World Children Foundation

The quality of the mediation process

an intercountry adoption permit holder

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Minister Dekker informs the House of Representatives about the progress of the family law topics of parenthood and adoption and a number of legislative processes.

In May of this year, an additional hearing on intercountry adoption from Ethiopia was held in the Committee for Welfare, Public Health and Family of the Flemish Parliament. This hearing came after the testimony of Thereza De Wannemaeker who questioned her adoption from Ethiopia in 2009. Various testimonials from Ethiopian adopted children and their parents followed, after which Flemish Member of Parliament Lorin Parys (N-VA) asked for an additional hearing in the Flemish Parliament to hear those involved.

During the hearing, the then Flemish Minister of Welfare, Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V), promised to set up an expert panel to conduct in-depth research into past adoptions and formulate policy recommendations. The former Flemish Government compiled this panel in July. Recently, Christof Bex and Miranda N. Aerts, both adopted and well known with the theme, were also added to the panel. This happened after 23 adoptees in an open letter to the current Flemish Minister of Welfare, Wouter Beke (CD&V), criticized the fact that none of the adoptees co-led the investigation. The panel will meet for the first time shortly to define the content and determine a concrete work approach.

Unfortunately, malpractice within adoption remains a reality, despite efforts made worldwide to prevent them. In March 2016, ISS1 published "Responding to Illegal Adoptions: a professional handbook". This international publication was the first attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of possible recovery and prevention measures. Stakeholders and experts from various countries contributed to the handbook and highlighted action points from a legal, psychosocial, social and political context. In summary, David M Smolin² formulated four perspectives and four recommendations at the end of the handbook, which we present below.

Four perspectives for looking at adoption fraud

1. Adoption as controversial and paradoxical

Two Haitian adoptees found their biological family in Haiti through a DNA project. In both cases, the children in the 1980s appear not to have been consciously given up for adoption. Their biological family has never stopped looking for them ever since.

Nieuwsuur last year investigated adoptions from Haiti and found that on the Caribbean island many parents have given their children to Catholic nuns, who promised them that the children would be educated and fed and then return to their families. But after a while the children turned out to have been adopted abroad.

Volunteers from Plan Kiskeya collected DNA from relatives of missing children in the town of Jacmel in May last year. So two DNA matches have now emerged from that meeting. One of them is Louis Wietzes who came to the Netherlands in 1988. "I never had much need to find my biological family. My adoptive parents had been told that my mother couldn't take good care of me and had taken me to an orphanage. I didn't know what a search would bring me."

Dumbfounded

This will change when Wietzes lands on the Plan Kiskeya website in April. "I looked around a bit on that website and suddenly saw my own Haitian surname on the photo of a woman looking for her son, whose first name matched one of my first names. Only the place of birth was wrong."

Arki Busson: The rise and fall of the man to know in finance, who used his connections to raise capital

He rubbed shoulders with the world’s elite and led a lifestyle that was the envy of his peers in high-stakes hedge fund circles

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By Chris Newlands

June 26, 2020 6:00 am

Iranian media on Wednesday reported that police in Tehran have arrested three people for selling babies online for adoption.

Hossein Rahimi, Chief of Tehran Police, on Wednesday said the Cyberspace Police found out about the scheme and after surveillance arrested three for the crime. At the time of their arrest, the accused had two new-born babies with them. According to Rahimi the babies were sold for around $1,000.

According to the website of the state-run television (IRIB), one of the men arrested said he took the babies from families who couldn't afford raising the children. He sold them to families who wanted to adopt, he said.

Sale of babies for illegal adoption is not too uncommon in Iran. There are always many babies who are abandoned at birth as a result of poverty or because they are born out of wedlock. Abortion is illegal and since a few years ago the state has scraped all family planning programs due to the religious establishment's fear of declining population.

But what creates the demand for babies through illegal channels is the small number of children available for legal adoption and the complexity of the process. Islamic laws make the process of legal adoption and even in-vitro fertilization (IVF) extremely complicated and sometimes even impossible. Adopting parents must meet certain requirements dictated by Islamic laws in addition to the regular legal, financial and other requirements for adoption. These requirements are enforced by the state.

Child welfare system strengthened through more partnerships, resources, and oversight

June 24, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Trump acted to strengthen America’s child welfare system by signing a historic Executive Order (EO) aimed at improving outcomes for children and families. This EO focuses on three key areas of action: improving partnerships, improving resources, and improving oversight.

“President Trump’s executive order demonstrates how his administration has prioritized placing each of America’s foster kids with the loving, permanent family they deserve,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “Since the President took office, we have focused on promoting adoption unlike any previous administration, and we’ve begun to see results. The President’s executive order lays out bold reforms for our work with states, communities, and faith-based partners to build a brighter future for American kids who are in foster care or in crisis.”

“Our number one goal is to help our children and youth by making improvements to our child welfare system, and I’m incredibly grateful to President Trump for taking this monumental action today,” said the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Assistant Secretary Lynn Johnson. “These strong actions support vulnerable children and youth nationwide by advancing measures to reduce child abuse and neglect, encouraging family preservation, and strengthening adoption and other forms of permanency for America’s kids.”

ADOPTION SYSTEM IN HUNGARY

Statistics:

700-800 adoptions per year

100 stepparent adoption

150-200 open adoption by NGO's (newborn infants)

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court Thursday gave two weeks time to the Centre to respond to the arguments of an expert that the Ministry of External Affairs and regional passport officer cannot decline an adopted child a passport by questioning the validity of the adoption or for lack of NOC of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

The high court, since 2019, has been hearing a petition filed in the name of a minor challenging the decision of denying her the passport for lack of an NOC from the CARA, a statutory authority for regulation of inter-country adoptions. The 2017-born child was adopted by her mother’s sister and latter’s husband in 2018. The adoptive parents of the child are British nationals while the biological parents of the child are from Jalandhar. A registered deed for record of the adoption was also got prepared by them following the ceremonial adoption at a gurdwara in Phillaur. The parents name was also got changed on the birth certificate.

Following submission of the report by Amicus Curiae advocate Anil Malhotra, who is considered an expert on the subject of cross-border child removal, Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain informed the court on Thursday that the report has been sent to Delhi for comments. Justice Jaishree Thakur, while listing the case for final disposal on July 15, gave two weeks to the Centre for reply. Malhotra had been earlier asked by the court to assist it in the matter.

In a 79-page report, Malhotra opined that the invalidity of adoption or lack of NOC from CARA are no grounds for rejecting the application for passport of an adopted child. He also submitted that the parties in the case have already fulfilled the conditions of Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA) for the adoption and the ceremony held for it is duly recorded in the adoption deed.

Submitting that though there was not even a requirement for registering the adoption, Malhotra said, as a benefit of it, “hence, under Section 16 HAMA, a presumption shall be drawn that the said adoption has been made in compliance with the provisions of HAMA & there is a presumption in law as to what is recorded in the said deed”. The process is irreversible under the HAMA, he has said, adding, thus there is no scope to insist for a court order or NOC from CARA for issuance of the passport. The presumption under HAMA is applicable at the time of consideration of issuance of passport, as per the report.