U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Adoption Caucus, announced that they have reintroduced legislation to improve the intercountry adoption process.

“There are millions of children around the world without a safe, stable home,” said Blunt. “We can help connect these children with the families they deserve by making sure intercountry adoption remains a viable option. This bipartisan bill will give the Secretary of State a valuable resource to develop and implement policies that promote intercountry adoption. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and join us in our efforts to make it easier for loving families to adopt a child.”

“Around the world, there are so many children who need loving homes – but too often, the process of intercountry adoption is filled with challenges,” said Klobuchar. “Creating an Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee will promote the development of best practices to support those looking to adopt. I’m proud to introduce this bill to help American families and children worldwide.”

The bipartisan Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee Act provides the Secretary of State the authority to establish an Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee within the Bureau of Consular Affairs to focus on coordinating the development, refinement, and implementation of policy and programs on intercountry adoption. The Advisory Committee will develop recommendations to enhance the intercountry adoption process and to ensure that the diverse voices within the adoption community are considered in advance of new policies being developed and programs being implemented. The legislation is also co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (Pa.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), John Boozman (Ark.), and Roger Wicker (Miss.).

For years, Blunt and Klobuchar have worked to improve the adoption process for Americans.

Since she was adopted at the age of five, Ae Jin Huys (44) had lost any connection with Korea. Until she came into contact with a Korean family and thus rediscovered Korean cuisine. "The power of flavors catapulted me to a distant past that was once 'home'."

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DN Nagar police are investigating a matter after filmmaker and producer Ashoke Pandit, tweeted a video of parents, who were allegedly physically and mentally abusing their adopted daughter. In this case, three residents of the building have registered an official complaint with the child helpline 1098 and approached DN Nagar police to register an FIR against the parents.

The girl and her parents reside in Ratnasamuh Society at Juhu Link road in Andheri West. The girl was adopted at birth and is now around six years old. In the complaint, the neighbours have alleged that the parents physically abuse the child. They also said that the parents leave her in the compound when they go out, and the watchman looks after her.

The society members, who registered the complaint, have been identified as Amit Mohite, Yogesh Pingulkar and Raju Anarkat. Speaking with mid-day, Pingulkar, said, “The watchman found her crying by her window and fed her. Another resident, who has a CCTV installed, saw in a video that the father was hitting her.” Anarkat said, “Finally on May 2, we contacted 1098, and they told us to send an official complaint via email. Meanwhile, we also contacted filmmaker Ashoke Pandit and shared the video with him. On Saturday morning, Pandit tweeted this video and tagged Mumbai Police. Then, DN Nagar police inspector Swapnil Manjre recorded our statement.”

When contacted, Senior Inspector Bharat Gaikwad said, “We have not registered an FIR yet. We are recording the statements of everyone involved. Once the investigation has been completed, we will take action.”

Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani took to Twitter to flag adoption requests as illegal and urged people to prevent trafficking in the garb of adoption and report all such cases to 1098 or police or a Child Welfare Committee.

In Odisha’s Ganjam district, a 45-day-old girl was found next to her mother’s body, when neighbours broke open the door of their house in Golapalli village. Suspecting it to be a case of death due to COVID-19, the local police sent the corpse for post-mortem and contacted the centre in-charge for Childline 1098, the national helpline for children, to arrange help for the toddler.

In Delhi, a mother left two daughters, a 15-year-old and a seven-year-old, with her neighbours before getting admitted in a hospital and losing her battle against the pandemic.

In Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, COVID-19 dealt a cruel blow and claimed the lives of four members of a family over 12 days, leaving behind two daughters aged six and 10.

“I will not send the girls to any institution, I will raise them,” said Anil Kumar (name changed), their paternal uncle. “It is what their father wished. Just two days before his death, he kept asking us to look after them if something happened to him. Earlier, too, on several occasions he had raised this issue,” Mr. Kumar adds.

On 11 May 2021 the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has made its observations following consideration of the periodic report submitted by Switzerland. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was ratified by Switzerland in 2016, and entered into force on January 1, 2017.

The Committee took up the file of irregular adoptions between Switzerland and Sri Lanka thanks to the association Back to the Roots which, according to my understanding of the information posted on its site , was invited to take a position during this session. It is gratifying to note that the representatives of adoptees have access to the highest bodies of the United Nations, and that their voice can be heard on issues that have been ignored for too long. However, the fact of having approached the Committee in charge of enforced disappearances again raises many questions, and, in my opinion, risks posing more problems than it will perhaps solve.

According to article 2 of the Convention, enforced disappearance means the arrest, detention, kidnapping or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by the denial of the recognition of the deprivation of liberty or the concealment of the fate of the disappeared person or of the place where he is found, removing him from the protection of the law ” [1]. This definition makes it possible to imagine the cases to which the Convention refers: a government or its representatives kidnap and make disappear people, in a context of political crisis, war or dictatorship for example. It is therefore a human rights instrument aimed at protecting citizens against this specific type of persecution.

