Despite receiving death threats, Israeli-origin Dr Michelle Harrison dedicated her life to providing safe space and a future to orphaned girls.

With continued bomb blasts and strikes leading to loss of life, property and basic resources, the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel has resulted in the killings and abduction of hundreds of children from both the countries.

While ceasefire remains a distant dream, Kolkata-based Dr Michelle Harrison, who has Israeli origins, says with anguish, “It is a nightmare for everybody. In this war, children are being used as pawns, held hostage, and ultimately, orphaned.”

A few decades back, Dr Michelle came to India to adopt a child. Being a single mother, she only had the option to do so from either here or Central America. In India — home to at least 30 million orphans — she saw how children are subjected to human trafficking and abduction. 

This, she noted, was however not a result of some war but due to the apathy of child welfare organisations. 

An Australian woman seems to have had all the required documents to bring a baby delivered by surrogacy in Greece back to Australia.

The Georgian national and the facility she gave birth in have been at the centre of an international baby trafficking storm since August.

The Neonatal Unit of the General Hospital of Chania on the Greek island of Crete is accused by the Greek authorities of having been involved in baby trafficking.

The accusations included the exploitation of 169 women from countries Ukraine, Romania and Georgia, forcing them to be surrogate mothers or egg donors. The trafficking syndicate is also accused of illegal adoptions and fake IVF treatments.

According to reports by flahnews.gr, the Australian woman at the centre of this case “presents a difficult legal case”, as the authorities have yet to verify the identity of the biological parents. So, the baby remains officially “unidentified” but is otherwise in excellent health.

The Tuticorin Diocesan Association had its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration suspended or cancelled back in 2015. The suspension came following adverse reports from intelligence agencies and subsequent inspections and investigations by government authorities. The Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Shri Kiren Rijiju at the time, suspended the FCRA registration of the Tuticorin Diocesan Association, along with two other NGOs. Furthermore, their respective bank accounts were frozen.

At the time of the FCRA registration suspension, the primary reason cited by the Indian government was the alleged involvement of the Tuticorin Diocesan Association in “NGOs using Foreign Funds for Anti-National Activities.” This led to the release of a public statement by the Home Affairs Ministry on March 4, 2015, through the Press Information Bureau’s official portal, titled “NGOs using Foreign Funds for Anti-National Activities.” Shri Kiren Rijiju Ji’s response in the Rajya Sabha was cited as the basis for this release.

Continued Receipt of Foreign Funds And Its Misuse and Diversion

Despite the suspension and subsequent cancellation of the FCRA registration, the Tuticorin Diocesan Association has continued to receive foreign funds, amounting to Rs. 44,507,214, into its Bank of Baroda account at the Tuticorin branch. It is noteworthy that a significant portion of these foreign funds is earmarked for activities related to the welfare of children, maintenance, and construction of orphanages, among other purposes.

The Tuticorin Diocesan Association had its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration suspended or cancelled back in 2015. The suspension came following adverse reports from intelligence agencies and subsequent inspections and investigations by government authorities. The Ministry of Home Affairs, led by Shri Kiren Rijiju at the time, suspended the FCRA registration of the Tuticorin Diocesan Association, along with two other NGOs. Furthermore, their respective bank accounts were frozen.

At the time of the FCRA registration suspension, the primary reason cited by the Indian government was the alleged involvement of the Tuticorin Diocesan Association in “NGOs using Foreign Funds for Anti-National Activities.” This led to the release of a public statement by the Home Affairs Ministry on March 4, 2015, through the Press Information Bureau’s official portal, titled “NGOs using Foreign Funds for Anti-National Activities.” Shri Kiren Rijiju Ji’s response in the Rajya Sabha was cited as the basis for this release.

Continued Receipt of Foreign Funds And Its Misuse and Diversion

Despite the suspension and subsequent cancellation of the FCRA registration, the Tuticorin Diocesan Association has continued to receive foreign funds, amounting to Rs. 44,507,214, into its Bank of Baroda account at the Tuticorin branch. It is noteworthy that a significant portion of these foreign funds is earmarked for activities related to the welfare of children, maintenance, and construction of orphanages, among other purposes.

This subsidiarity rule has provoked debate
about its implications for the best interests
of the child. Some middle ground in that
debate is expressed in the Hague’s Guide
to Good Practice:

1. This matter is placed before me for directions in view of unusual circumstances, which would be set out hereinafter.

2. The petitioner - Joseph Eleouet, a national of France, of France, has filed this petition in this Court on September 8, 1983, under the provisions of the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, for his appointment as guardian for the person of a female minor by name Alisha. The minor was an inmate of Shraddhanand Anathalaya, which is a public Trust registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. The relief sought by the petitioner was supported by the rustees of the Sharddanand Anathalaya.

