Justice minister Franc Weerwind wants to make foreign adoption possible again in order to "not exclude" prospective parents. Children's and human rights organizations are outraged. They believe that the minister does not put the interests of children first.

"There will always be people with an unfulfilled wish to have children. For example, people who have a same-sex partner. We want to offer that group a choice by still allowing adoption from abroad," a spokesperson for Minister Weerwind told NU.nl. . "If we completely stop foreign adoption, we will exclude these prospective parents. For the time being, we therefore see no reason to stop adopting from abroad."

The minister says that foreign adoption is only possible if a child cannot receive suitable care in its own country and there is no other option. The government will monitor this more closely. In addition, the Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) expects that foreign adoption will automatically decrease. For example, 145 children from abroad were adopted in 2019. In 2015, this was still 304 children.

Intended parents can now adopt children from six countries: Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, South Africa, Lesotho and Hungary. Adopting a child from China, the United States, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Colombia, Peru, Slovakia and the Czech Republic is no longer possible. In these countries it is more difficult to supervise adoption practices strictly, or the minister is of the opinion that suitable reception can better be arranged in the own country. The ministry is also investigating whether it will also remain possible to adopt children from Portugal and Bulgaria.

Mistakes cannot be avoided

Welcome to Our Place, an article series exploring identity in Aotearoa. This article explores M?ori adoptee identity, the legislation reform, and the importance of whakapapa and tikanga M?ori.

Adoption can look different for everyone, and this article does not represent everybody’s story. Instead, it focuses on two individual perspectives, told through the lens of M?ori adoptee Dr Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, and daughter of a M?ori adoptee, Dr Erica Newman.

The European idea of adoption has been legally practiced in New Zealand for over 67 years. But wh?ngai, a M?ori kinship practice, has been practiced since before colonisation. Wh?ngai is where tamariki M?ori are brought up by wh?nau, instead of their birth parents. Many knew who their birth parents were and kept in contact, but they grew up in a different family member’s home.

Adoption grew in Aotearoa from the 1950s, and in 1955 The Adoption Act changed the way in which children were adopted. Adoptions would be closed, a clean break – there would be no legal obligation for birth parents to stay in contact with their child. Single mothers who adopted their child out were thought, through a closed practice, to be given a second chance.

M?ori, who had not been allowed to legally adopt non-M?ori children since 1909, were now treated the same as P?keh?. Iwi affiliations were hardly recorded. This meant that many M?ori adoptees grew up without knowledge of their whakapapa and were disconnected from tikanga M?ori.

The South Korean Cabinet on Tuesday approved bills to allow single people to adopt children, as the number of one-person households is sharply increasing.

The Justice Ministry revised the Civil Act and the Family Litigation Act, which currently stipulate only married couples can legally adopt, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Under the revisions, single people can adopt if they are 25 or older and meet requirements to sufficiently guarantee the welfare of the children.

The Ministry said it will submit the amendments to the National Assembly on Friday for approval, while it also strengthened qualification reviews of would-be adoptive parents.

The revisions call on the family court to consider parenting time and the post-adoption environment when reviewing applications, in addition to their capability and conditions to raise a child.

The territorial police in Kampala Metropolitan, charged two foster parents, of American origin, to Buganda Road Court on the 09.12.2022, with the Aggravated torture of their 10-year-old son, and they were remanded till the 14.12.2022. The facts gathered indicate that, Nicholas Spencer aged 32 and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, a 32-year-old, volunteer, fostered 3 children, including Kayima John, in 2018, from Welcome Ministry, in Jinja City. The suspects came to Uganda in 2017, and started working with Akola Project, based in Jinja. The couple joined Motive Creation Agency, and moved with their children to Upper Naguru, where they have been staying together.

It was however, realised that between the year, 2020 and December 2022, the couple constantly tortured, a one Kayima John, a 10-year-old pupil of Dawn Children’s Center in Ntinda, which attracted the attention of neighbours. They alerted the police at Kira Road Division and investigations commenced. Our team of investigators established, that the couple kept the victim barefoot, and naked throughout the day, would occasionally make him squat in an awkward position, with his head facing the floor and hands spread out widely, he spent his nights on a wooden platform, without a mattress or beddings and was served cold meals from the fridge. We believe, the victim could have endured more severe acts of torture, away from the camera.

We want to thank the neighbours, teachers and the victim, for taking the courage to stand-up against acts of child torture. We also call upon al probation offices and social workers, to continuously monitor the well-being of children in foster homes, to guard against handing over vulnerable children to abusive foster parents, or other forms of harm. For instance, what happened to the victim, in the last couple of years, probably could have been prevented, if they had closely monitored the well-being of the foster children.

