What you need to know:

In 2020, the US imposed sanctions on two Ugandan judges, a lawyer and her husband for their alleged involvement in activities that victimised young children in a corrupt adoption scheme. Retired judge Moses Mukiibi writes on the role of judges.

I do not think that I can scrap enough to remove the wrong impression that removal of children from their parents was a conspiracy between lawyers and judges. I feel I must make a few things clear for the present and posterity.

We live in a world where corruption has engulfed many sectors. So even without the slightest knowledge of how a process worked, one is quick to think it was because of money.

One of the reasons for this is a failure to understand the difference between the person carrying out the duties of a judge and the High Court.

In 2021-22, 2991 children were adopted by Indians and 414 by foreigners, while in 2020-21, 3142 children were adopted by Indians and 417 by foreigners.

NEW DELHI: As many as 1836 children have been adopted by Indians and 222 by foreigners, including non-resident Indians, this year till December 13, according to Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Z Irani. The number has dipped as compared to the previous three years.

In 2021-22, 2991 children were adopted by Indians and 414 by foreigners, while in 2020-21, 3142 children were adopted by Indians and 417 by foreigners.The highest number of adoptions occurred in 2019-20 when Indians adopted 3351 and foreigners 394 children.

Irani said that most of the grievances they have received are waiting time from prospective adoptive parents (PAPs). “While there is a long queue to adopt a normal young child upto six years of age, there is no waiting period for the PAPs who desire to adopt a child having special needs and a child from immediate placement category (mostly older children),” she said. Further, the waiting time is relevant for the PAPs only; the legally free children do not have to wait, she said in a written reply.

Based on feedback received from the stakeholders and experts, Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has framed the Adoption Regulations, 2022 in line with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2021), which has been notified on September 23.

A judicial source, who asked to remain anonymous, told Arab News: “The incident of Shenouda is not unique. There are many similar stories that were not covered by the media

CAIRO: The case of a four-year-old boy, Shenouda, who was raised by a Coptic couple who found him abandoned outside a church, has sparked a heated debate in Egypt involving human rights activists and lawmakers.

Activists have called for the case to be brought before the House of Representatives in the hope that Egypt’s laws regarding the adoption of children by Christians will be amended.

Shenouda was raised as a Christian by the Coptic couple. But the husband’s niece filed a legal case claiming that the couple had kidnapped a Muslim child, as a result of which Shenouda was taken from his foster parents and placed in an orphanage by the public prosecutor.

Shenouda’s foster mother Amal, 50, alleged that the niece filed the case because of a family dispute over inheritance.

This week, the Government approved a policy paper and legislative proposals on international surrogacy and the recognition of past surrogacy arrangements.

So, what has the interdepartmental group that created the document proposed in relation to the future of international surrogacy?

In order to regulate surrogacy in Ireland, amendments to the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill will be required at committee stage of the legislation.

The AHR bill was created to regulate procedures such as in-vitro fertilisation and technologies like embryo screening as well as domestic surrogacy.

This week's announcement means that early next year, international surrogacy will be inserted into the AHR bill at committee stage, when amendments to the existing legislation are thrashed out.

Thiruvananthapuram: An infant abandoned by its biological parents

fearing social stigma over pre-marital pregnancy is to be returned to the

mother. The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has decided to return the

baby as a DNA test proved its parentage.

As reported earlier the parents abandoned the baby fearing social

Promise Kids a Future (PKAF), a local adoption agency, is working with their orphanage in Africa called Noah’s Ark Children’s Home, to raise funds for adoption.

Their “Hope for the Future” campaign has raised roughly $8,500 at press time with a goal of $18,000 by Dec. 20.

“For the last several years we have had an anonymous donor who has reached out to say that they would give a certain amount if we could match it by the end of the year,” said Promise Kids a Future Director Jill Baker. “This (deadline) we set as Dec. 20.”

PKAF was started in 2006 by Baker, who has had a heart for international adoption.

“It’s just a beautiful thing to be able to provide (adoption) for people,” Baker said. “I love the idea of joining people who want children that don’t have families. As much as it is one way, it is the other; a child that needs a family. And, there (are) families that need children.”

On October 5, 2022, the Racines&dignité group filed complaints with the public prosecutor for the opening of a judicial inquiry into the main actors who participated in our forced exodus without the consent of our biological families. We publish the letter addressed to Mrs BECCUAU so that our request is taken into account vis-a-vis these crimes against humanity.

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 in the 1960s. We created the Roots&Dignity group in order to denounce the establishment of a trade in children and violations of human rights. child of which we have been the object.

We are :

While families across the country prepare to gather for Christmas, Michael Hickey is facing another festive season forbidden from meeting his mother.

He is one of thousands of adopted Australians barred from contacting biological family members under so-called "contact vetoes".

Adoption lobby groups are fighting for an end to the vetoes, arguing they were "cruel" and "outdated".

Mr Hickey was adopted out as a newborn in Perth in 1960 when unmarried mothers were shunned and often pressured into giving up their babies.

He knew from a young age he was adopted and tried to find his biological mother when he was in his 30s.

Mustafa Chowdhury

One of the most important initiatives that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman undertook post-Liberation War was enacting the Bangladesh Abandoned Children (Special Provisions) Order in 1972. Unfortunately, not very many people are aware of this initiative that is deeply significant for our national history.

After assuming power, Bangabandhu's first priority was to rebuild the war-torn country, but while doing so, he recognised the grave problem regarding the birth and simultaneous abandonment of the children who were born as a result of mass rape by Pakistani soldiers and their associates. All throughout 1972, newspapers such as the Daily Azad, Purbosesh and Daily Ittefaq referred to the war babies as "unwanted" or "enemy babies" of Bangladesh.

Bangabandhu took quite a different position and stood up for these babies, calling them manobshontan (humanity's children), echoing the same sentiment expressed by Mother Teresa.

Contrary to his administration, the Bangalees' indignation for the newborns displayed a more insidious form of bias prevalent in Bangladeshi society. People's attitude towards the war babies was shaped by a careful choice of terms, such as "unwanted" or "throwaway", the objective of which was to intentionally denigrate the status of war babies in their country of birth.

39-year-old Barbara Quee, one of the victims to whom 'Spoorloos' linked the wrong Colombian parents, has found her biological mother. "She thought I had died," she tells the 'Algemeen Dagblad'.

"She always thought I died shortly after birth"

Born in Colombia, Barbara was adopted in 1984 by a Dutch couple. Because Barbara wants to know more about her past, she registers for the Spoorloos program in 2005 in the hope of finding her biological parents. Her mother is found by the Colombian fixer (and, as it turns out, con artist) Edwin Vela, who has been matching adopted people with the wrong biological parents for years.

During the broadcast she is told that her mother cannot go public because she is in hiding from the police. "That would have to do with her identity, which would be used for criminal purposes," Barbara looks back. "A story in which I had many questions. Why was Spoorloos able to find her and the police could not?"

The program promises her to go after two brothers, but it remains silent. When Barbara meets another adopted boy in 2008, she decides to start a new search through Edwin Vela, to whom she has to transfer money each time. "It felt like a second chance. I asked Spoorloos for support, but that ultimately did nothing," Barbara continues her story.