4. In spite of the order passed by this Court, the petitioner is unable to take custody of the minor child and to carry the said child with him to France, the place of residence of the petitioner. The petitioner is prevented from taking advantage of the order of this Court in view of certain proceedings adopted under Section 41-A of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950 before the Joint Charity Commissioner, Nagpur, and it is now necessary to advert to those proceedings.

5. One Smt. Pushpa w/o Shashikumar Pradhan has instituted Application No. 6 of 1982 before the Joint Charity Commissioner, Nagpur under Sec. 41-A of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, against the Trustees of the Shraddhanand Anathalaya, and the Superintendent of the said Anathalaya. The applicant had made several allegations against the Trustees about Trust, failure to account for the funds and has sought certain directions from the Joint Charity Commissioner as regards the finances and accounts of the Trust. In the application, and allegation is made that the Trustees are indulging in giving the minor inmates of the Trust in adoption to the foreigners and that is in contravgention of the provisions of the Trusts Act. The proceedings are resisted by the Trustees and the hearing is adjourned from time to time. The proceedidngs came up before the Joint Charity Commissioner on April 16, 1983 and it appears from the order passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner that he was not merely impressed but was carried away by certain adverse reports appearing in the newspapers about the Trust giving its minor inmates in adoption to the foreigners. The order passed by the Joint Charity Commissioner indicates that the Joint Charity Commissioner posed a question as to whether in each and every case of adoption the governing body is required to consider the case and approve the adoption. The Deputy Charity Commissioner made numbner of observations about how, in his judgment the adoption should be carried out, but it is not necessary to make any reference to those observations because the jurisdiction to appoint guardian is vgested in this Cpourt and the Charity Commissioner need not have made any such observations in respect of matters over which nhe had no jurisdiction. Be that as it may, what has created problem for the institution is an undertaking given by the Advocate for the Anathalaya and recorded by the Joint Charity Commissioner in paragraph 11 of the order. The relevant portion reads as under:

8. A mere perusal of the Section makes it crystal clear that the Charity Commissioner can give direction to the Trust or to the Trustees if he finds that the property of the trust is in danger of being wasted, damaged, alienated or wrongfully sold etc. It hardly requires to be stated that the inmates of the Shraddhanand Anathalaya cannot to treated as the property of the Trust. Surely, the Charity Commissioner should have exercised more care before giving directions in pursuance of the undertaking given by the Advocate for the trustees and preventing the operation of the orders passed by this Court. The High Court has exercised the powers under Section 7 of the Guardians and Wards Act for the benefit of the minor inmates of Shradhanand Anathalaya and the Advocate for the Trustees by giving an undertaking and the Joint Charity Commissioner by accepting the same has defeated the order of the High Court, which was passed for the benefit of the minor.

NB! This program has been canceled due to the storm.

The number of children born through artificial reproduction is increasing worldwide. IVF, artificial insemination, surrogacy and sperm and egg donation offer opportunities to prospective parents. At the same time, these techniques have now become part of a global reproductive market. How can children's rights be protected in this high-tech, international and economic context? Britta van Beers will deliver the 2023 Miek de Langen lecture.

Children's rights also deserve protection in the regulation of the international reproductive market. In her lecture, Van Beers will discuss two current developments: large-scale donation of sperm and eggs, as is currently being promoted by mass sperm donor Jonathan M.; and international surrogacy, which is on the current political agenda due to the recent surrogacy bill.

There is debate about what exactly protection of children's rights means in this context. Firstly, at the time of the reproductive choices there is not yet a born child, but a possible future child. This makes it difficult to determine what is owed to these children.

A second complicating factor is that the reproductive market and 'reproductive tourism' are cross-border phenomena. Internationally operating sperm banks, IVF clinics and surrogacy mediators offer various 'reproductive services and goods' to Dutch prospective parents for a fee, not all of which are in accordance with the principles of the Dutch legal order. This raises the question of how far the responsibility of the Dutch state, Dutch prospective parents and Dutch fertility doctors extends in protecting children's rights in this international setting.

[Finding the truth about 372 international adoptees] Problems of international adoption reported by an adoptee

The woman is angry at the fact that she was unable to contact her biological parents while growing up. In the past, the growth environment was considered important. Over time, it has emerged that genes are just as important as the environment in which one grows up. Genes include not only appearance but also personality inherited from biological parents.

The woman is upset that she inherited her biological mother's personality. If a woman had inherited her biological father's personality, her life might have been easier.

She is angry with herself because she thinks life might have been easier if she had inherited her father's personality.

She is angry with herself for thinking that if the girl had had contact with her biological parents growing up, she might have had an easier life.

She is angry with herself for thinking that she might have had an easier life if she had been raised by her biological parents.

She is angry that she was not raised by her biological parents. Her life as a woman would have been different if she had been raised by people who looked like her. Concrete people with whom women can reflect on themselves. She still remembers Astri's surprise when she saw the woman with her third sister. Astri, she said, looked very similar in the way the woman and her third sister walked.

