Main defendant in the case of alleged fraud in the adoption of Congolese children, the Belgian-Congolese lawyer, Julienne Mpemba, delivers, for the first time, her version of the facts to a media, a few days after her dismissal in correctional ( criminal court) by the Dinant Council Chamber. For her, it is a completely fabricated affair, because there has never been any theft of children and the investigation has never proven the slightest theft of children.

Le Courrier de Kinshasa: You are the main defendant in a case of alleged theft of children in Congo to have them adopted in Belgium and you have just been referred to the correctional court, therefore before a criminal court. Could you summarize the substance of this case for us?

Julienne Mpemba : First, I deny all the charges against me and I reject them altogether. There have never been any child thefts. Indeed, I have just been returned to correctional in this case where there were ten accused. At the level of the rules of procedure, my lawyers and I had seen fit not to fight at the level of the Council Chamber. I was impatiently awaiting a referral to corrections, because I want to go and explain myself to the trial judge. I was therefore not surprised by this referral to correctional, given that I never asked for the case to be dismissed. My strategy was not to fight in front of the Council Chamber in order not to reveal my defense strategy.

LCK: You reject the charges, but what are the reasons for which you are being prosecuted?

JM: If I have to lay out all the reasons, we could spend 48 hours discussing. I am currently in the process of writing a book on this case, in particular on the genesis of this assembly and the way in which all my rights were disregarded. There was never any child theft and the investigation never proved that there was child theft.

Abstract

In their article on ‘Investigating historical abuses’ Yannick Balk, Georg Frerks and Beatrice de Graaf (2022) present an applied history of intercountry adoption to the Netherlands over the past 70 years and conclude that a moratorium on intercountry adoption is necessary because of the many adoption abuses. In this paper we comment on their aims, methods, results, and conclusions. Applied historical analysis without considering the numerous empirical studies on the effects of (de-)institutionalization is problematic if the application is to impact policy. Furthermore, using inaccessible archival material and opaque triangulation hinders replication. An estimate of the overall frequency of adoption abuses is absent. Any adoption abuse is a serious violation of children’s rights and needs to be addressed. However, we argue that their findings do not necessitate the recommendation to (temporarily) stop intercountry adoption at the expense of children in institutions for whom intercountry adoption would be the last resort.

Keywords: international adoption; abuses; institutionalization; policy; translational research; Dutch Committee Investigating Intercountry Adoption (CIIA)

1 Introduction

A recent estimate of numbers of children left in institutions worldwide was estimated in 2020 to be 7.5 million.1 The number of children who became orphans during the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to be around 5 million since 2020, and still counting.2 In many cases the wider social network will take care of these children, but many others run the risk of ending on the street or in institutional care. The recent war raging in Ukraine might add to these numbers.3 From our recent meta-analyses commissioned by The Lancet Psychiatry, covering more than 300 studies in more than 60 countries across 70 years, we had to conclude that institutional care has a devastating impact on children in all developmental domains, ranging from physical and brain growth to socio-emotional development.4

Paying an official visit to Brussels Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakc? attended the 79th Türkiye-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Meeting and held a string of meetings with high level EU Officials between 16-18 March 2022.

On the first day of the Brussels programme, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakc? held meetings with Oliver Varhelyi, EU Commission Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner, Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth and Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament Türkiye Rapporteur.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs Ambassador Faruk Kaymakc? also came together with Ylva Johansson and European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Simon Mordue, Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the European Council Charles Michel, Themis Christophidou, European Commission Director-General for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture, Charles Fries, Deputy Secretary-General in charge of the Common Security and Defence Policy and Crisis Response,

On the last day of the programme Deputy Minister Ambassador Kaymakc? came together with Marie Arena, European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Chair and Fernando Andresen Guimaraes, Diplomatic Advisor in the cabinet of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Danish Korean Rights Group

CVR number 43196928

Start date 13/04 - 2022

Address c/o Peter Møller

C.F. Richs Vej 105A, 2nd tv.

Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of European Union Member States Endorse EU Enlargement and Opening of First Negotiation Chapters with Serbia

European Integration Committee Chairman Aleksandar Senic and Committee members Dusica Stojkovic and Katarina Susnjar took part in the 54th meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), in Luxembourg, 29 November – 1 December, organised in the context of the parliamentary dimension of the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council.

