LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -A Croatian court has ruled that same-sex partners can now adopt children, backing a gay couple in their five-year fight for the right to family life, the government said on Thursday.

Zagreb’s Administrative Court ruled on April 21 that same-sex couples should not face discrimination in state adoption, the Rainbow Families Association (RFA), an LGBT+ group, said on its website, alongside a redacted copy of the judgment.

The head of the RFA, which funded the case, voiced excitement at this latest win for minority rights in the small Balkan state.

“I feel really relieved that this odyssey, that lasted so many years, has finally hit (its) conclusion,” Daniel Martinovic told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

He said the couple - Mladen Kozic and Ivo Segota - had only gone public with their victory after consulting the social worker of the two boys they look after, the first children to be fostered by a same-sex couple in Croatia.

SOS Children’s Villages has announced rapid improvements in safeguarding and governance measures following its International Senate meeting of 29 April 2021.

SOS Children’s Villages confirms with great regret cases of failings and is immediately introducing new measures to support victims, prevent further harm, and improve existing systems, to consistently ensure quality care for all children in its programmes.

SOS Children’s Villages has informed donors and governments that its highest supervisory body, the International Senate, has instructed that an independent Special Commission be established to address past and contemporary cases of failings, including child abuse, corruption, misuse of funds, and breaches of regulations that protect children’s and employees’ human rights.

The independent Special Commission will investigate why the failures occurred, while in other instances the organisation’s policies and processes were appropriately followed through. It will be established during May 2021 under the leadership of an external and experienced chair.

In addition, the International Senate also mandated the rapid creation of a global child safeguarding ombudsperson system to support victims/survivors and anybody seeking resolution of concerns.

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After my partner Eleonora and I attended a funeral three years ago at Agioi Anargyroi, one of the northwestern suburbs of Athens, she suggested we visit the Mitera Center for the protection of children. It is located within walking distance from the local cemetery, a solemn reminder of the closeness of life and death. But for the many persons who passed through there as infants, it is a reminder of the place they were adopted and started a new life.

Little did I know at the time about how many of those infants in the 1950s would be headed for adoption in the United States. I remembered sporadic articles about illegal adoptions through a network of intermediaries that included prominent Greek Americans who had begun their involvement as members of the American Hellenic Progressive Association (AHEPA) whose involvement in the early 1950s was also not above reproach. The full extent of the adoption phenomenon would become known only recently.

The Mitera (not to be confused with the Maternity and Children’s hospital with the same name which is also in Athens) is one of the leading institutions in Greece for housing children that have been given up by their biological parents or must live away from them.

Mitera’s mission is to find homes for these children by placing them into either adoption or foster care programs. It started operating in 1953 and opened officially two years later, on publicly owned property with thirteen separate picturesque pavilions with stone walls and red roofs spaced out around the main building. Within a few years it would accommodate a total of one hundred children and a number of expectant mothers.

When the 1955 Adoption Act came into force, many M?ori children were separated from their birth parents and became part of non-M?ori families.

Now, a new University of Otago research project, supported by a Marsden grant, is looking to help descendants of M?ori adoptees reconnect with their birth families.

School of M?ori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies Te Tumu researcher Dr Erica Newman said the project was socially significant because it would bring to light the consequences of trans-racial adoption on identity and wellbeing for adoptees and their descendants in New Zealand as they searched for their turangawaewae.

"These adoptees had no knowledge of their M?ori ancestry. And because they were unable to [or chose not to] have contact with their biological wh?nau, their unknown history has not been passed on to their descendants.

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Nagpur: Social media has been flooded with messages about children orphaned due to Covid-19 and how people can adopt them by simply reaching out to a number mentioned in the message. Legal experts warn that indulging in any such activity is nothing short of ‘child trafficking’ because adoption involves a very comprehensive legal process.

In India, adoption process is solely under the purview of Centralized Adoption Resource Agency (CARA), which is a statutory body under the Union ministry of women and child development. This agency then has a State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) to coordinate at the local level. So, regardless of a prospective parent approaching an NGO or an orphanage, all applications will ultimately be routed to CARA.

Well-known lawyer Shyam Dewani said if your adoption process is not registered with CARA, then it’s illegal. “The law is very clear and there are two things you must not do. First, don’t forward such messages to anyone regardless of who sent it. Second, don’t ever call on that number because out of the goodness of your heart, you wish to adopt that child,” he said.

