When Social Affairs Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil closed and switched off Denmark's only adoption agency on national television on 16 January, it was with the words:

"Significant crisis", "children who should not have been adopted", "children who have been trafficked".

Analysis

INFO THE CROIX. It was to be presented on Tuesday January 23, but its publication was postponed. The report of the inspection mission on international adoption raises a lot of expectations and already a little frustration, according to the members of the National Adoption Council who were entitled to a summary of the document.

• Paula Pinto Gomes ,
• on 01/24/2024 at 7:58 p.m.
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Analysis

INFO THE CROIX. It was to be presented on Tuesday January 23, but its publication was postponed. The report of the inspection mission on international adoption raises a lot of expectations and already a little frustration, according to the members of the National Adoption Council who were entitled to a summary of the document.

This is a long-awaited document... which is still long overdue. Submitted to the government “at the end of September or beginning of October” , the report on international adoption from the government inspection mission has still not been made public. Tuesday January 23, the text was to be presented to the National Adoption Council (CNA) by the three inspectors general who drafted it – justice, foreign affairs and social affairs – but the latter's visit was ultimately canceled. “With the reshuffle, there is no one to bring this file to the government. There is no longer a children's secretary, comments Marie-Christine Le Boursicot, specialist in adoption issues, honorary advisor to the Court of Cassation.

The broad outlines of the report were, however, presented on Tuesday to members of the CNA and associations, by its president, Monique Limon, but not the document itself. Suffice to say that this situation generated frustration within the audience and, in particular, among adopted...

Kushinagar, UP: The visuals showed the woman using a sickle to hit the girl's neck multiple times when she approached her during household chores.

Lucknow:

A woman was seen repeatedly hitting her adopted daughter with a sickle in Uttar Pradesh. The horrifying visuals from Kushinagar district, captured from the terrace, showed the woman using a sickle to hit her neck multiple times when she approached her during household chores. It is not clear if the girl suffered any injury.

Amina Khatoon, who has no children of her own, had adopted the minor girl from a relative in West Champaran district. She has been arrested.

The girl was helping the woman while she was peeling vegetables, showed the video. She was passing tools and loitering around in free time. At one point, she sat near the woman with what looked like a book in her hands. Next moment, the woman could be seen twisting the girl's hand and attacking her with a sickle.

When Kevin Heyel walked off his airplane and out of Concourse C this fall, he embraced his mother for the first time in his 58 years of life.

“Nice to finally meet you,” he said.

Barbara Kreft reached up to his 6-foot-6-inch frame and laughed, overjoyed that the baby she had been forced to give up for adoption was in her arms at last.

“I was worried about you,” she told him. “All the time.”

The Karnataka High Court has directed a couple seeking intercountry relative adoption to petition the receiving country i.e Germany, where the father of the adopted child resides for communication to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for issuance of a No Objection Certificate and Conformity Certificate to take the child out of India. A single judge bench of Justice M...

Norway announced an inquiry into its foreign adoptions. Anti-adoption activists are pleased but have yet to be convinced. "There must be a sufficient level of competence in the committee."

That the government turned around is the only reasonable thing, says adoption activist Priyangika Samanthie to the Norwegian Christian daily Vårt Land. "But we must ensure the level of competence of those who will be part of the review commission. We need experts in human trafficking with a strong legal background. What's more, what this has done to adoptees must be assessed – we can look at this not only legally, but also psychologically."

Samanthie runs the organisation “Romantisert innvandring” (Romanticised immigration), which works to uncover human rights violations in the adoption field. It took years before calls from Samanthie and other people critical towards foreign abortion were heard. "Adoption should be in the child's best interests, but then we are ignored until the authorities are pressured to take a position on it."

Kjersti Toppe, the Norwegian Minister for Children and Families, agrees with Samanthie that it has taken too long for an investigation to take place. "It shouldn't be like that, and we must work on this. For too many years, the prevailing thought has been that international adoption is "a happy thing". We must recognise that we must take the field more seriously."

Violations

In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled in favour of a minor mother’s independent right as the natural guardian to give her illegitimate child in adoption. Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj also made it clear that the biological father’s consent requirement in case of a guardian was inconsequential under The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act—1956.

Referring to the Act, Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj asserted only the mother of an illegitimate child was the guardian. The law recognided an independent right of the guardian to give the child in adoption. The biological father’s consent was inconsequential since an expression ‘or’ was used in Act. A father could be a guardian in case of an illegitimate child only after the mother. The law did not confer right on an illegitimate child’s father on a par with a legitimate child’s father.

Justice Bhardwaj also referred to the ‘Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act’ before ruling that an unwanted child of a sexual assault victim might be declared free for adoption by the Child Welfare Committee.

Justice Bhardwaj observed the government had also notified the ‘Adoption Regulations 2017’ in exercise of powers under the Juvenile Justice Act. The fundamental principles governing adoption kept the child’s best interest to be of paramount consideration and gave preference to place a child in adoption with the Indian citizens. It also made it clear that a child eligible for adoption included an orphan, abandoned or a surrendered child. Every child was legally free to be given in adoption once the committee so declared. The state was required to ensure all the needs of a child were met and basic human rights were fully protected

The ruling came in a case where sub registrar of documents refused to register the adoption deed by relying solely on a provision of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, which said a mother/natural guardian could give the child in adoption only after obtaining the father’s consent

Just a week ago, Denmark's only adoption agency had to turn the key. But the skeletons continue to tumble out of the closet.

Over the course of several months, Danwatch has dug into the workflows of Denmark's only adoption agency, Danish International Adoption (DIA). They can now uncover how the organization has deliberately bent the rules for adopting sibling pairs.

An internal email correspondence that Danwatch has come into possession of shows that DIA did not try to find a solution that could keep a pair of siblings together.

In the email correspondence, an employee from DIA writes several times to a colleague from an African country that they must wait to proceed with the adoption of one child to Denmark until the other child has been adopted to France.

According to international conventions, the act is illegal, as you, as an adoption agent, must do everything you can to avoid separating siblings.

Adopting children from other countries to Denmark is over. On 16 January, Danish International Adoption (DIA) announced a complete cessation of their mediation of international adoption, including from South Africa. This decision, based on a series of critical errors in the organization's work, marks a turning point in the national adoption discourse. The debate in recent years has been characterized by self-examination of historical errors in the adoption system. Remarkably, this debate has missed an important voice – namely the countries that give up children for adoption.

The massive failure that has been in the area of ​​adoption in the past must be fully acknowledged, and Denmark should comply with the UN's recommendation for impartial investigations into all illegal international adoptions.

At the same time, the previous failures have made the debate unvarying. In recent years, many have taken notice of the post-colonial structures that characterize the area, and critics view the system of transnational adoptions as a continuation of these structures.

Others grapple with the question of whether international adoption deprives the child of its cultural identity.

The inequality that forms the basis of the international adoption system, as well as the question of cultural identity, is important to keep in mind, but it is paramount that we recognize the regional and social contexts that affect the individual country, and to nuance the debate should perspectives from the countries concerned are included.