TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has ruled out reopening the redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes.

A High Court ruling which found the Commission of Investigation acted unlawfully by denying fair procedure to the survivors prompted calls for the scheme to be reviewed.

In a significant victory for the survivors on 17 December, the State admitted that the women are indeed identifiable in the final report and should have been given a right to reply to the sections relevant to them prior to the report’s publication.

Philomena Lee and Mary Harney are two of eight survivors of the institutions who took issue with the Commission’s final report and overall findings.

The women’s legal action proceeded as two test cases that would set a precedent for any future cases. Today’s settlement also extends to the six other cases.

We were noticed. We were ignored. We were stared at. We were talked about. We were asked questions. We asked questions. We were welcomed. We became involved and participated. We became friends. We learned about India, its diversity, its people, its traditions, its culture, and its religions. We traveled around India. We celebrated being an Indian American family. We were two white American parents with one, then two, then three kids from Calcutta, and eventually with one through birth and one from China (which then made us an Indian-Chinese-American family). We were a transracial, transcultural family and we were unlike the majority of families that we saw every day. That was an important piece of our familial identity, one we could not and chose not to ignore.

From the day my then-husband and I decided to adopt from India, I was excited and began reading and researching everything I could about this country I’d only heard about through television and a few stories I’d read as a young girl. I had never met anyone from India, but when we decided that our first child would be from there, I started noticing every family in which the children did not look like the parents (i.e., white parents with non-white kids), and I especially was on the alert for anyone who might be from India: people with darker skin than me, women with that little dot on their forehead and wearing a lot of fabric wrapped around them like a dress, men who maybe wore a tunic top. Whether I was at the grocery store or on the university campus or at an art show, or anywhere in public, I was watching. I wanted to run up to each person I thought might be from India and ask them if they were and share with them my excitement that we were adopting a child from “their” country. But I didn’t. I stayed quiet, just observing, listening, and reading.

Honor Their Country of Birth

I especially focused on books, magazines, and newspaper articles having anything to do with India. Record albums and cassette tapes of musicians from India (mainly ragas and Ravi Shankar at first) found their way into my music collection. At that time, there were no Indian restaurants within 90 minutes of our home, and I was not even aware of Indian food, anyway. However, the orphanage staff in Calcutta did their best to educate us about the city our kids would be coming from. One of the most important pieces of advice we received from the adoption agency in Oregon and the orphanage in India was that we owed it to our children to honor their country of birth and to learn as much as we could about their country of origin. I took that to heart, but I wasn’t sure at first what else we needed to do. The orphanage staff also sent waiting adoptive parents a list of Indian names with their meanings and asked that we consider giving our children either a first or middle name from India.

After our first child, Dana Tarun, joined our family, I got busy figuring out, along with another adoptive mom whose child came the week before mine, what other things we had to start doing. Thus began an amazing journey as a mom and as a young woman, a journey that created, and continues to create, immense joy in my life.

I shouldn’t ever take my adoptive parents for granted. Life hasn’t been perfect since I was adopted. But I wouldn’t change how it has played out for anything.

Thanks to advances in DNA testing and a dash of Hollywood theatrics (I’m looking at you, “Lion”), there has been an increased discussion and focus among Indian adoptees wanting to find their biological parents and other family members.

However, I have never been or will ever be one of those adoptees. While I completely understand and support the desire to know and possibly reconnect with biological relatives, in my mind my adoptive family is my one and only family.

Truth be told, the only time in my life I’ve wondered about my biological parents was in elementary school when I still had dreams of being a professional basketball player. I just wanted to know how tall my parents were — in hopes that maybe I’d grow a few inches taller. Alas, that was not meant to be.

A large reason for my lack of interest in searching for my biological family is because my adoptive parents did one thing very well: they did their best to keep me and my siblings aware of and connected to my heritage.

The Brazilian celebrity faith healer accused of sexually abusing hundreds of women is now facing allegations he sold babies to foreigners, including Australians, for up to $70,000 each.

Joao Teixeira de Faria, also known as John of God, was arrested in Brazil in December after hundreds of people came forward with allegations of rape and threats of violence. Many claimed they were underage at the time of the alleged abuse.

Now, John of God has been hit with stunning new claims that he operated a baby-selling and human trafficking ring from his spiritual compound in Abadiania, 130km south-west of Brasilia.

Prosecutors have reportedly been given information that an unknown number of adoptive parents from five countries, including Australia and the US, bought Brazilian babies for a price between $27,000 and $70,000, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.

The infants were said to be born to impoverished mothers who lived around John of God's compound, the newspaper reported.