One of the key topics of the meeting was the EU enlargement policy. The member states spoke about the historical success of EU enlargement which had united and ensured the stability and progress of the old continent. They commended the support the European Commission provides to the candidate countries to help them meet the membership criteria and the progress of the Western Balkan countries in the stabilisation and association process. Simon Mordue of the EC Directorate General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said that in the last year Serbia had achieved notable progress in its economic reform, rule of law and fight against corruption, and the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and announced the opening of chapters 35 and 32 in December, at the international conference.

The Chair of the German Parliament’s Committee on the Affairs of the European Union, Gunther Krichbaum restated that the Western Balkan countries have a clear prospect of EU membership and informed the participants that the Bundestag green-lighted and recommended the opening of the first negotiation chapters with Serbia. He said that the reforms belong to the candidate country and that they are in the interest of the Serbian citizens. The quality of the negotiation is much more important than the number of opened chapters which is not in itself a measure of success. Speaking of Serbia he said that he agreed with the EC director and that chapters 35 and 32 would be opened in December, soon to be followed, in the first quarter of 2016, by chapters 23 and 24. Krichbaum said it is possible that Serbia’s membership talks will pick up speed after the opening of the first chapters, because a lot of time has passed and Serbia has in the meantime actively conducted reforms and prepared for the other negotiation chapters. He said he had a great deal of trust in Serbia, its institutions and the ongoing reform process.

European Integration Committee Chairman Aleksandar Senic emphasised the importance of support and encouragement for the European prospects of all the Western Balkan countries, adding that he was sure all the obstacles on Serbia’s path to opening the first chapters by the end of the year have been removed and that all the EU member states would support the efforts of the Serbian institutions by endorsing the opening of the negotiating chapters at the coming international conference. Senic opined that the enlargement process remains crucial for the momentum of the reforms and the future of the Western Balkan countries, well-being and stability in the region, and, he believes, the accession talks have the same kind of priority for the European Union as before: they continue in the same spirit with the same dedication, and the EU member states will continue to actively support Serbia and the countries of the region in their preparations for accession.

From 2012, the French Community of Belgium launched an adoption program with Congo. Risky bet in a country that has no census of its population and where corruption is endemic? No doubt, but solid guarantees were given. Belgian legislation among the most demanding in Europe, preparation missions which gave full satisfaction, a local partner, the non-profit organization "Tumaini", directed by a Belgian-Congolese lawyer (Julienne Mpemba) and chaired by an international reference in the world filiation (Géraldine Mathieu, University of Namur). The experience will prove catastrophic. As revealed in 2017 Het Laatste Nieuws, four children out of the last 12 to arrive in Belgium are said to be “stolen” from their families, and a fifth is said to have been promised to two families. For two years, the French Community was unable to take the measure of the debacle which was announced and supporting until the end the financial requests of Tumaini.

Médor investigated the case of Simon, a young Congolese promised to an American family and a Belgian family. It sheds a harsh light on Tumaini's practices.

Monday, October 5, 2015. Around 3 p.m. Somewhere in Hainaut. Sylvie Durant receives a call. This is the Belgian embassy in Kinshasa (DR Congo). Can she come the next day to Zaventem airport? At 5 a.m.? His son Simon arrives. Her interlocutor, the Ambassador in person, insists: she must not tell anyone. Not even the French Community.

Tuesday, October 6, 5 a.m., in Zaventem. Simon is snuggled up in the arms of an embassy employee. Sylvie and her companion Pierre take away the puny kid.

The same day, the administration of the French Community, informed late on of Simon's arrival, asks Sylvie and Pierre not to say anything. The next day, the office of socialist minister Rachid Madrane (in charge of adoption at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation), through the voice of his chief of staff Eric Mercenier, invites "a certain discretion". Why ? 11 adopted children are still at the orphanage and talking could “compromise the efforts undertaken by the Belgian authorities” to bring them back. There would however be things to “say”: on his arrival, Simon weighs 8 kilos at 2.5 years old. He was undernourished and risks lifelong sequelae.

The European Commission on Tuesday named a new deputy director-general in the migration and home affairs department — and, to the surprise of many, it’s a Brit.

Simon Mordue, a director in the enlargement department, will start his new job on December 1, but the choice of a British official for a senior EU job after the Brexit vote has caused anger, with Italy’s deputy foreign minister calling it “a scandal.”

“In his new role, Mr. Mordue will be in charge of key EU policies in the area of migration and home affairs and, notably, the European agenda for migration,” said a Commission memo on the appointment. He’s an experienced Eurocrat, having worked in the private offices of commissioners Günter Verheugen and Štefan Füle.

