The first screening round of countries of origin with which Flanders collaborates for intercountry adoption has been completed by the Growing Up Agency. Five countries were examined. Collaboration with Portugal, Colombia and South Africa will continue. For the cooperation with Kazakhstan, an on-site visit will take place to gain more clarity on a number of important issues. Cooperation with Vietnam is being terminated because there are insufficient guarantees that the rights of children eligible for adoption and their families are guaranteed. Minister Crevits confirmed this during an exchange of views in the Welfare Committee.

If there are children for whom we can do something, we should not close our eyes to them. That is precisely why we believe in a future for intercountry adoption. But we can only guarantee that future if we give society at large and all those involved, the children themselves, but also their parents and adoptive parents, the best possible guarantees that we have done everything we can to rule out abuses. The Growing Up Agency has carried out a very intensive screening. We want to make sure that families are not pressured to give up children, that the rights of the child are not affected or that there are no financial interests involved in an adoption.” - Hilde Crevits

In mid-2021, the Flemish Government instructed to screen cooperation with countries of origin in the context of intercountry adoption. This screening must sharpen the context in which intercountry adoptions take place in order to avoid possible malpractice in the future. The Growing Up Agency developed a detailed decision framework based on the guidelines established by the government . International organizations with expertise in youth protection and children's rights such as UNICEF, International Social Service (ISS) and Child Identity Protection (CHIP) were called in to provide the most accurate possible picture of the cooperative relationship in each country of origin based on contacts with local authorities, NGOs and organizations involved in youth care and adoption processes. Both adoptees and the intercountry adoption services in Flanders were given the opportunity to assess all information. The Flemish Center for Adoption of the Growing Up agency made the final decision.  

First round of screening

Five countries were part of the first round of screening: Portugal, Colombia, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. For Portugal, Colombia and South Africa, the screening provided confirmation that a further direct cooperation relationship with Flanders is appropriate and that further agreements can be made. Kazakhstan turns orange: this means that an on-site visit is necessary before a final decision can be made. For the time being, contact with the competent authorities in the country was only possible to a very limited extent. A working visit should provide an answer to the question of whether a sustainable cooperative relationship for adoption with Kazakhstan is possible. Pending more clarity, the collaboration will continue in the meantime. In the coming months, the 15 other countries of origin with which Flanders currently has an adoption relationship will also be examined.

Is intercountry adoption linked with trafficking for exploitation? While some children are certainly “trafficked for the purpose of adoption”, there is no evidence, as far as we know, that children have been “trafficked through adoption for subsequent exploitation.”

Clara Chinwe Deborah Ogo, an 83-year-old woman and founder of the renowned Arrow of God Orphanage in Anambra State, has been remanded at a Correctional Centre in Onitsha, Anambra.

She was remanded after The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) arraigned her at the Federal High Court, Awka Judicial Division, for alleged buying and selling of human beings.

Ogo, a retired Nigerian Army Lt. Col, and a nurse, owns the orphanage located at Nkwelle-Ezunaka, Oyi L.G.A., Anambra State, with branches in Lagos State.

The Arrow of God Orphanage came under scrutiny in 2023 after Fisayo Soyombo, an investigative journalist exposed alleged illicit activities related to illegal adoption and sales of babies linked to the orphanage.

Soyombo bought a baby from Ogo for N2 million in July 2023, after 19 months of intense work to crack the investigation.

On Wednesday, August 24, 2016, Leiden University and UNICEF Netherlands extended the successful collaboration for the next five years. During this period, there will be cooperation on an international children's rights expertise center around the UNICEF Chair in Children's Rights.

This expertise center will focus on fundamental and applied children's rights research and education for students and professionals. The proposed center will make connections between law and other scientific disciplines, nationally and internationally, with law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a starting point.

'To make children's rights truly meaningful, scientific research and children's rights education for students and professionals are of the utmost importance. We want to continue working on this in the coming years, together with UNICEF Netherlands," says Professor Ton Liefaard . Jan Bouke Wijbrandi, director of UNICEF Netherlands, adds: 'The collaboration deepens and broadens knowledge about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is vital for the realization of children's rights in practice, and therefore has a positive impact on the rights and well-being of children – the mission of UNICEF'.

Five years ago, UNICEF Netherlands and the Faculty of Law of Leiden University started an initial five-year collaboration. During this collaboration, the UNICEF Chair in Children's Rights and the part-time chair in Children's Rights in the Developing World were created, the Master in Youth Law and the Master in Advanced Studies in International Children's Rights were launched, and scientific research into the rights of the child has resulted in Dutch and international publications. The annual Summer School Frontiers of Children's Rights has also been realized.

