with the post-adoption procedure in terms of bringing the foreign child adopted to India, the HC said. 

The couple sought to adopt their relatives' child, who is a citizen of the United States of America by birth.

Deux perquisitions dans le cadre de l'affaire Reynders

L'ex-commissaire européen et vice-Premier ministre belge Didier Reynders reste silencieux dans les médias depuis plus de six mois. ©BELGA

Bandung (ANTARA) - While investigating a child abduction case, the West Java Regional Police uncovered a child trafficking syndicate operating between Indonesia and Singapore and arrested 12 persons for trafficking babies for adoption.

“The suspects told us that they had taken as many as 24 infants,” the police’s director of general crime investigation, Grand Commissioner Surawan, informed in Bandung, West Java, on Tuesday.

According to Surawan, the West Java police busted the human trafficking ring while investigating a child abduction case in Bandung city.

He said that the traffickers took most of the infants from their biological parents in West Java. They were taken to Bandung, then Jakarta and West Kalimantan, from where the traffickers planned to fly them to Singapore.

The regional police, he added, managed to rescue five infants in Pontianak city, West Kalimantan, and one other in Tangerang, Banten. The infants are currently under the care of the police.

“This syndicate had been operating since 2023. We will entrust the babies to Sartika Asih Hospital in Bandung for health checks,” Surawan disclosed.

He informed that the infants were to be sold for Rp11 million (around US$676) to Rp16 million (US$983) to buyers for adoption in Singapore.

“The suspects said that the infants would be taken to Singapore for adoption by local citizens,” he added.

He said that the 12 nabbed syndicate members played different roles, acting as recruiters, caregivers, document counterfeiters, and transporters.

“The transactions began even before the babies were born,” he added.

Surawan further said that the West Java police intend to coordinate with Interpol to track down other victims who may have been sent abroad.

“We are still working to locate possible trafficked infants in Singapore. Our plan is to cooperate with Interpol,” he added.

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem, in accordance with Assembly resolution 79/152.

Overseas adoptees report dereliction of duty and breach of trust,
"Knew about duplicate payment of labor costs but failed to take action"

The police have begun an investigation into the case of the Child Rights Protection Agency, an organization under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, improperly paying labor costs to a specific company. The company in question is the one suspected of “blank paper scanning,” in which they scanned blank sheets of paper instead of adoption documents and received project costs while working on a Child Rights Protection Agency contract project (computerizing adoption records) for nine

consecutive years. According to the police on the 10th, the Jongno Police Station in Seoul received a case on the 2nd in which the Solidarity for Children’s Rights filed a complaint against the Director of the Child Rights Protection Agency, Jeong Ik-joong, and two executive-level employees on charges of dereliction of duty and breach of trust on behalf of adoptees from 11 countries on the 20th of last month. The allegation is that the Child Rights Protection Agency mismanaged the project by making duplicate payments to a specific company for labor costs in the process of computerizing adoption records, etc., and did not take any action to recover the duplicate payments despite being aware of the duplicate payments.

Jongro has been investigating the corruption in the 'Adoption Records Computerization Project (worth 2.03965 billion won)' that the company was in charge of for 9 years, including the suspicion of blank paper scanning, and has started a full-scale investigation into the 'improper payment of labor costs' suspicion by grouping the cases together. A Jongro official said, "We received the case because it has similarities in the overall context with the contents we are currently investigating," and "We are organizing the details of the accusation as we have begun the investigation."

According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Nam-hee, the company received a contract for the 'Adoption and Missing Person (Child Card) Record Computerization Project' from the Child Rights Protection Institute for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, and submitted a list of people who did not participate in the project and received about 50 million won in labor costs. The list contained the names of employees who participated in another project, the 'Adoption Records Computerization Project', which was carried out during the same period.

However, it was also confirmed that the Child Rights Protection Agency, which was supposed to supervise and manage the progress of the project, was aware of this fact but did not take any action to recover it.

Cho Min-ho, head of the Child Rights Solidarity who filed the complaint, explained, "For many adoptees who are living in pain because they cannot find their biological families, the adoption records and child cards that the Child Rights Protection Center computerized are very precious." He added, "Not only the company that paid the duplicate labor costs, but also the Child Rights Protection Center that ran this project poorly is responsible, and I decided to file the complaint because I judged that an investigation was necessary."

