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Waar kom ik vandaan? Een pleidooi voor transparantie in het adoptiesysteem - nieuws - Maastricht University (Where do I come fro

Waar kom ik vandaan? Een pleidooi voor transparantie in het adoptiesysteem - nieuws - Maastricht University (Where do I come from? A plea for transparency in the adoption system - news - Maastricht University)

Where do I come from? A plea for transparency in the adoption system

The ‘Afstammingscentrum’ (research centre of filiation) offers assistance for everyone in Belgium who has questions about their own filiation and kinship – when the legal kinship does not match the genetic kinship. The centre develops and gathers expertise, raises awareness and formulates policy recommendations on these issues. In practice, the centre often has to deal with ethical questions about adoption. Experts, such as Sophie Withaeckx, researcher at the Centre for Gender and Diversity at Maastricht University, help with answering these questions.

For and by target groups

Adoptees, donor-conceived people and metis of the former Belgian colonies have argued for years for their right to know where they come from. In 2019, the Flemish government approved their proposal for a research centre of filiation. The Flemish government opened the centre in 2021, and has subsidised it ever since. “The Afstammingscentrum was meant to exist for and by the target groups, so our steering group exists of members of our target groups and experts on our working topics to ensure that the centre remains on the right track,” Joyce Bex, one of the programme counselors at the Afstammingscentrum, explains.

Woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann submits DNA test

A Polish woman who believes she could be Madeleine McCann has submitted samples for forensic testing to determine if she is the missing Brit.

Julia Faustyna, who also goes by Julia Wendell, has been claiming on Instagram and TikTok that she may be the child – who disappeared from a family holiday in Portugal in 2007 – due to similarities in their age and appearance.

She has amassed tens of thousands of followers on both platforms as a result, posting under the handle @iammadeleinemccann.

The 21-year-old has submitted samples for three different forensic examinations that will outline her DNA sequence, along with a 23andMe-style genetic test to establish her ancestry, private investigator Dr. Fia Johansson told RadarOnline.com.

“If the results come back that she’s British or from that area then we are going to continue our investigation into Madeleine McCann and communicate with the detectives in Portugal,” said Dr. Johansson, who relocated Wendell from Poland to a safe house in the United States after a series of death threats.

Adopting parents having custody of child does not mean adoption is valid, says Mumbai court

The court ordered custody of the child to be given to the biological mother after she alleged that the adoption involved a baby-selling racket.

The court also dismissed a review petition filed by the adopting parents of the child against the 2022 order.

By Vidya : Observing that a biological mother has "the right to have custody of her child" and that "giving and taking of the child in adoption is not proved", a Mumbai court ordered an adopting couple to return the child to its biological parents.

The court said that just because the custody of the child was with the adoptive parents does not give them "any right to retain the child with them."

International conference of the conservative foundation New Direction in Zagreb

After Zambian authorities arrested four Croatian couples on suspicion of child trafficking in early December, the issue of cross-border adoption raised many questions.

On this occasion, an international conference of the conservative foundation New Direction took place in Zagreb. The host of the conference, Croatian MEP Ladislav Il?i?, advocated suspending adoptions from countries that have not signed the Convention on the Prevention of Trafficking in Children.

Ladislav Il?i?, Member of the European Parliament, explained in an interview:

"In general, we aim for better cooperation and a better exchange of experiences, and this conference can be very helpful in that regard. In addition, these intermediaries and agencies need to be better monitored to see who is involved in the adoption process. And yes, we want a temporary or even permanent suspension of adoptions from countries that have not signed the Hague Conventions; in other words, countries where child trafficking has taken place."

"In general, human trafficking - and child trafficking in particular - is regulated by various European and global agreements. Unfortunately, in this tragic case, Croatia has to ask itself what it has done and what it will do in the future to prevent illegal adoption," he said Dubravka Hrabar from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb.

‘I couldn’t love her’: the last UK child migrants to Australia on the long, lonely search for their mothers

Seven thousand British children were sent to Australia last century, told they were orphans or unwanted. It wasn’t true. Now facing old age, 1,400 are still searching for their families

It wasn’t until he was 71 that Michael Lachmann found out what a different life he might have had. He had always believed he was an orphan. But, already an old man, he discovered he was never an orphan. He had been loved and wanted. During the second world war his mother had left letters at a residential nursery saying she was only placing him in care while she was working and until “daddy gets home from Japan and we will be making a home for little Michael”. There was no childcare then, unless you were rich.

Instead of being collected by his mother at the war’s end, at the age of five he was shipped to Australia and placed in the Castledare Boys Home, run by the Christian Brothers, where numerous boys were starved, beaten and subjected to sexual abuse. He was told his mother was dead.

