From the 1970s onwards, Swiss couples adopted thousands of children from countries in the global south. Triggered by the first critical historical studies and demands from adopted people, the federal government and cantons have begun to examine international adoptions in recent years.

How did parents end up separating from their children? Who brought the children to Switzerland and how did they get there? How did the admission and adoption decisions come about? How did people who did not know each other become a family in Switzerland? And how do adopted people today deal with their biographies, what they know and what they do not know?

Panel discussion with Sabine Bitter, Andrea Abraham, Celin Sithy Fässler and Rita Kesselring (moderator)

venue

Das Gleis, Zollstrasse 121, 8005 Zurich

As an American citizen and adoptee, I know firsthand how the values and promises of America have made life exponentially better for those who were not born on these shores.

Twenty years ago, a single mother in a developing nation made a heartbreaking decision. I know very little about her, except that she desperately wanted to give me, her child, a better life – and that she knew in her heart of hearts that she couldn’t do it herself.

She sent me to an orphanage, believing as she gave me away that somewhere, in an uncertain future she knew nothing about, there would be the opportunity for me to grow up safe and happy and free, even if that future never involved her again. That dream was worth giving up her child, and hoping against hope that I could succeed in a world she simply couldn’t get me to.

As she no doubt predicted, she never did see me again. Yet I never write about this issue without thinking about my birth mother.

Two decades after we saw each other for the last time, I have two amazing parents and a job advancing the financial freedom and mobility of everyday Americans. I am more self-realized than I ever imagined.

The Court held that “the prosecution of the petitioner is sugarcoated with ill-intention and made to belittle his image in the society.” ...

Madhya Pradesh High Court: In a writ petition seeking quashment of an FIR registered against the petitioner, who operates an orphanage, for alleged involvement in male trafficking under Section 370 of the IPC, a single-judge bench of Sanjay Dwivedi, J., quashed the FIR alleging male trafficking as the essential elements of Section 370 IPC were absent. 

Factual Matrix I

n the instant matter, the petitioner, Aadhaarshila Sansthan, operates two institutions (i) Bal Bhawan (earlier known as Central India Christian Mission), an orphanage registered as a Child Care Institution under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act) and Central India Academy, a residential school not falling under the JJ Act’s Child Care Institution definition.

In a communication dated 06-08-2024, the City Superintendent of Police, Damoh, sought detailed records regarding children residing in Bal Bhawan and raised concerns about how they were received, their medical records, and whether proper notifications to authorities were made

Following this, an FIR was registered against the petitioner on 07-08-2024, for offenses under Sections 370(3), 370(4), and 34 of the IPC, along with Section 80 of the JJ Act. The FIR was grounded on allegations of improper post-adoption follow-up of two children, ‘X-Bhosle’ and ‘X-Dhurvey’, who were reportedly found living at the orphanage after being adopted. The petitioner filed the present writ petition seeking to quash both the communication dated 06-08-2024 and the FIR.

We are a network of interconnected NGOs and partners that works towards re-establishing links within a family separated by international borders. We want to celebrate and highlight 100 years of Women Explorers, celebrating the women who founded ISS and the women who are leading ISS now, 100 years of Restoring Links, allowing children and their families to be protected and reunited, and 100 years of Pioneer Advocacy, contributing to the development of international private and public law.

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For many Indian orphans, placement in the West is the only chance of a life with a family. But couples willing to adopt must sometimes wage a grueling battle against bureaucracy

© Andrea Schuhmacher
 

The one-year-old sits up in her crib with wide eyes. The girl is much too thin and too small for her age

Jegan shyly points to the crumpled photo in his brown hand. Then he whispers: "Dad, Mum." The man in the picture is holding a blonde woman in his arms. The little Indian's finger continues to wander across the paper: a laughing boy and a girl with cheeky braids are steering a white motorboat. Jegan looks questioningly out from under his jet-black fringe of hair. "Brother," Sister Paulina interjects: "Brother and Sister."

The six-year-old speaks Tamil, he can barely speak English and not at all in German. He could have learned his first words of Swabian months ago if it weren't for the bureaucratic hurdles: Monika and Ulrich Kippelt from Alfdorf in Stuttgart have been fighting to adopt the Indian orphan since September 2003. The story of Jegan and his new parents is a drama with great emotions, disappointments and hopes and an uncertain ending. It shows how difficult international adoptions are - and how important.

Social Committee 2023-24
SOU Alm. part Annex 290
Public
 

Police in Guatemala raided five regional offices of British aid agency Save the Children on Monday as part of an investigation into alleged child abuse.

Prosecutors requested information from US authorities in April about the alleged involvement of the organisation in smuggling children across the border, according to local media.

Save the Children said it was "aware of the activity" at their offices, and denied the prosecutors' allegations.

The prosecutor in charge of the case, Rafael Curruchiche, and the country's attorney general, Consuelo Porras, have previously been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for attacks on democracy.

Curruchiche said the searches were being carried out in different regions of the country as part of a "transnational investigation of great importance", in a video statement on X.

The GLP Thurgau has submitted a simple request to the government council to shed light on the illegal adoptions of Indian children between 1973 and 2002. Several cases are said to concern the canton of Thurgau.

The report "Mother Unknown", which was commissioned by the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau, "reveals serious misconduct", according to a statement from the Thurgau Green Liberals. Many adoptions were carried out without the consent of the biological mothers and on the basis of forged documents.

"The adoptions were not just acts of charity, but also a business model," the GLP states. Homes in India released children for adoption and received money from Switzerland. "Despite missing or incomplete documents, the relevant authorities in Thurgau approved the adoptions. This means that the canton shares responsibility."

Families who spent years in limbo have had their hopes dashed, and some analysts fear disabled children may never get to enjoy family life

China’s abrupt decision to ban international adoptions last month appears to have crushed the dreams of hundreds of foreign families and possibly ended the last chance many Chinese children would have had of a family life.

“You’re losing a kid even though you didn’t give birth to them and you haven’t even met them,” said Kathy Rice, one of the affected would-be parents. “But they’ve been part of our family all this time and all of a sudden we’re losing them.”

Rice had been waiting for five years to adopt Ruby, a teenager with Down’s syndrome, and bring her home to Michigan.

Updated 07 Oct. 2024 AT 1:26 PM

The black car slows down and stops in front of a low brick house.

The house's brown front doors are open, but Natalie Montaño (35) stays inside the car.

Right now, she is regretting the Facebook post she made three years ago. The post that has led her from Oslo to this house in Colombia.

The body feels numb. Disconnected, like a shell.