On October 5, 2022, the Racines & Dignité group filed complaints with the public prosecutor for the opening of a judicial investigation with the main actors who participated in our forced exodus without the consent of our biological families. We are publishing the letter addressed to Mrs. BECCUAU so that our request is taken into account in the face of these crimes against humanity.
October 5, 2022
For the attention of Mrs. Laure BECCUAU, Public Prosecutor of Paris
Madam Prosecutor,
We have the honor to inform you that we are a group of victims born in Romania since the 1960s. We created the group Racines&Dignité in order to denounce the establishment of a child trade and the violations of children's rights to which we have been subjected.
A year. That is how long a temporary adoption stop for children from abroad has been in effect in Flanders. And that adoption stop will remain in effect next year. This is confirmed by the competent minister Caroline Gennez (Vooruit). How come? How far has the screening of countries of origin progressed? And will there also be a permanent stop on foreign adoption here, just like in the Netherlands? “We will evaluate the new rules within two years,” says Gennez.
Quebec recently made a big step forward regarding the rights of adopted persons. The right to know the identities of the members of your family of origin is now included in Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Until recently, the general rule was confidentiality. However, as of June 8, adopted persons can find out who their biological parents were — even if the parents previously refused to have this information disclosed.
In some other provinces, adopted persons already had this right. In Quebec, some organizations have been advocating for this right for more than 40 years. The ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (department of health and social services) expects to receive between 30,000 and 70,000 applications to identify biological parents as a result of this change in the law.
Important: This new right also applies to people who were eligible to be adopted but were not. We sometimes forget that not all children eligible for adoption find adoptive parents.
In Québec, anyone who was adopted can find out the identity of their biological parent or parent of origin. Since June 8, 2024, this right has been guaranteed by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
Are you the child of a deceased adoptee? If you are aged 14 or over, you have access to the same information as your parent would have had while the parent was still alive.
Province says it made the move to protect children from potential harm
The Quebec government has suspended most new international adoption applications, echoing moves by other jurisdictions that are rethinking the once-common practice because of human rights and trafficking concerns.
Quebec's decision is part of a global "culture change" in recent years as countries have become aware of serious shortcomings in the way many adoptions are carried out, Anne-Marie Piché, a professor in the social work department at the Université du Québec à Montréal who studies adoption, said in an interview Monday.
Despite international agreements that theoretically impose strict rules, "there are countries that have gaps in their adoption procedures," she said. In some cases, she added, "the children don't have their truthful information collected, for example on their parents, on the real reasons for placement, on their circumstances of birth."
As well, she said, mothers are sometimes coerced into signing a document to give up their child, children are falsely reported as abandoned or adoptions are quickly approved for financial gain.
Tamuna Museridze, a 40-year-old journalist in Georgia, discovered her biological father was her Facebook friend for three years during a search for her birth parents.
A 40-year-old woman in Georgia, who had been adopted at a young age, discovered her biological father had been her Facebook friend for three years. According to a report with BBC, Tamuna Museridze, in 2016, was cleaning the house of the woman who had raised her, after her passing away. It was then that she found a birth certificate with her name but an incorrect date of birth, and doubted she was adopted.
Curious to find out about her biological parents, Museridze, a journalist by profession, set up a group on Facebook, hoping to find them.
Some days later, Museridze received a message from a woman who claimed she knew another woman in Georgia who had secretly given birth to a child around September 1984.
The woman believed she might be Museridze’s mother and provided her name to the latter, the report stated.
The court emphasized the urgency of ensuring a safe and lawful resolution for these children, who remain under the care of the CWC.
Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has directed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to expedite the adoption process for 15 trafficked children rescued by the Rachakonda police earlier this year.
The court emphasized the urgency of ensuring a safe and lawful resolution for these children, who remain under the care of the CWC.
The directive comes after the dismantling of a child trafficking ring in May, highlighting the need for prompt legal action to safeguard the welfare of vulnerable children.
Berhampur: A 13-year-old orphaned girl from Gajapati district has found a new family in Tamil Nadu, two years after being rescued from Rayagada block following the death of her parents.In a ceremony held on Monday evening, Gajapati collector Bijay Kumar Das officially handed over the Class VIII student to her adoptive parents from Tamil Nadu, following the completion of procedures under Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) guidelines."From today, she is our daughter," said the adoptive mother, who didn't wish to disclose her name. The couple had waited for nearly a year after applying through CARA.The teenager had been residing at a child care institute near Paralakhemundi since her rescue, where she continued her education. District child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathy, Dr Millan Adhikari, and officials from the child care home were present during the ceremony.According to Tripathy, this was the 62nd successful adoption from Gajapati district since the establishment of a specialised agency in 2018. These adoptions included those within India and internationally.CARA, which oversees the adoption process, is an autonomous and statutory body under the ministry of women and child development.Collector Das expressed his best wishes for the girl's future with her new family.
As soon as they heard from the nursing home that their surrogate had delivered a healthy baby, the adoptive parents (name withheld) informed the adoption agency of their decision to return the 8and 10-year-old siblings they had adopted a few months earlier. The children, who are now back in the adoption home, will be counselled for foster care or placement in a govt home where they may grow up as orphans.
Since 2020, about 12 parents in Tamil Nadu have returned children – less than 10 years old – who they legally adopted through various govt-certified agencies for different reasons. Four parents quoted “adjustment issues” as a reason for returning children. While one parent thought the toddler did not make enough eye contact during conversation another felt the child had anger issues. Some parents quoted marital or financial problems within the family, and others cited the child’s poor health. In one case it was the death of a parent. Officials confirmed that while three of them have been re-adopted, one is in foster care and the remaining still in govt homes.
The social welfare department has recorded three dissolutions of adoption in 2020, four in 2021 and five in 2023. Protocols, however, are now being implemented to ensure they don’t happen again. “We counsel parents at least twice to see if we can help them retain the child. In some cases, we know parents may not have a choice. The adoption process is then dissolved to declare the adoption void,” says social welfare secretary Jayashree Muralidharan.
An authorised agency applies for dissolution to the district magistrate through the district child protection unit. Once the process is completed, the child is back on the list of those “legally free” for adoption. “Considering the long wait list, most children get another chance quickly,” says Muralidharan. “In general, most adoptions are successful. Dissolutions, however, have become unavoidable due to various reasons in some cases.”
Psychiatrists say parents who surrender adopted children cannot be villainised as they are seeing a rise in “adaptive challenges” for different reasons. First, as adopted children identified with early stressful childhood, many parents seek consultations for “behaviour issues” after complaints from siblings, neighbours and schools. “It’s tough on the child as well as the parent. Until some years ago, most adoptions happened within the family. A couple who do not have children will adopt their nephews or nieces, or from families known to them. The joint family system monitored the upbringing of the adopted child,” says child psychiatrist Dr V Jayanthini.
Today, information about biological parents is unknown in most cases, she says. “Mothers may not have had a happy pregnancy period. They may have neglected their diet and medical care, resulting in little bonding between the mother and the child after birth. All this can be stressful for the child. When they come to new homes the process of adapting themselves may add to this stress. While in many cases they tend to settle in with love and care, some children and parents just don’t get along.”