In its observations , the Committee makes the following reasoning to justify its intervention in the field of irregular international adoptions: it underlines that the [Swiss] delegation recognized that, in certain cases, illegal adoptions could be the result of an enforced disappearance. or the removal of children subjected to enforced disappearance or whose father, mother or legal representative was subjected to enforced disappearance, or of children born during the captivity of their mother subjected to enforced disappearance. Let us recall that in the Sri Lankan context, the civil war which spread from 1983 to 2009, involved a significant number of enforced disappearances ( 20,000 people according to the highest estimates).). It is therefore indeed possible that among the victims, some had children who, in one way or another, were ultimately adopted.

However, and without wishing to be disrespectful to the Committee, this position is in my opinion worrying, not to say counterproductive, in more than one respect. First of all, I have the feeling that the case of intercountry adoptions hardly meets the conditions set by the conventional legal framework. While there is certainly a possibility that children were indirectly victims of disappearances, is it plausible to imagine that a State deliberately carried out the type of acts described above with the aim of adopting children for adoption? the international? In other words, is there a causal link between the disappearance of the adult and the adoption of the child? We can doubt it. That the political context of the time, the civil war, and the economic crisis have offered individuals opportunities for enrichment through the organization of abusive and illegal intercountry adoption procedures, no doubt. From there to considering the establishment of a real procedure organized by the State for this purpose, it seems unlikely. Admittedly, this type of action has indeed been implemented in Spain and Argentina, resulting in the kidnapping of the children of opponents of the regime and their subsequent adoption, but are these situations really comparable?

SALEM: Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights (TNCPCR) member V Ramaraj has appealed to the public not to forward fake social media messages about child adoption.

Pointing out one such fake message asking the people to adopt a two-year-old girl and a two-month-old baby whose parents died of Covid-19, he said, "The particular message has a fake mobile number.” He also said that no one could easily adopt a child or children without the government's consent.

Ramaraj said people who were forwarding such messages did not do it purposely. “At the same time, they have forwarded the message with an intention to help the deprived children,” he said.

Ramaraj said people could adopt a child with government’s consent from another person who is willing to give his child for adoption. Otherwise, they could approach the government agencies and get adoption from the adoption centres. “People should register themselves with CARA and SARA before they adopt the baby or the child,” he added. Ramaraj said it would be a crime if people are involved in illegal adoption.

People who have doubts on child adoption could get details from the district child protection office in their concerned districts.

Danish television presenter and sports reporter Ulla Essendrop is the latest sensation on short-form video sharing application TikTok, given the hilarious and relatable content she puts out on the platform.

Born in Calcutta in 1976, Essendrop was adopted by a Danish family when she was three years old and moved to Denmark.

Starting her own television sports show Essendrop & Eliten in 2012, she has also worked as a sports reporter at TV2 – a government-owned television network based in Denmark.

From trying out filters to her popular dance challenges, the 43-year-old has over a lakh followers with more than a million likes on her profile.

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---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Roelie Post

Date: Sun, 16 May 2021, 20:30

Subject: Vraag

To:

BREDA - During the interview, policewoman Ilse Boomaars suddenly can't keep her eyes off her mobile phone. The WhatsApp vibrates continuously. "Sorry, but I have to intervene now." An underage girl she knows as a victim of illegal prostitution no longer feels safe.

And gone is the enthusiastic specialist of the Aliens, Identity and Human Trafficking Department (Avim) in the Zeeland-West-Brabant region. There is not a second to lose after such a cry for help. Criminal pimps often listen in with their victims, the detective knows from experience. They have all the power over the vulnerable girls who have to work for them and can use merciless violence.

Ten minutes later Boomaars (38) steps back into the room with relief. ,, Arranged!", she says with a slightly triumphant sigh, "We will immediately get her back from the perpetrator. Our people are already on their way."

We have an investigation underway in our region in which two girls aged 14 and 15 are victims.

Ilse Boomaars

When Pune-based school teacher Jyothika Sawant* and her college professor husband Shirish*, both in their mid-30s, decided to adopt a daughter, their family was taken aback. This was because Jyothika and Shirish were already parents to a healthy son; also, age and health were on their side to give birth to a second child if they wanted to. But as Jyothika tells us, “I have always wanted to adopt, right from my college days, and when I met Shirish, one of the reasons why I decided to take our relationship ahead was because he shared my wish. We planned to have two children, and after our son was born, we decided to extend our family by bringing our daughter home.”

Jyothika and Shirish are among a growing tribe of parents and families, wherein couples with biological children are deciding to extend their families via adoption. They see adoption as “just another way of bringing a child in their lives”. Bengaluru-based mental health counsellor Gayatri Abraham admits, “In the last few years, many families are coming forward to adopt and hybrid families are growing. New family formations are generally on the rise, which is heartening.”

Adoption second child

‘Giving birth is not the only way of making a family’

“We always wanted to adopt as we feel, and propagate, that giving birth is not the only way of making a family,” says Gurgaon resident Shruti Haksar, who is a mother of two daughters, nine-year-old Zara and three-year-old Zoya. Shruti and her husband had adopted their younger daughter.