After the 1976 coup, the military brutally crushed its opponents. At least 500 babies were taken from their captured parents and given to military couples to raise. Many still live unaware of their true identity

One autumn afternoon in 1983, paediatrician Jorge Meijide was called to an apartment in the small town of Acassuso, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. His six-year-old patient turned out to have nothing more than a mild flu, but Meijide sensed that something else was wrong in the household.

The woman who claimed to be the child’s mother seemed to him too old to be his parent. On the walls hung photos of a man in military uniform: presumably the boy’s father.

In 1980s Argentina both details were more than suspect. The country was slowly returning to democracy after the “dirty war” waged by the military dictatorship under Jorge Videla, known as the “Hitler of the Pampa”. After the 1976 coup, Argentina’s military set about crushing any potential opposition and eventually 30,000 people were killed or disappeared, almost all of them civilians. Pregnant prisoners were kept alive until they gave birth and then murdered. At least 500 newborns were taken from their parents while in captivity and given to military couples to raise as their own.

Soldiers frisk a man at a checkpoint in Buenos Aires in 1977. The military dictatorship of 1976-1983 left about 30,000 people missing; Jorge Videla,, who led the military junta from 1976 until 1981. Photographs: Ali Burafi/AFP/Getty Images and Keystone/Getty Images

Amajor discrepancy between Nepal government and foreign records of the number of Nepali children adopted in North America and Europe has exposed a trafficking ring that involves various child welfare agencies in Kathmandu.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens has records of only 64 children from Nepal sent for adoption to ten western countries from 2010 to 2019. However, a list submitted to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) by the US Department of State and the nine other countries reveals that 242 Nepali children were taken for adoption in those nine years.

The ten countries are the United States, Denmark, France, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden. There are 178 more Nepali children adopted internationally than the government has records for. Why the discrepancy?

“The data we have is authentic,” maintains Ministry spokesperson Gyanendra Paudel. “We have no idea how the details in other countries showed more numbers.”

Read also: Baby bajar, Anagha Neelakantan

PUNE: The process of issuing final adoption orders to prospective adoptive parents has come to a standstill in Maharashtra since January 11, a day after Bombay high court stayed implementation of a notification authorizing district collectors to pass such orders.

Child adoption agencies said the move has further delayed issuance of the final adoption order to prospective parents in waiting since September last year, after the amended Juvenile Justice Rules were notified.

The notification of the 'Model Amendment Rules 2022' to implement the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021, which came into force on September 1 last year, empowered district collectors to issue adoption orders, which were till then the domain of the district courts.

However, after the HC order stayed the new rules' implementation in January this year, adoption agencies have been unable to obtain adoption orders for prospective adoptive parents.

Prajakta Kulkarni, founder of Snehankur Adoption Centre, told TOI, "We have 13 older children currently in foster care with their prospective parents, who have been waiting for the final adoption order since September 2022. The absence of an adoption order is affecting various processes, such as preventing the parents from getting the child's birth certificate required for admitting him/her into a school or get Aadhaar made."

License holders

Since 1989 in the Netherlands an organization that mediates in adoption has

been obliged to apply for a permit. Although there has been talk of a licensing

system since 1980, this was only introduced in 1989 with the “Wet Adoption of

Foreign Children for Adoption” (WOBKA). Only after 1989, therefore, there are

Bareilly: In 2019, she was found abandoned in an earthen pot, having survived the night, and got the name "miracle baby" (the court addressed her only as ‘S’). Later, in December 2022, some right-wing activists lodged an FIR against the orphanage in Bareilly and a Malta-based couple that adopted her, charging them with "wrongful conversion” and alleged that the orphanage staff had changed the baby’s faith and made her an Aadhaar card with a “new Christian name”. Thereafter, theDelhi HC in December directed the UP government "not to harass the orphanage staff and stop the proceedings under the unlawful conversion law in the FIR". It also directed the UP administration “not to create hurdles in the baby’s adoption process or her journey to Malta with her adoptive parents.” However, now the nephew of former BJP MLA Pappu Bhartaul aka Rajesh Mishra, Amit, has approached the Supreme Court seeking “cancellation of the adoption of the miracle baby” as he alleged “there are discrepancies in the adoption process”. He said, “The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) doesn’t share complete information about the children on their website and special preference is given to parents from European countries.” Amit’s advocate Shraddha Saxena said, “My client wanted to adopt the girl in question but her details are not listed on the CARA website. As of now, the SC has held the adoption process and ordered that the girl shall remain at the place where she is residing.”The next date of hearing in the matter is February 6.

The State has discontinued a case in which eight Croatian nationals were charged with attempted child trafficking on the Zambian territory after they allegedly adopted four juveniles from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last December.

Meanwhile, Zambian authorities have ordered the eight discharged Croatians to leave the country within 48 hours.

State advocate Mahape Libakeni, who made the application on Monday morning, stated that the matter was discontinued pursuant to section 88(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia.

“This matter was coming up for continued trial, however the people are discontinuing it,” he said in the Ndola Magistrates Court.

In response, lawyers from the Legal Aid Board representing the eight Croatian nationals did not object to the application from the state.

Pétition en faveur des familles victimes du moratoire roumain sur les adoptions

Plusieurs eurodéputés, emmenés par les Français Claire Gibault et Jean-Marie Cavada (démocrates libéraux), ont lancé une pétition dans laquelle ils demandent que les autorités roumaines reviennent sur les refus qu'elles ont opposés à quelque 1 000 familles.

Par Rafaële Rivais

Publié le 04 juillet 2006 à 13h57, mis à jour le 04 juillet 2006 à 13h57

Temps deLecture 3 min.

Madison Zoey Vettorino

Madison Zoey Vettorino

Feb 12, 2020

Adoptees in New York Gain Access to Sealed Birth Records

By Jennifer Borjes

A three-part series coming to Amazon Prime Video will unpack the extraordinary story of a former Flintshire couple who made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic when they paid more than $10,000 to adopt twin baby girls.

Three Mothers, Two Babies and A Scandal will launch exclusively on Prime Video on Friday, November 18.

It will hear from the three of the women at the heart of an internet baby adoption scandal: Judith, Vickie and Tranda, speaking together for the very first time.

Judith and Alan Kilshaw paid $12,000 to adopt twin baby girls from a young American mother, Tranda.

Global outrage ensued. The Kilshaws stood accused of buying the babies online and the new World Wide Web appeared to facilitate a global baby trade.

While families across the country prepare to gather for Christmas, Michael Hickey is facing another festive season forbidden from meeting his mother.

He is one of thousands of adopted Australians barred from contacting biological family members under so-called "contact vetoes".

Adoption lobby groups are fighting for an end to the vetoes, arguing they were "cruel" and "outdated".

Mr Hickey was adopted out as a newborn in Perth in 1960 when unmarried mothers were shunned and often pressured into giving up their babies.

He knew from a young age he was adopted and tried to find his biological mother when he was in his 30s.