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Thursday allowed a couple from Hyderabad to meet their 7-month-old adoptive child, who was allegedly trafficked, at a children’s home in Mahalaxmi three hours daily for six days a week. 

Vacation bench of Justices Sandeep Marne and Neela Gokhale modified their order, passed on Tuesday, that had allowed them visitation rights for 12 hours daily. 

“Accordingly it is directed that petitioners shall have the right to visit the child between 3 pm and 6 pm every day from Mon to Sat,” they added. 

The couple had filed a habeas corpus petition to direct the Child Welfare Committee to produce the child and hand over her custody to them. Their petition said that since their marriage in 2015, the wife had three miscarriages. Her aunt introduced them to a couple from Visakhapatnam who wanted to give the fifth child up for adoption. 

On Sept 23, both parties executed a deed of adoption and the seven-day-old baby was brought home. Since then the couple has taken care of her. On April 29 a team from Mumbai Crime Branch–Unit II “forcibly” took the baby away. They informed that the aunt was arrested in an FIR registered at Vikhroli police station for trafficking. 

European Council President Charles Michel’s Chief Diplomatic Adviser, Simon Mordue has been selected as Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and will take up his duties on 1 July. Prior to that he will complete a short term assignment on Ukraine for the Commission.  

Magdalena Grono, Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to President Michel will take up the role and duties as Chief Diplomatic Advisor. 

President Michel would like to personally thank Simon for his professionalism, dedication and commitment. His contribution has made an impact on EU foreign policy successes and has been highly valued at home and abroad. 

President Michel wishes Simon all the best in his new endeavour while confident of the great added value he will bring to the EEAS.

An article in the QLD Sunday Mail dated Aug 27 1995 alleges that baby selling was being carried out in Queensland.

In the article two women one a natural mother and the other other an adoptive mother tell their stories of how the matron of St Marys Home at Towoong deliberately broke the laws of the time and sold babies to adoptive parents for the sum of fifty pounds or in todays equivalent $100.

The matron Ivy McGregor forced mothers to sign adoption papers before the birth of their babies and then arranged adoptions of newborns to adoptive parents outside Australia.

One 16 year said that she was sent home from the hospital after the birth without seeing her baby. She only saw the baby when she was taken back to the hospital to hand the baby over to the adoptive parents. She recalls the look of compassion at her distress from the adoptive mother when she handed over the child.

The matron then told her to look out the window and watch the adoptive parents take the child away.

Although the case currently concerns four people, there may be hundreds of similar cases.

Four Greenlanders are demanding a total of one million in compensation from the Danish state. This is done in a draft summons sent to the Danish state.

The case concerns four Greenlandic children who were previously adopted to Danish foster parents.

Lawyer Mads Pramming wants the state to pay DKK 250,000 in compensation individually to the four people. He believes that the persons were adopted from Greenland to Denmark on a legally questionable basis.

Body of North Dakota child was found in the woman's basement

A North Dakota woman has been sentenced to life in a federal prison for fatally abusing her 5-year-old foster child.

Tammy Longie, of Tokio, earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, child abuse and neglect in the May 2020 death of Raven Thompson. His body was found the basement of Longie's home on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.

Longie was sentenced in federal court Monday in a case that U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl called "tragic and horrifying."

The FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs responded the Longies' home and found Raven dead and his 7-year-old brother in need of medical care due to abuse and neglect.

Mandira Bedi shared her struggle with the adoption process and how they flew her daughter Tara home in a private jet during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After having her first child, Mandira Bedi wanted to adopt another, and after years of paperwork, she and her late husband, filmmaker Raj Kaushal, adopted their daughter, Tara Bedi Kaushal. In a recent interaction, Mandira shared her struggle with the adoption process and how they flew Tara home in a private jet during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to Humans of Bombay, Mandira said, “I wanted to have a second child and adopt. When my son Veer was about six, I put in the papers for adoption. It’s a long process, and I don’t know why it’s not easier. I mean, I understand the reasons, but when it’s clear that this is a good family, it should be simpler. It took a while—Veer turned nine, the pandemic hit, and I told Raj, ‘It still hasn’t happened. Why?’ We had gotten caught up and didn’t follow up much. So, I thought, it’s now or never, and we pushed forward.”

Mandira Bedi recalled how they received Tara’s photo via email and instantly felt she was the one. Raj Kaushal traveled to Jabalpur alone to complete the formalities while Mandira stayed back with Veer due to the pandemic. After Raj completed the paperwork, Mandira and Veer flew from Mumbai to Jabalpur in a private jet to bring Tara home. Mandira met Tara at the airport and flew her back to Mumbai.