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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.

The WCD ministry said adoption orders have been issued in 361 cases after the rules were amended to empower district magistrates to issue adoption orders.

NEW DELHI: A total of 589 children have been adopted after the notification of the new adoption regulations in September that empower district magistrates (DMs) to issue the adoption order, the union ministry of women and child development (WCD) said on Tuesday.

Under the Adoption Regulations 2022 issued on September 23, DMs and additional DMs were given the power to issue adoption orders under Section 61.

“A number of adoption orders have been issued by DMs all over the country during the last two months soon after notification of the Adoption Regulations in the month of September 2022. On the date of notification, 905 adoption orders were pending with the courts. As of date, the pendency has come down to 644. In 361 cases, adoption orders have been issued. The first adoption order was issued by DM, Akola, Maharashtra on 6 Oct 2022,” the ministry statement said.

The ministry said prospective adoptive parents (PaPs) can now opt for their home states or region under the new norms.

BEB expands Africa Operations to equip Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania with technology solution

Plano, Texas – Texas-based software non-profit BEB takes another step of remarkable growth by announcing expansion of its Children First Software (CFS) into four additional African Countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania.

BEB began Africa operations in Uganda five years ago and today over 10,000 children are registered in CFS. Further, over 1,000 children have been placed from institutions into families, primarily through reunification with biological family members. Uganda is proving how CFS can accomplish BEB’s mission to equip a country to change its child welfare system. The Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development (MGLSD) now requires children’s homes to use CFS to track children’s identities, stories, and paths to families in order to receive licensing from the government. MGLSD Permanent Secretary Aggrey David Kibenge shares, “We are excited about the roll out of all the system modules to the entire country and children’s homes [of Uganda]. We are also looking forward to the building of capacity of our social service workforce who are key stakeholders in the implementation of the system.”

This progress for the children of Uganda is making an impact for other children of Africa as the success of CFS is attracting new partners to begin implementing the software. BEB Africa Regional Manager Kenneth Ayebazibwe shares, “The implementation of Children First Software in Africa is an integrated child service especially for children living in institutional care. With digital profiles of vulnerable children, government and NGOs will provide coordinated and monitored services across the African continent.” In Ethiopia, the leader of the Sele Enat NGO discusses the lack of statistical data regarding the children they have served for over 20 years. He says, “It was time-consuming and challenging to know statistics like the number of orphaned or abandoned children. But CFS has made that an easy task that only takes a few minutes.”

In Nigeria, BEB initiated the first pilot training last week with 12 child welfare organizations that are committed to use the software in their homes. Malawi and Tanzania are next to begin training and roll-out of the software in their children’s homes. BEB teams in each country will work alongside these partners to ensure all paper records on children are converted to create digital identities for boys and girls under their care. Simultaneously, BEB will train its partners to use all five software modules which help decision makers realize and execute the best family placements for the children.

Our fellow journalists at Le Monde Afrique , Laureline Savoye and Morgane Le Cam, have investigated for five years, with the cooperation of Kaourou Magassa, journalist for TV5 Monde, on the association Rayon de soleil de l'enfant etranger (RDSEE), the one of the largest approved adoption organizations in France and which is said to have been behind the adoption of more than 7,000 children around the world in the 1990s and against the wishes of biological families.

Mali, the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Haiti, Peru, Romania. So many countries affected by potential child thefts in the 1990s.

According to two journalists at Le Monde Afrique, the French organization RDSEE is behind the theft and adoption of children around the world.

A real child trafficking that would finally interest the French justice

On September 6, 2022, the Paris court finally called for the opening of an investigation for "concealment of fraud" after the filing of a complaint in June 2020 by nine French people adopted in Mali against their adoption organization and their former correspondent in Bamako: RDSEE and Danielle Boudault.

The Danish adoption agency DIA has been reported to the police after information has come to light that several children may have been adopted illegally to Denmark.

The adoption center DIA (Danish International Adoption) has been reported to the police because illegal adoptions may have taken place between 1979 and 1995. This happens after a TV 2 documentary which brings information that casts doubt on whether adoptions may have taken place from Chile to Denmark in violation of the rules.

As TV2 ØST could tell on Sunday , Rune Renato Hansen from Tølløse is one of the 111 Chilean children who were adopted to Denmark during the period. In the TV 2 documentary "De stjålne børn" he travels to Chile with his friend Christina Birkemose from Haslev, where they get to reinforce the suspicion that he may have been adopted against his parents' wishes.

In 2018, it emerged that it is believed that up to half of the 20,000 Chilean children who were adopted from Chile in the period between 1970 and 1990 have been stolen.

It is on the basis of information that comes to light in the TV 2 documentary about Danish adoptions from 1979 to 1995 that Christina Birkemose has lodged a report with the North Zealand Police.