A temporary ban on the adoption of children from abroad is a step in the right direction. But it does not give Jyoti Weststrate (37) from Deventer a sense of justice. For Yanien Veenendaal (50) from Apeldoorn, it feels like a small victory.

They let this know in response to the decision by outgoing minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) to immediately suspend the adoption of children from abroad. That became known Monday morning.

In the opinion on the Dutch adoption culture and the role of the government in this, reference is made to 'serious abuses'. According to Dekker, the Dutch government has fallen short of looking away from abuses for years. The committee identified child theft, child trafficking, corruption, forgery and theft of documents, unethical acts of civil servants and the transfer of children to the Netherlands under false pretenses.

Presented to a priest

Weststrate was about 2 years old, although she does not rule out the fact that she was older, when she was taken away from her biological parents in India and 'given' to a priest . She ended up in Zutphen, where questions about her origins have been waiting for answers for a lifetime. Now she tries to expose abuses in international adoption.

NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee in its report on the DNA

Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill on Wednesday

suggested the government to "pay very careful attention" to certain views

on very important issues on the proposed legislation, saying some

members have expressed their fears that the bill when it becomes a law

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) has a new advisory board. This now consists of Alexander Pechtold, Marleen Stikker, Eric Tjong Tjin Tai, Jeannine Peek and Tjibbe Joustra. Pechtold is the chairman of the new board.The new advisory board was appointed by Minister of Legal Protection Sander Dekker on the recommendation of the AP on 1 February 2021. Peek and Joustra were also members of the previous advisory board of the AP.The chairman and members are appointed for different periods. In this way, not everyone leaves at the same time and the advisory board can continue.The Advisory Council provides the AP - solicited and unsolicited - with advice on the supervisory authority's mission, vision, ambition and strategy.The members of the AP's advisory board have different backgrounds and positions:Alexander Pechtold (chairman, appointed for 4 years)

Alexander Pechtold has many years of political and administrative experience, including as a Member of Parliament and minister. Since November 2019 he has been general director of the Central Bureau for Driving Licenses (CBR).He is also chairman of the Steering Committee Renovation Binnenhof, member of the supervisory board of the Drents Museum and chairman of the National Purchasing Fund Vereniging Rembrandt.Marleen Stikker (member, appointed for 3 years)

Marleen Stikker is founder and director of Waag Future Lab for design and technology. In addition, she is currently professor of practice at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, member of the Advisory Council for science, technology and innovation, member of the Amsterdam Economic Board, co-founder and board member of Public Spaces and chair of the Consultative Body for the Physical Environment.In 2019 Marleen Stikker wrote the book 'The internet is broken'.Eric Tjong Tjin Tai (member, appointed for 3 years)

Eric Tjong Tjin Tai is Professor of Private Law at Tilburg University. He is chairman of the Cassation Commission in the interests of the law. And deputy judge at the Netherlands Commercial Court.Jeannine Peek (member, appointed for 2 years)

Jeannine Peek (photo) is General Manager of Dell Technologies Netherlands. She is also a figurehead ICT for the Top Sector ICT, board member of the NL Digital sector association and the National Register Foundation (on behalf of VNO-NCW), member of the supervisory board of the Internet Domain Registration Foundation Netherlands and ambassador for the University of Twente.Tjibbe Joustra (member, appointed for 1 year)

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change has recommended that the government assuage concerns raised over the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019, including over creation of a national databank of crime scene DNA profiles and fears of communities being targeted.

While recognising the importance of DNA technology in criminal investigation, the committee, in its report tabled in Parliament Wednesday, says, “The risk with a national databank of crime scene DNA profiles is that it will likely include virtually everyone since DNA is left at the ‘crime scene’ before and after the crime by several persons who may have nothing to do with the crime being investigated.”

It adds, “These fears (regarding the Bill) are not entirely unfounded (and) have to be recognized and addressed by the government and by Parliament as well… The Committee is of the strong opinion that an enabling ecosystem must be created soon to ensure that DNA profiling is done in a manner that is fully consistent with the letter and spirit of various Supreme Court judgments and with the Constitution.”

First proposed in 2003, the Bill has gone through several revisions, by both the Department of Biotechnology and Law Ministry. It was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee in October 2019, soon after it was passed. A number of MPs who deposed before the panel repeated fears — expressed by members earlier too — that the Bill could be misused to target segments of society based on religion, caste or political views.

The panel’s report says, “The Committee is conscious of the fact that this Bill is very technical, complex and sensitive. A number of Members have expressed concern about the use of DNA technology — or more accurately its misuse — to target different segments of our society based on factors like religion, caste or political views. These fears are not entirely unfounded (and) have to be recognized and addressed.”

LEO VARADKAR HAS told the Dáil he was “quite surprised” to hear that audio recordings of witness testimony given to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes were destroyed.

His comments come amid calls for Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman to “take immediate action” to preserve the testimony of witnesses who gave evidence to the commission.

A number of campaigners and opposition TDs have also called for the commission to not be dissolved as planned at the end of the month amid concerns of the deletion of audio recording of testimony.

They say the commission should remain in operation until its members answer questions about its final report, as well as the destruction of audio recordings of witness testimony.

Varadkar said O’Gorman is examining if it “makes sense” to extend the term of the commission so these issues can be examined.

The adoption file of Doriet Begemann (41) from Zwolle is full of mistakes. "I take into account that I have been stolen and resold."

Doriet, like thousands of other adoptees, desperately searches for her origins.

The question is whether the Dutch government played a role in illegal adoptions between 1967 and 1998. An investigation committee will hand over a report to Minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) on Monday. Civil servants may have been involved , he writes when he establishes the committee in 2018.