“Why do we keep on appointing Brits to key positions?” Mario Giro, deputy Italian foreign minister, told POLITICO during a donor conference for the Central African Republic last week. He was already aware that Mordue was in line for a promotion, remembering him as “the one that negotiated the [migration] deal with Turkey,” referring to the fact that Mordue, in his previous position at the enlargement department, was director for strategy and Turkey.

“We are strongly against it,” Giro said of his new appointment.

Romanian child adopted and sodomised for years

-- Pedophile US minister William Delos Peckenpaugh had "excellent references"

US citizen William Delos Peckenpaugh from Oregon is on trial. He abused sexually his adoptive son of Romanian origin. This was unveiled when a recording showing his deeds was discovered in the memory of the video camera which he returned to an electric device shop, informs Salem News.com from Oregon. Peckenpaugh is aged 37 and last week he was accused of having committed 6 first-degree sodomy acts, 2 first-degree sexual abuses and use of a child for sexual exposure.

The man has got no criminal record. He was arrested and is now in the Marion prison and he may not be set free on bail. The abused child is now 9 and was taken over by the Social Services and placed in a childcare institute.

The Marion County Sheriff Office started investigation in mid November, after a couple had bought a video camera from a shop and discovered in the memory a recording of the supposed sexual abuse. Marcela Dumitras, Head of the Child Protection Department in Buzau, stated William D. Peckenpaugh had excellent references when asking for adoption. " The person asking to adopt Daniel, a 4 - year old child abandoned by his parents at Childcare Institute no. 6 in Ramnicu Sarat, looked respectable. He was a minister at the Methodist Church in the locality. He was involved in several community activities. In his leisure time he used to participate in volunteer activities to the use of community and helped his brother and sisters with the children", Marcela Dumitras also said. Last week Romanian authorities claimed that they had received only positive reports on him from US authorities that were said to monitor the child's evolution. (G.D.)

European Union: common platform for adoptions presented

Wednesday 20 February 2008

These are the fundamental points of the declaration presented by Buquicchio: the need to request the consent of the minor for adoption, where he is able to express it; the duty to assess the child's wishes and the need to listen to him in the process that decides her legal status; the obligation to have consent for the adoption of the child by the father; the extension of adoption to heterosexual couples who are not married but registered in a register of civil unions and singles.

The text highlights that the ban on international adoption cannot be the adequate solution for thousands of minors living outside the family in Europe. Preventing adoption is in stark contrast to the principle of acting in the best interest of the child enshrined in European conventions and treaties on the rights of the child. As Deputy Secretary Buquicchio pointed out, this was the case in Romania, which effectively blocked international adoption from 1 January 2005 to combat illegal adoptions - the law on child protection, in fact, provides for it only for minor whose grandfather resides abroad -. Yet the trafficking of minors would not have decreased, they say from Strasbourg, on the contrary, the Romanian criminal organizations would continue to get in touch with foreign families, willing to offer any amount in order to have a child. Countries that have already blocked international adoptions should, therefore, according to the promoters of the initiative, review their procedures and gradually reopen international adoption.

In this sense, the promoters of the initiative hope that the member governments of the European Union and the Council of Europe will collaborate in greater depth to seek safe and legitimate solutions to guarantee the right of orphans and abandoned children to have a family. A basis from which to build is the existing Community legal instruments of the European Union and the Council of Europe, but new instruments should be agreed upon if necessary. The signatories expect the Declaration to be precisely a tool to urge Governments to act in this direction, to achieve significant and immediate progress in the supreme interest of the abandoned child.

A senior official from the Department of Social Defence in Tamil Nadu said that non-availability of breast milk is a concern for newborns who are under the care of specialised adoption agencies

The non-availability of breast milk for newborns under the care of specialised adoption agencies in Tamil Nadu is a concern, S. Valarmathi, State’s Director of Social Defence, said here on Saturday.

Inaugurating the fourth edition of “Clinical updates in Indian breastfeeding practice” at SIMS Hospital here, she pointed out that there were many infants who did not have access to breast milk in the roughly 20 specialised adoption agencies under the monitoring of the Department of Social Defence.

Highlighting the importance of breast milk for infants, she asked if any of the organisations and healthcare professionals participating in the conference would be able to help in ensuring access to breast milk for these children.

According to the Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department, under which the Department of Social Defence functions, 23 specialised adoption agencies are functioning in the State. Orphaned, abandoned or surrendered children are kept under the care of these agencies after they are declared legally free for adoption by the Child Welfare Committees of respective districts.