The Rajasthan High Court has directed "adoptive parents" of a child to hand over the custody of the nine-month-old to her biological mother, after finding that the child was illegally taken away by the woman's father and handed over to someone else. The child is over 9 months old and her mother is about 18 years and three months old. The custody of the minor child was handed over to...

The Bombay High Court clarified on Friday that it hadn’t stalled any adoptions and all procedures should continue as they were before the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment 2021.A division bench of Justice GS Patel and Neela Gokhale made the clarification in view of news reports that adoptions had come to a standstill following its order in January 2023.“We...

Andrea's birthday is always fraught with despair.

Key points:

• Andrea found out she was adopted when she was five
• She's struggled with the trauma ever since
• She wants to make sure other adoptees are better supported

Even when she was a child, Andrea struggled to enjoy the day of her birth.

"Yes, of course I enjoyed the presents and got excited, but I could not take this blackness off me every time it came to my birthday," she said.

They’re sick of hearing “You should be grateful.”

During the 90s and early aughts, you probably knew of a family who adopted a baby girl from China. At the time, the One Child Policy limited the number of children in Chinese families, and many Chinese kids were adopted by Western families as a result. (According to the State Department, American families adopted about 81,600 Chinese children from 1999 to 2018). The media narrative around this focused on adoptive families saving babies and young children from bad circumstances. 

Content creator Taylor Shennett was one of these babies — she was adopted from China at nine months old by American parents: “[My parents] chose to do international adoption because my aunt saw a video about the One Child Policy and the overflow of girls in China,” she tells Katie Couric Media.  

But adult adoptees like Shennett say that the narrative around adoption focuses too much on gestures toward an infant in need. She’s turned to an unexpected platform to speak out on how you probably use the wrong words when you describe the experience of adoption. And there’s also a chance you’re not really hearing adult adoptees when they discuss some of their less-than-pretty experiences.

By now, you’re familiar with the silly trends (like funny filters, songs, and dances) that TikTok has popularized. But adult international adoptees use TikTok for serious advocacy — and they’re reaching a real audience. The hashtag “adoptiontrauma” on TikTok currently has 92.8 million views while “adoptionstory” has a whopping 836.2 million views. 

"It's really difficult to know where I belong."

Mimi Woods, from Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, was adopted from Thailand at the age of three.

Over the years she has struggled with issues around identity and belonging, but wanted others to know they were not alone.

The 22-year-old said adoption was a "taboo subject" which "needs to be talked about more".

Mimi and other young Welsh adopted people have created a bilingual podcast episode for the National Adoption Service for Wales about their experiences featuring nine adopted people between the ages of 13 and 26.

MANILA, Philippines — Implementing the law simplifying adoption will give a lot of families and children better chances in life, Northern Samar 1st District Rep. Paul Daza said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to Daza, the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act (Republic Act No. 11642), which was signed in January 2022, fixes old problems in adopting children.

“Through RA 11642, we are correcting age-old problems in adoption — which typically took years to resolve.  The previous law, RA 8552 (Domestic Adoption Act of 1998), required a set of procedures — while founded on good intents — that often lead to emotional and financial strains on parties involved, not to mention clogging of cases in courts,” Daza said.

“Not only are we building better chances for families and children, we are also ensuring clear procedures for helping abused or neglected children. Children in these difficult circumstances need the society’s concerted efforts,” he added.

Daza issued the statement after the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched the Omnibus Guidelines on R.A. No. 11642 in a program earlier.

Minister Franc Weerwind was determined to stop adoption, but changed course at the last minute after consultation with his own party D66. This is evident from research by the Nederlands Dagblad.

The devastating final report of the committee that investigated intercountry adoption. It now appears that Minister Weerwind wanted to stop adoption, but ultimately did not. image Robin Utrecht

More than a year ago it was a great relief for prospective parents: intercountry adoption became possible again. Minister Franc Weerwind wrote to the House of Representatives about his decision on April 11, 2022: 'For adopted children, growing up in a Dutch family offers an opportunity that they would not otherwise have had.' However, the number of countries from which adoption is allowed has been severely limited.

A month earlier, he had a completely different letter ready, according to documents that the Nederlands Dagblad requested through an appeal to the Open Government Act (WOO). The draft letter actually states that he wants to quit within five years, because the adoption system is prone to abuses. 'Adoption is no longer a sustainable instrument to protect the interests of children.' The risk of abuse simply cannot be removed, Weerwind thought.

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BACKGROUND

Adoption was really no longer possible and would be phased out within five years. There was discussion about it within the Ministry of Justice and Security for months and the lobby was at high speed. The decision to stop was made, but was canceled at the last minute. A reconstruction.

It is March 7, 2022. Minister Franc Weerwind has prepared a draft letter to Parliament about intercountry adoption and is sharing it with other ministries. It states that every intercountry adoption system is more or less susceptible to abuses. Adoption is not a sustainable instrument to protect the interests of children, Weerwind believes. It is a firm decision and will mean that the practice of intercountry adoption will end within five years.

Weerwind (D66) will then be Minister for Legal Protection in the Rutte IV cabinet for just two months. During those months, officials, who have been on this file for much longer, are heading for a definitive freeze on adoption. Although these officials certainly do not all agree on this among themselves and they email back and forth furiously, according to documents that the Nederlands Dagblad has requested.

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Eight Croats have been prosecuted in Zambia on suspicion of smuggling toddlers. They were imprisoned, but were acquitted after two trials and have since returned home. The case resembles a soap opera. Some details in the case are so unlikely that the Croats - who say they are not aware of any wrongdoing - are left with many questions.

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Four Croatian couples flew to the Zambian town of Ndola, near the border with Congo, at the end of last year. They wanted to pick up four Congolese children they had adopted, between the ages of one and three. The Zambian authorities put a stop to this. They suspected human trafficking and arrested the four couples at Ndola airport in early December, when they were about to fly to Croatia with the children. The Croatian adoption papers were in order, but Congo has no longer allowed adoption by foreign parents since 2017.

At the beginning of February, the Zambian judge nevertheless acquitted the Croats. They then went again with the four children to Ndola airport to fly to Croatia.

Trans people are not allowed to adopt children

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday asked child welfare committees to visit child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption as soon as possible.
    Many children living in child-care homes are not legally free for adoption.
    According to official figures, there are around 66,000 children residing in child-care homes across the country and less than 3,000 of them are legally free for adoption.
    Irani was speaking at a regional symposium on "Child Protection, Safety and Child Welfare" attended by child welfare committee members and officials from child-care institutions among others.
    The Union minister asked the child welfare committees to visit the child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption at the earliest.
    Irani said the women and child development ministry has already reviewed two states, looked into 9,000 cases of older children and identified 164 such children who could be made legally free for adoption.
    She also asked the child-care homes to look into the infrastructure gaps in their areas and requested the apex child rights body -- the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights -- to review these gaps and present them to the ministry so that these can be brought up in the upcoming budget.
    Irani said the government will build up infrastructure to prevent child trafficking in the border areas.
    An online training module on the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, developed by the ministry in collaboration with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie), was launched on the iGOT Karmayogi platform.
    The module aims at sensitisation and capacity building of all functionaries who need to be aware of the provisions of child safety, protection and welfare up to the village level.
    Irani also told the child welfare committees that the Centre will build offices for those that do not have one.
    She highlighted how seven lakh children across the country have been aided in nine years of the Modi government with the help of child-care institutions. She said about three lakh children who were declared missing have been reunited with their families in these nine years by District Child Protection Units and police administrations.