The committee examined adoptions from countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Colombia and Indonesia.

DORIET

No love, no human contact, languishing and forgotten in the home: Under the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceau?escu, babies who did not fit the norm were mercilessly sorted out. Whats become of you?

Izidor spent the first three years of his life in the hospital.

The dark-eyed, dark-haired boy, born June 20, 1980, was abandoned when he was a few weeks old. The reason for this was obvious to all who looked: His right leg was twisted. After an illness (probably polio) he had been thrown into the sea of ??abandoned infants in the Socialist Republic of Romania.

In films from the period that capture the care of orphans, nurses are seen like assembly line workers wrapping newborns from a seemingly endless supply; with muscular arms and careless indifference, they toss the children onto a square cloth, expertly knot it into a neat bundle, and place it at the end of a line of silent, worried-looking babies. The women do not speak softly to them or sing to them. You can see the little faces trying to understand what is happening as their heads roll back and forth during the winding manoeuvre.

At his hospital in Sighetu Marma?iei, a mountain town in northern Romania, Izidor was probably fed with a bottle placed in his mouth and propped against the bars of his cot. Well past the age when children in the outer world begin to taste solid foods and then eat for themselves, he and his peers remained on their backs, sucking from bottles whose openings had been widened to allow watery gruel to flow through. Without proper care or physical therapy, the baby's leg muscles atrophied. At the age of three he was found "deficient" and transferred to the other side of town to a C?min Spital Pentru Copii Deficien?i , a home for unsavable children.

The very dire socio-economic situation in the country was inadvertently dramatised by 22-year-old Seun Oladayo in Ondo State who had planned to ‘dispose’ of her baby after delivery because she would not be able to take care of the baby. She claimed that the father of the baby absconded the moment she got pregnant.

It is a sign of good fortune for the innocent baby that one Pastor Olawale was approached by the uncle, one Yinka, to pay a paltry N10,000 for the baby. In a rare display of piety, the pastor reported the evil plot to the Amotekun Corps in Ondo town. We commend the display of kindness and vigilance by the pastor who even noticed that the birth of the baby might have been induced and there was evidence that the mother deliberately wanted to kill the child by strangling her with the umbilical cord.

The pastor’s exceptional behaviour must be commended in an era when some pastors are being upbraided for far too many crimes, including ritual killing of children. His is a huge elixir for Christendom in such trying times. His behaviour is so Christ-like and must be an example of the expected behaviour from all Christians.

On the part of the lady, we regret that her motherly instincts did not pop up to shield her baby from the trauma of induction and a deliberate attempt to strangle her with the umbilical cord. Even though we blame the father of the baby for absconding on confirmation of pregnancy, a very reprehensible and irresponsible attitude, we still feel that the state must search him out and make sure he faces justice.

Again, the attempt to sell her baby or even wish the baby death by the mother speaks to her hurt and state of mind. Even selling the baby for a paltry N10,000 speaks to the level of poverty afflicting the girl and her family. To sell her own child for less than $30 speaks to the mental and material poverty of the mother and her brother. It is a pointer to the impact of the fact that Nigeria is presently the poverty capital of the world. Make no mistakes about it, an attempt to sell the baby for a trillion dollars does not negate the odious and tragic transaction in any way.

Actor Salim Diwan has revealed that he has adopted 12 children, and he looks after their education. He points out there is a stigma around adoption in our country.

“Adopting a child is very common abroad. There are plenty of international renowned names who have adopted children and even funded their education. In India, the thought is finally pacing up but it will still take a lot of time,” Salim said.

“I have always believed in the concept of ‘right to education’, children are our future and right education will not only help them prosper financially, it also makes them a better human being. As of now I have adopted and looked into the education of 12 lovely bright children,” he added.

Explaining his thoughts, he said, “There is a stigma around adoption that has been created by the people in our society so they either don’t do it or keep it in private. I never believed in talking about it but I feel with the changing phase and thoughts of the young souls of our nation, now is the time to speak up.”

“I will consider my work done even if my voice reaches out and inspires a few people. I would urge everyone to come out and openly accept these kids as they can live a life which they might have only dreamt off,” he added.

A report German authorities tried to silence shows how Catholic nuns peddled orphaned boys to predatory priests and perverts for decades.

ROME—A jarring report outlining decades of rampant child sex abuse at the hands of greedy nuns and perverted priests paints a troubling picture of systematic abuse in the German church.

The report is the byproduct of a lawsuit alleging that orphaned boys living in the boarding houses of the Order of the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer were sold or loaned for weeks at a time to predatory priests and businessmen in a sick rape trade. The men involved in the lawsuit say as boys they were denied being adopted out or sent to foster families because selling them for rape lined the sisters’ coffers for their “convent of horrors.” Some of the boys were then groomed to be sex slaves to perverts, the report claims.

The alleged abuse went on for years, with one of the males claiming the nuns even frequently visited their college dorms after they had left the convent. He said the nuns often drugged him and delivered him to predators’ apartments. The Order of Sisters of the Divine Redeemer did not answer multiple requests for comment about the allegations.

A second lawsuit, first reported by Deutsche Welle last year, comes after a separate case against the German church led by 63-year-old Karl Haucke who demanded the Archdiocese of Cologne carry out a full investigation into clerical sex crimes, which it concluded in January 2021. But the details of that investigative report were so horrific that Archbishop Reiner Maria Woelki refused to make it public, demanding that any journalists who see it sign confidentiality agreements. Eight German journalists walked out of a press conference in January after being denied access to the church’s investigation unless they agreed not to publish its contents.