Oslo, September 23, 2025 – Korean adoptee Uma Feed delivered a formal notice of intent to sue the Norwegian state through a dramatic performance art piece at the Ministry of Children and Families today. Feed alleges her international adoption was illegal and demands both declaratory judgment and compensatory damages.
She alleges that the Norwegian state violated her rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to private and family life. She also claims that Norwegian authorities contributed to her being subjected to human trafficking in violation of Article 4 of the ECHR.
The case references a September 28, 2022 joint statement on illegal intercountry adoptions from UN committees, including Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), which established that illegal adoptions violates numerous international human rights laws, and can constitute human trafficking. Additional supporting arguments cite the Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts.
The legal notice was delivered through a performance piece titled “ARV” (Norwegian for Heritage/Legacy), performed by Feed herself at the ministry’s reception. The performance referenced the tragic deaths of other international adoptees in Norway, including victims of drowning, shooting, and domestic violence by adoptive parents.
“These three fates are not mine, they belong to other international adoptees who had to pay with their lives,” Feed stated in her performance. “The dead cannot return, but from today we adoptees will no longer carry them! Norwegian State! The notice has been given – from today it is you who must carry them.”