The Thurgau GLP has asked the government council for more information on adoptions of Indian children between 1973 and 2002. In a motion, the party is asking, among other things, what support the canton offers those affected.

The background to the GLP's request is a recently presented study on illegal adoptions in the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich. The study on the practice of adoptions from India revealed serious misconduct, as the GLP Thurgau wrote in a statement on the submitted request. Adoptions have also become a business model.

Adoptions approved despite missing documents

01 October 2024, 18:30 - 21:30

Auditorium A2, Maison de la paix, Geneva

International adoption is currently at the heart of an unprecedented scandal: of the hundreds of thousands of babies adopted since the early 1950s, tens of thousands were stolen. In this documentary, we will join major investigative journalists, activists and researchers in South Korea, Sweden, France, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. With Christine Tournadre, Sonia Gonzalez (France). Produced by Anne Labro for Tangerine Productions, in collaboration with ARTE France, the CNC, RTS, Telewizja Polska, PROCIREP, the Ile-de-France region and Java Films.

This one-night-only film screening "International Adoptions: A Global Scandal" - parallel to the 27th session of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) (23 Sep to 04 Oct 2024) and co-organized by our Geneva Human Rights Platform with the CED, will explore the ongoing unprecedented scandal surrounding international adoption. The event will be followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A session. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

EDITORIAL                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    2 

ACTORS IN INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION AND CROSS-BORDER CHILD PROTECTION                                                                                                       6 

ISS/IRC NEWS                                                                                                                                                                                                                              6 

BRIEFS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          8 

NEW DELHI: The government has set off the process to verify and include in the foster care and adoption pool of the Central Adoption Resources Authority children above six years living in child care institutions (CCIs) who have not been visited by anyone from their family for a stipulated period of time or whose guardians have been found to be unfit to take care of them due to any mental or terminal illness.
States are verifying and processing all these cases for inclusion in the pool. Speaking at the closing session of the national consultation organised under the aegis of the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee and Unicef on the protection of the rights of children with disabilities, women and child development secretary Anil Malik shared that to include the identified children in the adoption pool two new categories are being added pertaining to cases involving “unfit guardians” and “no visitations”. These new categories have been added in addition to the existing categories of orphaned, abandoned, and surrendered (OAS) children in the adoption pool of the Central Adoption Resources Authority.
 

Nearly 15,000 children, across these categories, who can be moved to the adoption pool from CCIs have been identified across institutions in the country.
The Supreme Court had in Nov 2023 directed the government to identify and register all such children languishing in CCIs and those not reaching the care institutions without any delay.

The WCD secretary reiterated that the step to include these older children in CCIs in the adoption pool was in line with the view of integrating as many children with the mainstream by trying to see that they grow up in a family and have a social upbringing and not be left to grow in the confines of a children home.
“As far as children registered under the category of ‘no visitation’ and ‘unfit guardians’ are concerned, they will primarily be potential cases for foster care. Once such children are declared legally free, their permanent rehabilitation can be facilitated through adoption,” CARA had stated in its memorandum issued earlier this year to all state adoption resource authorities, district child protection units, specialised adoption agencies and child care institutions.

While emphasising the growing focus on foster care, Malik also emphasised that to step-up adoptions of children with disabilities the process has been streamlined which has given an impetus to the adoptions in this category not just by foreigners and NRIs but also prospective parents from within the country. Malik said they were noticing a positive change in attitudes. The WCD secretary shared that in 2022-23, 152 children with disabilities were adopted. This rose to 309 last year and so far this year, around 150 children have already found a family.

