CHENNAI: S Velmayil (34) and P Baby (36), prospective adoptive parents with disabilities, were denied a four-month-old baby allocated to them after waiting for four long years, allegedly due to their disabilities.

The couple, hailing from Srivaikuntam in Thoothukudi district, were assigned the baby by a specialised adoption agency in Gandhigram, Dindigul district. However, a five-member adoption committee, which included the district child protection officer, stated that the couple would not be able to care for the child, particularly in the first two years, due to their disability.

Velmayil has a locomotor disability affecting both lower limbs, with 90% disability. Baby also has locomotor disability affecting her right hand and right leg, with 80% disability. Velmayil works at a fuel station, while Baby is a noon meal organiser. They currently live in Thoothukudi with Velmayil’s parents.

Married in 2016, the couple registered to adopt a child in 2020. Following the registration, a social worker conducted a home visit. After completing three years on the waiting list in 2024, they renewed their application this March. Another home visit was done after the renewal as well.

“We registered for adoption at the district child protection office and submitted all documents, including disability certificates. We did the same during the renewal process. Neither the officers present nor any information available from the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) indicated that our disabilities would be a barrier to adopting a child,” said Velmayil.

The court observed that a leave of 180 days is granted to female government employees on the adoption of a child up to one year of age in line with maternity leave as admissible to natural mothers for proper care of the adopted child.

Bhubaneswar:

Orissa High Court has recently ruled that female employees who become mothers through surrogacy have the same right to maternity leave and other benefits as provided to natural and adoptive mothers.

The single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi gave the ruling on June 25 while hearing a petition filed by Supriya Jena, a female Odisha Finance Service (OFS) officer, in 2020.

Jena became a mother through surrogacy, but she was denied 180 days maternity leave by her higher authority in the Odisha government. So, she moved the high court against the government.

Korea's domestic adoption system bars international couples from becoming adoptive parents

This July marks a significant milestone for British national Thomas Pallett and his Korean wife surnamed Kang: seven years of unsuccessful attempts to adopt a child in Korea.

The couple, who live in the southeastern port city of Busan, have faced persistent rejections from local adoption agencies, which primarily cite Pallett’s British nationality as the obstacle. They got married in Korea in May 2019, with Pallett obtaining an F-6 marriage visa that grants him permanent residency.

“Our discussions on adoption began in July 2018 even before we were married. When we first met, I was 35 and my wife was 40. We knew having our own child could be difficult,” Pallett said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

“We tried numerous fertility treatments, including three rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF), but all were unsuccessful," he said.

Julienne Mpemba, a Belgian-Congolese woman from Namur, is suspected of adoption fraud. Belgian families find themselves with a child stolen from Congo. For the defense, all organizations involved in adoption are responsible. The public prosecutor is requesting 12 years in prison.
 

The last day of the trial of Julienne Mpemba from Namur, prosecuted for adoption fraud, human trafficking, kidnapping of minors, hostage-taking, fraud, corruption as well as forgery and use of forged documents, took place this Wednesday before the criminal court of Namur.

For the civil parties, "The defendant lies compulsively." For the federal public prosecutor, the defendant knew that children had been abducted but she still sent them for adoption. He is requesting a 12-year prison sentence.

However, Julienne Mpemba has always denied the facts with which she is accused.

The last day of the trial of Julienne Mpemba from Namur, prosecuted for adoption fraud, human trafficking, kidnapping of minors, hostage-taking, fraud, corruption as well as forgery and use of forged documents, took place this Wednesday before the criminal court of Namur.

Mumbai Court Grants Bail To Doctor And 9 Others In Child Trafficking Case For Fake Adoption Saying 'It Doesn't Fall Under Trafficking Laws'

Granting bail to Dr. Khandare, sessions judge VM Pathade said the offence prima facie does not fall under the definition of human trafficking as section 370 includes “exploitation”

Charul Shah Joshi | Aishwarya Iyer Updated: Wednesday, July 03, 2024, 11:27 AM IST

Inquiries from biological relatives abroad - Henvendelser fra biologisk slægt i udlandet 

Georgian student Elene Deisadze was browsing TikTok in 2022 when she stumbled across the profile of a girl, Anna Panchulidze, who looked exactly like her.  