She is upset that she has never lived with her biological parents. The woman still remembers the day she slept in her biological parents' house. The woman looked at her biological mother, who was sleeping on the floor, for a long time.

She is angry at herself for missing the woman who sleeps with her biological mother. Now that she's thirty, it's not unusual for her to miss sleeping on the same mattress as her mother. When her woman expressed her own longing, Laurent asked her if it was okay for her to feel at ease, whether it was common or not. He added that it was not normal for her newborn to be separated from her mother.

The woman is angry with herself for missing her mother's embrace. It is not normal for her to miss her mother's embrace at the age of thirty.

She is a woman and she is upset that she has turned thirty. She thinks she wishes she had a baby as she is a woman. If a woman were a newborn baby, it would be very natural for her to be held in her mother's arms.

She is upset that it is not natural for her to be held in her mother's arms. For her mother, it would not be natural to hold her 30-year-old daughter in her arms. If it were natural, her mother would have hugged her too.

The woman is angry with herself for not being able to reconcile with her past.

She is angry at herself for not being able to tell a woman to hug her mother.

She is upset that it is not natural for a woman to tell her mother to hug her.

She is upset that it is not natural for a woman to ask even her father to hug her.

She is angry at herself for not being able to tell a woman to hug her father.

The woman is angry at her father for not hugging her.

She is upset that she misses the feeling she had when she was held in her father's arms.

She is angry at herself for not being able to heal the anger welling up in her heart sooner. She said the woman's adoptive mother was something she had not known before and she could not help it. She added that even if she had met Thich Nhat Hanh a year ago, things would not have been different. Because it is now that a woman recognizes the resentment built up in her heart and opens her heart to heal it.

The woman is angry at herself for not opening up sooner to heal the resentment built up in her heart. To put it a little exaggeratedly, she was a woman whose accumulated resentment almost brought her to the brink of death before she decided to heal it. If she hadn't been Andrew she might have died because she was so upset. She is grateful to Andrew, who recommended that she read the book Anger: Wisdom to Quiet Flames. In the book, you can also find Thich Nhat Hanh's quote that there is something to be gained by embracing her anger and caring for her well.

The woman is angry with Andrew, who told her that it would be helpful for her to read the book Anger: Wisdom to Quiet Flames.
 

In September 2022, 283 overseas adoptees submitted an investigation request to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to determine whether human rights were violated at the time of adoption. The number increased to 372 as additional applications were submitted twice on November 15th and December 9th. They requested an investigation into whether human rights were violated in the adoption process of overseas adoptees adopted from Korea to Denmark and around the world during the authoritarian period from the 1970s to the early 1990s, and whether there was any intervention by the government in that process. Fortunately, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced on December 8 that it had decided to open an investigation into 'human rights violations during the overseas adoption process', and on June 8, it announced the opening of an investigation into an additional 237 people. This is the first government-level investigation decision in 68 years since Korea began overseas adoption. <Pressian> plans to continue publishing articles written by overseas adoptees who have requested an investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. editor
 

Maya Lee Langbad International Adoptee

At present the Central Government has established the Central Adoption Regulation Authority regarding the Adoption Law
 

Adoption process will be implemented under the District Child Protection Cell in Mumbai Suburban District. The period from November 14 to 21 is Adoption Month and couples who want to adopt a child will have to register on the website cara.wcd.gov.in. All the process is done online. District Women and Child Development Officer BH Nagargoje has appealed that for more information about this, contact the District Women and Child Development Officer of Mumbai Suburban District.

At present the Central Government has established the Central Adoption Regulation Authority regarding the Adoption Law. This organisation is working under the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare. Also, the system working in this regard in every district is functioning as District Child Protection Cell. Couples who want to adopt a child will have to register on the website cara.wcd.gov.in. 

For more information in this regard, contact office of the District Women and Child Development Officer for Mumbai Suburban District, Mumbai Suburban Administrative Building, 1st Floor, 2nd Phase, R. C Chemburkar, Mumbai-400071 or contact on phone number 022-25232308.

Princess Beatrix attended part of the theme day of the expert group of youth judges on Friday afternoon in the Academy Building at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Beatrix attended two lectures celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), a subject close to her heart. Five years ago she also attended the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the UN Treaty.

The princess also used her visit to talk to a number of juvenile judges and scientists about the challenges in their work and in putting the child first. Shortly before, Beatrix had heard in an argument from Leiden professor Ton Liefaard that making the rights agreed in 1989 more sustainable was not easy.

Lock out

In the Netherlands, he advocated a Ministry of Youth & Family, adapting children's rights to the 21st century and better involving children in decisions and measures. No child should be left out ('leave no one behind') and children should also have access to the courts.