A story of being chosen: an adoptees journey to empowerment and her parents dual adoption - join us for a special conversation with Rati Dhoundiyal Ahuja, a remarkable woman who was adopted as a baby in the 1970s and grew up in a loving family in South Mumbai. She’ll be sharing her unique adoption journey, how her parents helped other couples adopt, and how she proudly embraced her story despite societal questions. In this live session, we’ll discuss her experiences of: - Growing up with an adopted sibling who faced emotional challenges. - How she openly shared her adoption story with her son at 16. - Why she believes normalizing adoption is essential and how we can encourage others to embrace it, just like "paw parents" do with adopted pets. Her story is an inspiring testament to the power of love, family, and the importance of open conversations around adoption. Don’t miss this insightful and heartfelt discussion! Tune in live on 28th September 2024 at 5 pm IST Let’s continue the conversation on normalizing adoption and embracing these beautiful journeys with pride!

Legal requirements were systematically ignored in adoptions from India, and to this day it is not clear who the mothers were. A new study shows that the authorities knew about it and did nothing.

For decades, the overwhelming desire of Swiss couples to have children meant that babies were separated from their mothers in other parts of the world.

Now, a new research study commissioned by the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau shows that in the 1980s and 1990s, India was the most important country of origin for babies who came from abroad to married couples in Switzerland. 

Between 1979 and 2002, a total of 2,278 babies were brought from India to Switzerland.

Until now, adoptions from Sri Lanka have been the main topic of discussion, with several scientific studies revealing actual child trafficking and proving major legal irregularities.

Authorities made serious mistakes in adoptions in the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau between 1973 and 2002. This is proven by a recently published study. Children from India were handed over to Swiss adoptive parents without a waiver from their biological parents.

SALINA, Kan. (KAKE) - New details have emerged from the biological mother of the child finally identified after being dug up in a backyard in Rose Hill. 

"It's kinda like hearing about it for the first time again today considering they finally figured it out,” said Christa Helm, biological mother. 

Helm says she is tired, she says it's been a long day, as DNA evidence confirms the body found buried in the backyard of a Rose Hill home is her biological daughter she named Natalie Marie Garcia. Police identified the remains as 6-year-old Kennedy Jean Schroer. 

"She was a really sweet girl,” said Helm. 

She says she lost custody of her three children in 2018. The girls' foster family, Joe and Crystina Schroer from Rose Hill adopted them in 2019. Helm says that, at the time, she disagreed with how the state handled the case. 

SALINA, Kan. (KAKE) - New details have emerged from the biological mother of the child finally identified after being dug up in a backyard in Rose Hill. 

"It's kinda like hearing about it for the first time again today considering they finally figured it out,” said Christa Helm, biological mother. 

Helm says she is tired, she says it's been a long day, as DNA evidence confirms the body found buried in the backyard of a Rose Hill home is her biological daughter she named Natalie Marie Garcia. Police identified the remains as 6-year-old Kennedy Jean Schroer. 

"She was a really sweet girl,” said Helm. 

She says she lost custody of her three children in 2018. The girls' foster family, Joe and Crystina Schroer from Rose Hill adopted them in 2019. Helm says that, at the time, she disagreed with how the state handled the case. 

Last week, a report from The Associated Press in collaboration with Frontline stated that untold numbers of South Korean children had been stolen from their families, trafficked into international adoption through widespread fraud.

The stewardship of internationally adopted children has long been a subject of concern and rumor. Earlier this month, China abruptly stopped their international adoption program, and other countries have recently done the same. From Romania to Vietnam to Chile, rumors of stolen children adopted by unsuspecting American and European parents have endured. Now they are being proven true.

In 1995, after years of miscarriages, including the loss of twins, the advice from my doctors, therapists and everyone I talked to was to adopt, and I welcomed the idea. I was in my mid-thirties — “old” by adoption standards — and I knew I wanted any child I raised to have a sibling. I decided to adopt two children at once.

I received pictures of two babies. With them were documents showing blurry, black-and-white copies of government ID photos of their birth mothers, along with the papers that relinquished the rights to their children.

My sons and I lived a life of closeness, love and all the frustration of a mother single-parenting two boys: video games, smelly rooms, homework, the magically emptying refrigerator, bedtime stories and birthday parties.