The embattled chief executive of Oranga Tamariki has stepped down, saying the focus of the story has become about her, rather than the well-being of New Zealand’s most vulnerable children.

Gráinne Moss’s resignation follows growing concern about the uplift of M?ori babies, and the high number of M?ori children in care – they account for 65% of kids in state care though M?ori comprise just 16.5% of the country’s population.

A two-part investigation by the office of the children’s commissioner into Oranga Tamariki released at the end of last year found that M?ori infants were five times more likely to be taken into state custody than non-M?ori, often in traumatic circumstances and including from maternity wards.

Meng Foon, the human rights commissioner, noted that the report highlighted persistent inequities that affect M?ori, including intergenerational harm being done to M?ori children and wh?nau (family), and how this collides with entrenched disadvantage, colonisation and systemic bias.

“Such systemic bias needs to go,” Foon said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned hearing on a petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking removal of anomalies in the grounds of adoption and guardianship and making them uniform for all citizens.

The matter was listed before the bench headed by the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde. The Court told the petitioner’s lawyer that a similar matter was dismissed in 2019. The Court asked petitioner to refer to that order and come back next week. Senior Advocate Anjana Prakash appeared for the petitioner. The matter will be considered next week.

The Court has directed to list the matter next week along with record of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 598 of 2019. Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian were also part of the bench who passed the order.

The petition has been filed by BJP leader and spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who sought directions to declare the grounds of adoption and guardianship under different acts based on different religions per se as discriminatory.

The petitioner has submitted that Several acts such as Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, The Guardians and Wards Act 1890, Hindu Minority and Guardianship act and personal laws of Muslims Christians and Parasis contain different provisions for adoption and guardianship, which are against gender equality, dignity of women and children.

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned hearing on a petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking removal of anomalies in the grounds of adoption and guardianship and making them uniform for all citizens.

The matter was listed before the bench headed by the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde. The Court told the petitioner’s lawyer that a similar matter was dismissed in 2019. The Court asked petitioner to refer to that order and come back next week. Senior Advocate Anjana Prakash appeared for the petitioner. The matter will be considered next week.

The Court has directed to list the matter next week along with record of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 598 of 2019. Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian were also part of the bench who passed the order.

The petition has been filed by BJP leader and spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who sought directions to declare the grounds of adoption and guardianship under different acts based on different religions per se as discriminatory.

The petitioner has submitted that Several acts such as Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, The Guardians and Wards Act 1890, Hindu Minority and Guardianship act and personal laws of Muslims Christians and Parasis contain different provisions for adoption and guardianship, which are against gender equality, dignity of women and children.

Children’s rights groups in South Korea have condemned comments by President Moon Jae-in suggesting that adoptive parents who do not get along with a child should be able to “change” it for another one.

Mr Moon was responding to a question at a press conference on Monday about the government’s efforts to prevent child abuse in light of the death late last year of a 16-month-old girl, allegedly at the hands of her adoptive parents.

The case has provoked outrage in South Korea, with the adopted mother of Jung-in charged with murder on January 13. The woman, identified only by her family name, Jang, was originally charged with fatal child abuse and neglect in December.

Commenting on the case, Mr Moon said, “Even after adoption, the adoptive parents need to check if the adoption is working out for them. So there should be measures allowing them to cancel the adoption or, if they still want to adopt a child, then they should be able to change the child."

The press conference, which was being broadcast live on national television, triggered an immediate response, with critics saying the president was suggesting that children were “goods” that could be returned for a refund.

PHOENIX -- A former Arizona politician must report to prison Thursday to begin serving the first of three sentences for running an illegal adoption scheme that paid pregnant women from the Marshall Islands to come to the U.S. to give up their babies.

Paul Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County assessor for six years and also worked as an adoption attorney, was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty in federal court in Arkansas to conspiring to commit human smuggling.

Petersen, who has acknowledged running the adoption scheme, is awaiting sentencing in state courts in Arizona for fraud convictions and in Utah for human smuggling and other convictions. Sentencing dates have not yet been set for those cases.

Prosecutors have said Petersen illegally paid women from the Pacific island nation to give up their babies in at least 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas. Marshall Islands citizens have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003.

Petersen’s attorney, Kurt Altman, did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.

There is a lot of controversy on this topic, but finally the coalition agrees on a compromise that should anchor the rights of children in the Basic Law. The change in the law is now being passed through the Federal Cabinet. But she could fail at the next hurdle.