The suspects came to Uganda in 2017, where Nicholas started working with AKOLA Project based in Jinja. In 2018, they fostered 3 children including the victim from Welcome Ministry – Jinja. They moved to Kampala when they joined Motive Creation Agency, with their 3 children.

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A Gurugram-based couple was booked for sexually exploiting two minor children they had adopted through a Kolkata-based organisation. The couple exploited the kids for nearly three months before sending them back to the adoption centre.

By India Today Web Desk: Two kids were sexually exploited by a couple in Gurugram who had adopted them from a Kolkata-based organisation. They exploited two minor siblings for over nearly three months before sending them back, said the police.

The incident came to the fore when the kids were sent for a medical examination. On November 29, a complaint was lodged in the matter by Deepak Sinha on behalf of the Indian Society for Rehabilitation at Rabindra Sarobar police station in Kolkata.

ADOPTED KIDS SEXUALLY EXPLOITED

The police booked Nitin Sharma and his wife, residents of Sector 10, Gurugram, who had adopted a 2-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother from Kolkata on March 30.

Smriti Irani also said that more girls are being adopted in the country since the last three years and gave figures for the same.

New Delhi: A child will not have to get adopted if there are more parents who are ready to do the procedure, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani told the Rajya Sabha, underlining that more girl children are being adopted in India in the last three years against boys.

Replying to the supplementaries during question hour, the minister said the average time taken to adopt a child through court processes was so lengthy that a minimum of two years was needed by adoptive parents in terms of waiting and to reduce the time gap the ministry has proposed the amendment in the law, as in many cases it took up to 3.5 years.

"On September 23 this year, we notified the new regulation as there were close to 900 cases pending in states in our high courts. After the states acted on the new resolution, over 580 children have already been adopted, including children who are in the 'hard to place' category in older age groups who have never been adopted before," she told the house.

Ms Irani said there are children who are older and are made available to our NRI diaspora and OCI card holders.

Diphu (Assam), Dec 13 (PTI) Abandoned at birth by her biological parents, a two-year-old child from a remote area in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district has found home in distant Spain with a professor from the European country formally adopting her on Tuesday.

Maria Emngal Rams arrived at Dhansiri town of this hill district early on Tuesday morning and took custody of the minor after spending more than two months for paperwork and other formalities.

“The adoption process was done through CARA and after approving and verifying all documents, we handed the child to her new mother at a function here,” Sanju Bora, founder member of ‘Mission Concern’, an adoption agency where the child was staying, said.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is a statutory body of the union ministry of women and child development which functions as the nodal body to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.

The adoption agency official said the child was brought to Mission Concern two years ago in a serious condition. She was abandoned by the roadside and ants had bitten through her flesh severely.

Hindu and Christian personal law treat adopted child on a par with natural-born ones

Under Hindu law, an adopted son or daughter is treated exactly the same as a natural-born child

The High Court of Karnataka has ruled that adopted children have the same rights as biological children and can’t be discriminated against when they apply for their deceased parent’s job on compassionate grounds. The court, in the case of Girish, s/o Vinayan K Muttatti Vs State of Karnataka & others, said that the state government must give a compassionate appointment to the adopted son.

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Dear PAO,

Two years ago, my brother and his wife, who both work on a cruise ship, legally adopted Den, a 2-year-old boy. I took care of Den when both were away because of the nature of their work. I grew fond of him over the course of time. Sadly, his adoptive parents died due to a shipwreck. As their next of kin, I took Den home. Since then, I have been taking care of my nephew without any problem until one day, the biological parents showed up at my house and told me that they wanted Den back. They told me they should be the ones who should rear their son now that the adoptive parents are gone. I told them that they were not his parents anymore and that, as his aunt, I should be the one who should take care of him. Who between us is correct?

poster

Rona

Dear Rona,

Synopsis

A Hindu couple entered into an agreement with a Muslim Couple that they will give their child to the Muslim couple at birth. The Hindu couple claimed that they were financially unable to raise the child.

The Karnataka High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by a Muslim Couple against dismissal of their plea under Sections 7 to 10 and 25 of the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 to appoint them as adoptive parents of a Hindu child.

The bench of Justice B Veerappa and Justice K. S. Hemalekha noted that the Muslim Couple and the biological parents of the child had entered into an agreement in respect of child's adoption even before the child was born.

Court said, "It is shocking that an agreement is entered into between the parties in respect of an unborn child".