Months later, after chatting and becoming friends, they both separately learnt they were adopted, and last year decided to take a DNA test. 

It revealed they were not only related, but identical twins. 

"I had a happy childhood, but now my entire past felt like a deception," Anna, an English student at university, told AFP. 

Far from an innocent case of separation at birth, the sisters are among tens of thousands of Georgian children who were illegally sold in a decades-long baby trafficking scandal. 

Julienne Mpemba's trial, which began on June 24, is coming to an end. The Namur native of Congolese origin risks up to 12 years in prison for child trafficking. The children had been taken from their families in Congo to be adopted in Belgium.

It took seven years for the case to finally come to a conclusion . In a few days, Julienne Mpemba will know whether she has been found guilty or not. The 47-year-old woman from Namur of Congolese origin is suspected of human trafficking, adoption fraud, kidnapping of minors, hostage-taking, fraud, corruption and forgery . In 2016, the federal prosecutor's office revealed that at least three of the 11 children who arrived in Belgium in 2015 had been kidnapped. They had been given other identities and dates of birth even though they were not intended to be adopted . These illegal procedures had nevertheless gone under the radar of the Authorized Adoption Organizations (OAA), the French Community and the Belgian and Congolese authorities (several people and organizations were prosecuted but all the cases ended in dismissal).

The trial began on June 24 and, on Wednesday July 3, the pleadings and replies were on the menu for this third day of hearing. Who is Julienne Mpemba? Arriving alone in Belgium, during her youth, she studied law at UCL. With her degree in hand, she then found a job as a lawyer in the Walloon Region. She also ran on the socialist lists during the 2014 European elections. " Because she was sensitive to the poverty in Congo, she decided to create a non-profit organization in 2008 with the aim of sponsoring abandoned children. She herself adopted a little Congolese boy, notes her counsel. She knows the reality of adoption. From 2011, the project will change and become more ambitious. During 2012, several idealists launched the adoption component and created the Tumaini orphanage, which means "hope", in collaboration with the French Community (FWB). Mrs. Mpemba found premises in Congo, nannies and an administrative team to supervise all the young children who were often in poor health. The aim is to offer them a chance."

"She got into debt for these children"

Two waves of adoptions took place in 2012 and 2013. But on September 25, 2013, a moratorium was issued by Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying that children could no longer leave the country for adoptions. " Everyone is in a terrible situation at that time," continues the defense counsel. "We had to feed these children, provide them with medical care, pay the rent for the orphanage, the salaries of the nannies, ... But there is no support, no social security, no subsidy, no help to run this orphanage. So it is Mrs. Mpemba who is struggling on her own funds. She has gone into debt everywhere to run the structure and accommodate these children."

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A Chilean-American raised in the United States filed a criminal complaint against the Chilean government on Monday, alleging that it engaged in a systematic plan to steal thousands of babies from perceived enemies of the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

The case filed by Jimmy Lippert Thyden González, 43, aims to advance the task of Chilean prosecutors and human rights groups working on accountability for crimes committed under Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

On Sept. 11, 1973, Pinochet led a coup to overthrow Marxist President Salvador Allende, ushering in a period of brutal repression until 1990 during which at least 3,095 people were killed and tens of thousands more were imprisoned and tortured for political reasons.

Little more than a year after learning about his origins as one of thousands of Chilean adoptees taken from their biological parents without consent during Pinochet’s dictatorship, Thyden González lodged his lawsuit in Santiago, Chile’s capital.

He did it at a pivotal moment. On Monday, a new judge assumed control over the judicial investigations into the dictatorship’s child-trafficking operations, the latest action as the left-wing government of President Gabriel Boric seeks to strengthen Chile’s accountability efforts.