SP Member of Parliament Michiel van Nispen has tabled a motion in which he calls on Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) to refrain from appealing in the case of the illegal adoption of Patrick Noordoven and the adoption of Dilani Butink. Van Nispen also filed a motion to reimburse costs incurred by the adoptees as a result of the State's decision to continue litigation.

Van Nispen previously addressed the minister in response to an episode of Het Onderzoeksbureau . In it, children's and human rights organizations also called for the appeal to be withdrawn. In the WNL podcast, Noordoven tells how he won his lawsuit against the State at the end of 2021, which then decided to appeal.

Patrick was taken from Brazil in 1980 with the help of a Dutch diplomat by a Dutch couple. Because his legal parents had registered him as their own child, information about his biological parents was missing. Patrick, like 41 other children, turned out to be illegally adopted from Brazil. Dutch diplomats were also involved in those adoptions.

Butink was adopted from Sri Lanka in 1992 and could not find out who her biological parents are due to abuses. It is not the first time that the State has challenged a judge's verdict: the same thing happened in the case of Patrick Noordoven in February 2022.

Stress and high costs

Denmark’s outright ban on adoption in the context of a commercial surrogacy agreement violated the rights of two children born to a surrogate mother, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled.

The court found by 4–3 that there had been a violation of Article 8 as regards the right to respect for the private lives of the two applicant children, though also held unanimously that there had been no violation of the intended mother’s rights.

Background

The applicants, K.K., C1 and C2, are Danish nationals who were born in 1967, 2013 and 2013 respectively and live in Copenhagen. K.K. is the mother of the other two applicants, who are twins.

In December 2013 a surrogate mother in Ukraine gave birth to C1 and C2 following a surrogacy agreement with the intended parents of the children, K.K. and her husband, who was the biological father. The birth certificates registered K.K. and her husband as the parents. In February 2014 the children were brought to Denmark.

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, December 6

Foster families will no longer have to wait for five years to adopt a child. The process will now take two years, thanks to a Centre’s decision to ease adoption rules for foster families.

Rules amended

District magistrates start issuing adoption orders under amended Juvenile Justice Rules, 2022

The second part of an investigation into global adoption examines the possible abduction and selling of thousands of Georgian babies

On a cold December day in 1990, Irma Dvalishvili gave birth to twin girls in the maternity hospital in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Irma vividly recalls the doctor telling her that both girls were healthy, but the following day the family learned that one of the twins had died.

Different doctors cited different reasons. The hospital initially refused to give the body to the family, but after much pleading a wrapped infant was eventually handed over. Yet no-one checked the baby’s identity.

At the time, the family did not imagine they would ever come to ask whether their child was, in fact, still alive.

Now, 32 years later, Mariam Kobelashvili is searching with unwavering conviction for her twin sister. “If you have ever come across someone who looks like me, I am asking you from the bottom of my heart, please, get in touch,” Mariam said in a recent post on a Facebook group dedicated to reuniting Georgians with children suspected to have been snatched at birth.

Text

States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.

Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to speedily re-establishing his or her identity

What does article 8 say?

Article 8 protects children's right to preserve their identity, including their nationality, name and family relations, without unlawful interference. In addition, States are required to help children regain any aspect of their identity that has been taken away from them illegally.

Adopted children can face many challenges, such as the impact of early trauma. What can parents do to support them? Author and adoptive dad Ben Fergusson investigates.

In 2018, my husband and I were one of the first married same-sex couples to adopt in Germany. Before we were approved, we had to complete a long process of interviews, financial and medical checks, as well as extensive preparation classes. In these classes, we were often confronted with the myriad challenges that many adoptive children face. Some of them are to do with a fundamental sense of separation and loss: what the Scottish writer and adoptee Jackie Kay, in her memoir, Red Dust Road, describes as the "windy place right at the core of my heart". Others are rooted in traumatic experiences that occurred before the adoption, which can include neglect and abuse, prenatal alcohol exposure, or spending early childhood in institutional care.