 

The internal document of the Child Rights Protection Agency, “2020, 2021 Adoption/Missing (Children’s Card) Records Computerization Project Investigation Results,” states that five employees of service providers received duplicate payroll expenses in two projects. Provided by the office of Rep. Kim Nam-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea

Meanwhile, the Child Rights Protection Center belatedly filed a civil suit against the company in question after the state audit and the Ministry of Health and Welfare audit last year, claiming that the company had conducted the project poorly and seeking to recover 58 million won for the blank scans.

However, the company in question recently stated in a phone call with the Hankook Ilbo, "We submitted the company's data management guidelines, which included a statement that even the backs of documents (where there is no content) were scanned, as evidence to the court," and "The Child Rights Protection Center knew for years that the company worked based on the guidelines but did not raise any issues." They also added, "The Child Rights Protection Center employees in charge of the project signed 'no issues' on the inspection results submitted by the company after the project was completed, so we believe that it cannot be the subject of a civil suit in the first place."

 

CONCORD, N.H. —

A woman who claims her adoptive parents kept her in a basement dungeon in New Boston shared her story in court Tuesday. In her lawsuit, Olivia Griffin asked for nearly $30 million to help rebuild her life. After hearing Griffin's testimony, the judge approved the damages.

When News 9 first broke the story of the case in 2018, her name was Olivia Atkocaitis, but the first thing she clarified for the judge Tuesday was that she now uses the last name "Griffin." She spoke about the pain her old name carries.

"Being told for 15 years that your life is not worth living, and any time you do something wrong, you were told 110 ways you should kill yourself. I don't think I'm ever going to recover from that," she said. "I was conditioned to not think that I was worth anything."

Griffin was adopted from China at 14 months old. She said that for 15 years, she was kept in a room in the basement by Denise and Thomas Atkocaitis. Neither were in the courtroom Tuesday, but they have both pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to the case.

As she does every year, Princess Esméralda of Belgium attended the CARE Belgium gala. This charity gala was held on June 12th in the majestic setting of the Egmont Palace in Brussels to mark the 10th anniversary of this charity event. Prince Laurent joined his aunt to show his support for this worthy cause.

Princess Esmeralda with CARE Belgium patrons at Egmont Palace

Over the years, the CARE Gala has become a must-attend charity event, bringing together patrons and supporters who support the fight against extreme poverty around the world. Princess Esmeralda has supported CARE Belgium since its inception and attends the fundraising gala every year. For this 10th edition of the gala, the organization invited its patrons to the Egmont Palace in Brussels on June 12.

Princess Esméralda of Belgium surrounded by the CARE Belgium team: Daniel Thierry, Baroness Odile de Saint-Marcq and Grégoire Tolstoï (Photo: CARE Belgium)CARE supporters and patrons arrive at Egmont Palace to support the charity's fundraising efforts (Photo: Royal Stories)

Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, the CARE International network's objective at the time was to provide support to a war-torn Europe by sending humanitarian aid packages. The Belgian branch was created in 2014 by a group of people active within the network internationally. CARE Belgium is represented by its president, Daniel Thierry, and its secretary general, Odile de Saint-Marcq.

Le prince Laurent rejoint la princesse Esméralda au palais d’Egmont pour le 10e anniversaire de CARE Belgium

par Nicolas Fontaine

Comme chaque année, la princesse Esméralda de Belgique a assisté au gala CARE Belgium. Ce gala caritatif était organisé le 12 juin, dans le cadre majestueux du palais d’Egmont à Bruxelles, pour marquer le 10e anniversaire de cette soirée de bienfaisance. Le prince Laurent a rejoint sa tante pour montrer son soutien dans cette noble cause.

Lire aussi : La princesse Esméralda présente un livre de transmission et de mémoire à Bruxelles

A man who was taken from his mother as a newborn in a clandestine detention center during the Argentine dictatorship has been reunited with his family aer nearly fiy years. The 49-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, was identified through a DNA test.

He is the 140th "stolen grandchild" recovered by the human rights organization Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. He is the son of Graciela Alicia Romero and Raúl Eugenio Metz, leftwing activists who were arrested by soldiers on December 16, 1976. Romero, then five months pregnant, gave birth in captivity. She was murdered shortly afterward.

The news of the man's discovery was announced amid great interest at the former ESMA building in the north of the capital, Buenos Aires. This former naval training institute served as a clandestine concentration camp and torture center during the bloody dictatorship. Today, it is a national monument, a museum, and home to several human rights organizations.

During the military dictatorship (1976 - 1983), some30,000 people disappeared, most of whom were murdered. Pregnant woman were often kept alive until birth and then executed. At least 500 babies were taken and given to, among others, high-ranking army generals, and grew up without knowing their original identity. The search for their identities continues today.