The federal government wants to strengthen the rights of children and has initiated an amendment to the Basic Law. The federal cabinet decided in Berlin that children's rights should be expressly included in the constitution. However, it is uncertain whether the project will result in anything, because two-thirds majorities in the Bundestag and Bundesrat are necessary for amendments to the Basic Law.

The grand coalition is therefore dependent on the approval of the opposition, which has already expressed itself critically - either because the project goes too far or not enough for it. "Children are not little adults. They are particularly vulnerable and have special needs," said Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht.

Anchoring in the Basic Law

Children are demanding more rights in front of the Bundestag

An alleged baby trafficking syndicate has been busted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Medical and Dental Council after an investigation.

According to the Executive Director of EOCO, Frank Adu Poku, the buying and selling of babies has been on the radar of the crime office for a while and has so far resulted in the arrested of at least 10 suspects.

These suspects are said to be doctors, nurses, social welfare workers, traditional birth attendants and mothers who operated in various hospitals in the Greater Accra Region.

“Medical and Dental Council and Economic and Organised Crime Office have been investigating the activities of some medical practitioners and other individuals who were suspected to be engaging in an illegal act of baby harvesting and human trafficking.

“As a result of this investigation, two doctors, four nurses, two social welfare workers, a traditional birth attendant and two mothers have been arrested so far,” he stated.

Geographical distance does not dim the huge emotion contained in the pages of the Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, and the responses of survivors, residents, and their families.

Out of deeply held respect for survivors and their families, I wanted to hear these most powerful of voices before commenting.

The State holds much of the responsibility. There are actions of reparation which must be done and be rooted in the fundamental belief of the equal human rights of all people.

This must include an urgency around adoption legislation grounded in adopted people’s unequivocal human right to their identity.

The complex legal and political background on this issue is worth reflecting on as it could lead to informed decisions now.

MUMBAI: City crime branch investigating a baby sale racket arrested a 56-

year-old homeopathy doctor from Worli on Monday and identified four

more children aged two months to three years sold by a gang of eight to

couples.

Dr Dhananjay Boga allegedly took a commission of Rs 30,000 in the sale

Hyderabad: SOS Children’s Villages of India, a self-implementing premier child care NGO providing alternative care solutions for children without parental care or those at risk of losing one, helped all 41 Yenadi families of Chindepalli Tribal Colony in Tirupati, Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh get permanent housing plots from the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, under the latter’s YSR Jagananna Illa Pattalu Scheme. The land owners are expected to begin the construction of their own concrete homes this year, as they are now eligible for housing loans from the government.

The flagship Family Strengthening Programme, the community outreach model of SOS Children’s Villages of India, brought children of 23 eligible families, out of 41 families, under its direct care in 2016. Through its various capacity building and welfare measures, including livelihood training for mothers as primary caregivers of children, healthcare camps for awareness, and remedial education over the last four years, the NGO has transformed the Yenadi tribal community into a self-reliant one, securing parental care for their children. The household income has increased sustainably, the community has broken itself free from the clutches of usurious money lenders, and the school dropout rate has been brought down from 90% to 0%. There has been no child marriage, which used to be very common, since last two years.

Commenting about the Yenadi community’s transformation, Mr. Sumanta Kar, Senior Deputy National Director, SOS Children’s Villages of India, said that the impoverished Yenadi tribes were living in vulnerable conditions at Chindepalli Tribal Colony, before we commenced our Family Strengthening Programme. The primary class children were quite irregular, and almost 90% of them dropped out from school after class five. These Out-of-School Children were sent to work in agricultural fields. Child marriages were widely reported from the community.

They were subsisting with meagre, irregular income from agricultural labour. They were exploited by usurious money lenders. Fire accidents, due to electric short circuits, were frequent in the habitat, as the houses, in the absence of legal electricity connection, drew power by illegally tapping the overhead electricity lines.

We started off our developmental work in 2016. We first offered financial support to families to rebuild their houses, damaged by fire accidents. In 2017, with the support of the Tribal Welfare Department of the state, we arranged for caste certificates and temporary land documents for them. In 2018, using these documents, we helped obtain ration cards for all the families, and power connection for all houses. And last year, when the state government announced housing plots for landless Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, we supported community members to apply for the scheme, and facilitated housing plots for each of 41 landless families under the government scheme.