While individual experiences of adoption can vary hugely, these underlying traumas can pose long-term risks for the child. According to an analysis of 85 studies on the mental health of adoptees and non-adoptees, the risk of adoptees experiencing psychiatric disorders, having contact with mental health services, or treatment in a psychiatric hospital was approximately double that of non-adoptees. Similarly, a Swedish study on international adoptees found a higher risk of severe mental health problems and suicide in adolescence and young adulthood among children who had been adopted.

However, although being adopted is associated with these risks, a successful adoption placement can help vulnerable children overcome the early adversity they faced. Adoption has been shown to help close the developmental gap between children who have been in care and their peers, having a measurably positive impact on, for instance, their cognitive development.

For children who have faced abuse or neglect in their birth families, adoption and foster care can bring a range of long-term benefits that continue to have an effect well into adulthood – the most important arguably being an enduring sense of safety. But this journey can vary greatly depending on individual circumstances, notably the child's age at adoption. One study has shown that children adopted at a very young age were as securely attached to their permanent families as non-adopted children, while children adopted later tended to struggle more with attachment.

In fact, it was through the ministry’s push that hard to place children were also adopted, with 42 such children finding safe homes.

NEW DELHI: Of the 905 adoption cases pending with the various courts in the country, as many as 361 adoption orders have been issued in just two months since the amended Juvenile Justice Act (JJ Act), 2015 was notified in September, officials said on Tuesday.

The amended JJ Act, which shifted the power to issue adoption orders from the courts to the district magistrate, helped fast-track the adoption procedure from over three years to two months, officials of the Women and Child Development Ministry (WCD) added.

“There were 905 adoption orders pending with the court on September 23; now, it has come down to 644. A total of 361 adoption orders have been issued,” the official said, adding that constant efforts are being made to reduce the pendency of adoption orders, keeping in mind the welfare of the children.

After the notification was issued on September 23, a total of 589 children have been adopted till today.In fact, it was through the ministry’s push that hard to place children were also adopted, with 42 such children finding safe homes.

OVERVIEW The European Parliament is being consulted on a Commission proposal for a regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood. The regulation would harmonise the rules of jurisdiction and applicable law on parenthood adopted by the individual Member States and facilitate the recognition of parenthood. Within Parliament, the lead committee for the file is Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). The Committees on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) issued their opinions on 9 October and 19 September 2023 respectively. In the Council, the file is being handled by the Working Party on Civil Law Matters (JUSTCIV).

Over six decades, a million ‘orphans’ were shipped to the West from around the world. Now many are finding their past was a fabrication

Anja Pedersen-Scholl, 47, has always known she was adopted. Her East Asian heritage stood out in Copenhagen where she arrived as a baby. What she didn't know is that she was smuggled out of South Korea on a dead child’s papers shortly after her birth.

Her natural father would spend much of the rest of his life uncertain of her fate.

“While we were looking into your file, we learned that your adoption paper was written quite differently from the true story”, admitted the Korean Social Service (KSS) in a letter sent to Pedersen-Scholl in 2009, shortly after she began investigating her heritage.

“We understand you’d be very confused with this different information and feel sorry about that.”

With the support of the EU Phare programme, CNA has implemented one of the most successful “social campaigns” that has been seen in Romania.

Many people are familiar with the slogan Don’t let your child be educated by the TV. According to an Omnibus Survey carried out by IMAS, the TV spots have been broadcast over 2000 times on the main Romanian TV channels.

Radio spots, outdoor banners, newsletters and brochures for adults and children have also been produced as part of this project.

The purpose of the campaign is to inform parents about the risks of “abandoning” their children in front of the TV. The full name of the project is Enhancement and Development of the Professional Expertise of the Romanian Audio Visual Sector (RO 2004/016-722.03.15.01)

In addition to the awareness campaign, CNA’s Phare project also implemented training sessions for CNA staff, organised conferences and study tours and commissionedmajor research studies.