“If you do any of these things, then knowingly or unknowingly you become part of a larger criminal conspiracy. And people must use some common sense too that you just can’t call up a number and take home a baby. We are talking about a human being here, not some product on online site,” said Dewani.

These fake or illegal social media messages can get extremely creative to pull at people’s heart strings. Emotional messages about a child being found wandering after both parents died due to Covid-19 and how he needs a new home, are being circulated.

Child rights activists have urged the public not to circulate or fall for fake messages seeking adoption of Covid orphaned children that are increasingly seen on social media in recent times.

They have urged people to report such messages to 1048, clarifying that adoptions take place according to

established norms. Recently, a message asking people to contact a person to adopt a girl child went viral on

social media.

“If anyone wishes to adopt a girl, please feel free to contact 097******73 (Priyanka). One girl is 3 days old, and

New Delhi: With messages on social media floating of people having adopted and willing to adopt children who have lost parents to Covid-19, chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) Anurag Kundu has asked Delhi Police to intervene in these matters and increase their vigilance on social media.

This red flag from Kundu follows the fear that some may use this opportunity for trafficking or selling children.

In a letter to Delhi Police commissioner SN Srivastava, Kundu said, “I want to bring to your attention my concern about social media being currently filled with adoption information of acceptance and offer of children who have turned orphan during the pandemic. The child rights commission has come across many instances on social media where people who have information about orphans are encouraging others to adopt them.”

“In some cases the post update informs the children have been adopted. I am sure some of these are out of ignorance of the law governing adoption, however, they may also be cases of trafficking and sale/purchase of the children. These need to probed to get to the depth of the matter,” the letter added.

Kundu said he will also be writing to the DCP, cyber crime, with specific instances requesting inquiry.

‘Social media posts on such children could be possible cases of trafficking’

Social media posts appealing for adoption of children orphaned during COVID-19 are illegal, warn experts. They appeal that citizens must dial helpline 1098 to pass on information about children in need of care and protection.

With deaths due to the COVID-19 on the rise, Twitter and Whatsapp have been flooded with citizens sharing details of children who have lost either both their parents or the only living parent to the disease and pleading for them to be adopted. On Monday, Chairperson Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Anurag Kundu, wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava flagging such posts as possible cases of trafficking and requesting for a probe in each of these instances.

Activists warn that such posts are illegal under Section 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015, which prohibit offering or receiving children outside the processes laid down under the Act as well as their sale and purchase. Such acts are punishable with three to five years in jail or ?1 lakh in fine.

“There is a process as per the JJ Act which needs to be followed with children who have been orphaned. If someone has information about a child in need of care, then they must contact one of the four agencies: Childline 1098, or the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC), District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) or the helpline of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights,” says Vaidehi Subramani, Chairperson of CWC, South Delhi District.

Smriti Irani said anyone who has information about a child whose parents have died of Covid-19 and has no one take care, should inform police and the district child welfare committee.

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Tuesday urged people to inform police about children who have lost both parents to Covid-19 and have no one to take care of them.

Appealing to the people, the minister said this is a legal responsibility and people should help the government in preventing illegal adoption.

I have chosen to not disclose the identities of my sources, in order to protect them from possible retaliation. All of the people that I spoke to are children’s rights advocates working in the region. Apart from working as a freelance writer, I also work as a children’s rights advocate in Uganda. In this piece, I’m not sharing any information that hasn’t already been put out there publicly by Alicia Marie Harding herself.

The current situation

After writing about the Melanie Brechlin case a few weeks ago, I was recently informed about another possible adoption case in Zambia, by a children’s rights advocate in my circles. Again, the ‘adoption journey’ in question is being chronicled on a public Instagram profile — as is often the case.

On September 10 2020, Alicia Marie Harding published an Instagram post in which she announced that she and her family would be fostering a pair of newborn twins in Zambia. In an accompanying blog post that she wrote (which can be found here, on her blog girlgoestoafrica.com), Harding — who works as a missionary nurse — told her followers about how she was working at the clinic one day, when she received a call from a medical officer of a nearby district. The medical officer described an emergency situation in which a mother had just given birth to twins. The mother had passed away after giving birth, leaving behind a total of 8 children. There was no capacity for the family to also look after two vulnerable newborns, who had been welcomed into the world at just 36 weeks old.

Harding wrote about how the twins would live with them for the foreseeable future, but immediately stressed that they would want to eventually adopt the children — if the twins’ family would comply.