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ISS Cross-border Services within the HCCH 1980 Child Abduction Convention

ISS Cross-border Services within the HCCH 1980 Child Abduction Convention

The protection of children against organized violent sexual abuse in the Netherlands

The protection ofchildren against organizedviolent sexual abusein the Netherlands

Family international frankfurt eV Member of the International Social Service (ISS) - Feedback from searchers

f amilie i nternational frankfurt eV often receives letters of thanks from those searching, as well as from people who have been found, but also from people whose relatives could not be found or with whom contact is currently not possible.

We would like to present some selected feedback. The search for a close relative is associated with a lot of emotions and some visitors to this homepage may recognize themselves in these words. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who confided in us about the sensitive topic of the search. It takes a lot of courage and determination to undertake a search with an unknown outcome. But any kind of certainty can provide comfort

  • Search for the mother Germany - Brazil 2023

"I don't know how to show my gratitude to you. 

Everything happened very quickly now. I have already contacted my sister and also my mother. We have also made a telephone video with our sister, brother and mother via WhatsApp. That was very emotional. But also very beautiful. It means to me that I have to start learning Portuguese soon. I still can't believe that I have contact with my Brazilian family. It's just a little difficult because my mother can't write. But it also works somehow. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. “

Cal City couple receives life sentences in case missing adopted children

Trezell and Jacqueline West receive sentence for death and disappearance of Orrin and Orson West

Orrin and Orson West

Photo by: California City Police Department

 

West Boys Trial

Man pleads guilty to involvement in murder of 8-year-old girl, agrees to testify against child’s mother

 

Meela Miller, shown here at a family trip to Omak Lake, died late last year, and her mother, Mandie Miller, is charged in her death along with Aleksandr Kurmoyarov.  (Photo courtesy of Daniel Herrera)


Meela Miller, shown here at a family trip to Omak Lake, died late last year, and her mother, Mandie Miller, is charged in her death along with Aleksandr Kurmoyarov. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Herrera)

 

A 29-year-old man agreed to testify about the mysterious final days of 8-year-old Meela Miller’s life when he pleaded guilty to his involvement in her death Friday.

“Makarenko was just into it”: A youth in the former GDR children’s home in Treptow

Around 25,000 boys and girls once lived in the Berlin children's home in Königsheide. Some are still looking for their parents today. 


Behind the gate with the squirrel emblem, an almost unreal idyll opens up - it's hard to believe that the Schöneweide S-Bahn station is only around 600 meters away: Neoclassical buildings stand in a sparse forest of tall oaks and pine trees. They are reminiscent of the Zenner house in Treptower Park. Here and there there are hammocks stretched between the trees.

All buildings are decorated with blue, red and beige scratch paintings, showing happy children in all walks of life. The houses are on the right and left on a street lined with flower beds. It leads from the entrance gate with the squirrel to an imposing house with figures standing in front of the column-decorated portal. It looks a bit like a miniature of the Weimar National Theater.

This afternoon, a group of two dozen people strolled through the listed complex on Südostallee in Johannisthal, a district of Treptow . Some carry folding stools in their hands; the tour will last two hours, at least.

Balconies were added to the houses a few years ago. The residents of the ground floors were given terraces. There is a sign attached to one: “You should be a caterpillar: eat – sleep. Eat – sleep. Eat – sleep. Zack – nice.” The current residents of the complex want life to be so easy here. But it's not a carefree place.

Today a residential park, formerly the GDR's model children's home

Minister Crevits reforms intercountry adoption in Flanders

Flemish Minister of Welfare, Public Health and the Family Hilde Crevits is having the adoption landscape and the legal framework surrounding it reformed. This is done after previous recommendations from an expert panel and extensive consultation with all those involved. In the future, stricter supervision will be exercised to ensure that adoptions take place in the interests of the child. For example, there will be a systematic screening of countries of origin and independent experts will also assess adoption processes. It will also no longer be possible to adopt a child without guidance from the adoption service. And prospective parents for adoption and foster care will be better informed about the two options in the future.

“I absolutely believe in a future for intercountry adoption in Flanders, but only with a philosophy in which the interests of the child are absolutely central.  We have worked very hard in recent years with all partners on the necessary changes . Adoption should primarily be a search for a suitable family for a child and not the other way around. We therefore build in extra guarantees that adoptions are carried out correctly and morally. Good guidance is essential. It should not be about more-more-more adoption, but about better-better-better. We also connect adoption and foster care more strongly. In foster care we see many children waiting for foster parents, while in adoption we see just as manyseeing parents waiting for a child. That is why we would like to introduce all people who would like to care for a child to the two options. Ultimately, they can then make their own well-informed choice. In this way we hope to give more children a warm home.” – Flemish Minister of Welfare and Health Hilde Crevits  

To ensure that the interests of the child are absolutely paramount in intercountry adoption and to further eliminate the risk of malpractice, Flemish Minister of Health and Family Hilde Crevits has the Flemish regulations on adoption amended. The reform is based on the recommendations of an expert panel who provided several recommendations on intercountry adoption in mid-2021 and which various working groups started working on in concrete terms. A new screening instrument is already being implemented. The working groups included experienced experts and partners from the adoption sector, as well as adopted people and adoptive parents themselves.

Closer supervision of cooperation with countries of origin

In order to more effectively exclude the risk of malpractice and to carry out intercountry adoption in Flanders in a high-quality manner, the systematic screening of countries of origin will be enshrined in law as a principle and some assignments of the authorities involved will be changed.

Green light for use of genealogical DNA databases

The Limburg court gives permission for the use of genealogical DNA databases for kinship research in two cold case cases. The Public Prosecution Service (OM), the police and the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) will now use this internationally successful detection method in the context of a pilot, in the hope of forcing a breakthrough in stalled investigations.

Private DNA databases

Kinship research using (private) genealogical DNA databases can provide a solution when all available investigative resources have not led to a breakthrough in a criminal case. By comparing the DNA profile of an unknown dead person or an unknown suspect with the DNA profiles of people in a genealogical DNA database, (distant) relatives of this unknown person can be identified. With the help of these relatives, it is possible to determine the identity of the suspect or unknown dead victim through family tree research.

Cold case Hill murder  

The first cold case case in which this method is used concerns a home invasion with a fatal outcome. On August 14, 2004, the Leukel couple from Berg en Terblijt were brutally robbed in their home. An unknown man attacked them with, among other things, a saw. Sjef Leukel (68) died on the spot from his injuries. His wife ended up in a coma, from which she woke up after ten days. The case became nationally known as the 'Heuvel Murder'. Despite extensive and lengthy investigation, the offer of a reward for the golden tip and the presence of many perpetrator traces, the identity and motive of the perpetrator have remained unknown until now.