Between the 1910s and 1970, 7,000 children aged between three and 14 were transported to Australia as part of Britain’s child migrant program. Promised a better life and loving families waiting to adopt, most were instead delivered into institutions where large numbers suffered abuse. Often their names or birth dates were changed, erasing their links to their families of origin. Very few were adopted or fostered.

One thousand and four hundred of those children are still looking for their birth families. Searching for any family who remain. Now old men and women, time is running out for these children to piece together who they are – while they still can.

‘I want to know if my dad is the priest’

Josephine Fenech from Mosta was 18 when she got pregnant 54 years ago. Back then, a teenage pregnancy out of wedlock was considered a big taboo. Something had to be done to hide the pregnancy.

The teenager and her parents moved to the US together with three of her siblings, while one brother stayed in Malta. When she gave birth in the US, she gave her newborn, who she called Jason, up for adoption. A year later, Josephine got married and had two sons and a daughter.

Seven years ago, Josephine passed away at the age of 65, taking her secrets with her to her grave.

Her son and his half-sister are now on a quest to trace the father, who they believe may have been a priest, and would like to get a DNA test to confirm.

Just three years ago, her daughter Jolene Usitalo found out she has an elder half-brother, Tim Grunert – as he was renamed by his adoptive parents. Now that they have established contact, they want to learn more about their background.

Denied adoption multiple times, man abducts 2-yr-old boy in Mumbai

Mumbai Police arrested a man, Malikram, for kidnapping a two-year-old boy from Govandi. He reportedly

abducted the toddler after he and his wife were denied permission to adopt a child multiple times, citing

their financial condition and the fact that his wife is handicapped. Malikram has two daughters from his

first wife, however, he is not allowed to meet them.

My Fight For Adoption Rights For Same Sex Couples

I was about 9 years old when I made a startling discovery. I realized I liked women rather than men. Of course, I didn’t know terms like lesbian, gay etc. In fact terms like queer and homosexual also were probably not coined. How did I find out I was gay ? In every movie we watched, I would fall in love with and have a crush on the heroine rather than the hero. I felt protective & wanted to put my arms around her. For eg I drooled over Saira Banu rather than Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore rather than Rajesh Khanna. Julie Andrews in “Sound of Music” rather than Christopher Plummer, Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday” rather than Gregory Peck. And the list was endless. It seemed the most natural thing – being that way.

Till I realized a few years later that it was considered immoral, bad etc. Of course, to me it was the most normal, natural feeling. And I was ready to fight with anyone who thought otherwise.

Like many women, I always had one dream – to have a child of my own. The only difference between me & other women being that they were married while I was a lesbian woman in a same sex union.

I always had a very strong maternal instinct and wanted a child to love & cherish. The problem was I knew I was never going to marry. And as I grew older and got into a live-in lesbian relationship, I thought well, why not adopt a child instead ? I thought it was a simple matter of applying to an Adoption Agency. Till reality hit.

My partner & I have been trying to adopt a child, unsuccessfully, for the last 10 years. The reason ? The current Adoption Laws in our country do not allow same sex couples to adopt a child, simply because they are not recognised as a “couple” or cannot legally marry according to the prevailing Marriage laws.

Rio Tinto Mining Company Pays $15 Million to Settle US Bribery Accusations

The Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto agreed to pay a US$15 million penalty to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the accusation that it had paid $10.5 million to a friend of former Guinean President Alpha Condé to retain globally important iron ore rights.

The settlement agreement with the U.S. stock exchange regulator said that in 2011, Rio hired a “close friend of a former senior Guinean government official” to help it keep hold of blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou mountain range, considered to hold some of the world’s largest iron ore reserves.

Blocks 1 and 2 had been canceled by a previous regime in 2008, and controversially granted to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources.

The SEC found that the consultant in the middle of the scandal paid $200,000 to buy T-shirts for Condé’s re-election campaign, soon after receiving his first payment from Rio Tinto.

While the settlement anonymises individuals connected to the bribery, leaked emails reveal that the unnamed “senior government official” is President Condé, and the anonymous “French investment banker” is François Polge de Combret, a friend of Condé from his student days in Paris.

Legal Child Adoption in Nigeria – What You Need To Know.

Child Adoption is the legal process by which a child or minor is made a a part of a family he is not biologically connected to.

It should be noted that child adoption is different from Child fostering, which is the process of a child being placed under the care of a caregiver or guardian (known as a ” foster parent”) licensed to do so by the state .

This article will be looking at child adoption as it currently exists under Nigerian Law, with a focus on the topics of :-

– The legal framework governing child adoption in Nigeria.

– Who is qualified to be adopted in Nigeria.