Over four decades, he worked as a celebrity faith healer in Abadiânia, a small town in central Brazil.

It was there - conducting bizarre and unproven medical procedures - that João Teixeira de Faria became known as John of God, building a legion of believers across the world, including a band of loyal followers in Australia who were happy to open their wallets for his supposed miracle-giving touch and ethereal blessings.

Each week, people from all corners of the globe flocked in their thousands to John of God's compound, Casa de Dom Inacio, 130km south-west of Brasilia.

There, dressed in all white, many hoped to find a cure for cancer, blindness or to stand and rise from their wheelchairs.

Faria's rising fame was elevated to a new trajectory, courtesy of some Hollywood star dust, when Oprah Winfrey came calling in 2010 for a series titled "Do You Believe in Miracles?"

Latvia: Parliament Passes Amendments That Will End Intercountry Adoptions to the United States

Last Updated: December 29, 2021

The U.S. Embassy in Riga has confirmed that the Latvian Parliament, Saeima, passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Children's Rights, which will ultimately prohibit intercountry adoptions to the United States, effective July 1, 2022.

The new amendments were signed into law on December 29, 2021. Under the new law, intercountry adoptions from Latvia will only be permitted to countries that have ratified both the Hague Adoption Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and have a bilateral agreement with Latvia establishing a legal framework for adoption.? As a result of the changes, intercountry adoptions will not be allowed between Latvia and the United States, effective July 1, 2022.??

The Embassy will prioritize intercountry adoption cases from Latvia to the United States that are currently in process, as it is our understanding that all cases in which prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) have received referrals before June 30, 2022, will be able to continue under current processes. If PAPs have not received a referral by June 30, 2022, they will not be able to pursue an intercountry adoption from Latvia after July 1, 2022. The Office of Children’s Issues and the U.S. Embassy in Riga are working to identify all pending adoptions cases that are in process. If an adoption service provider (ASP) is aware of any pending petitions for an adoption from Latvia, please contact the Office of Children’s Issues at aspadoption@state.gov immediately.

UN General Assembly recognizes the inextricable link between the Rights of the Child and the 2030 Agenda in a newly adopted resolution

On 18 November 2021, the UN Resolution on the Rights of the Child was adopted by consensus by the Third committee(link is external) of the General Assembly. The EU facilitated this resolution, in co-operation with the penholder, the Group of Latin America and Caribbean countries (GRULAC), with a focus on the rights of the child and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Accelerating the SDGs, and addressing new challenges

The resolution focuses on the inextricable link between the 2030 Agenda and the Right of the Child in accordance with this year’s UN Secretary-General’s report on the Status of the Convention. Beyond the sustainable development goals (SDGs) dedicated to children explicitly, all SDGs have an impact on child rights; and the promotion and fulfillment of the rights of the child is a fundamental and necessary step for the attainment of all SDGs.

Two pressing challenges were widely addressed in this resolution: digital and the environment issues. Both present risks – including cyberbullying – and opportunities, such as boosting digital skills and education, and bridging the digital divide. Both also demand that children be at the centre of our strategies.

The Karnal police have arrested a doctor couple of Meerut who were allegedly evading arrest in connection with their alleged involvement in the illegal adoption of a child of a migrant woman labourer.

A case under Sections 363, 368, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 80

and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 was filed against Dr DP Shrivastav and his wife, Dr Sashibala, a gynaecologist, on June 15.

Now, they have been arrested by the police and sent to judicial custody.

In February, Jyoti, the mother of the child and a resident of Kunjpura, had alleged that the doctor couple had taken her four-day-old son in their care on pretext of treatment on September 18, 2020.

There are still an estimated 40,000 children in 830 children’s homes across Kenya

In Summary

• Placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency.

• As a result, Kenyans are focusing on is putting children in children homes, as it appears to be the preferred option

All children deserve and have the right to grow up in loving and secure families.

The Karnal police have arrested a Meerut-based doctor couple for their alleged involvement in the illegal adoption of the son of a migrant woman labourer.

Accused Dr DP Shrivastav and his gynaecologist wife Dr Sashibala were allegedly evading arrest since they were booked by the police on June 15 under Sections 363, 368, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 after an investigation by the women protection officer-cum-child marriage prohibition officer Rajni Gupta.

Police had already arrested a Meerut-based couple who had adopted the boy illegally in September last year. Police had recovered the child from their Chandigarh-based relatives.

As per complaint filed by the victim’s mother Jyoti at Karnal’s Kunjpura police station on February 2, last year, on September 18 the Meerut-based doctor couple had taken her four-day-old son on pretext of providing treatment.

In her complaint Jyoti had alleged that a few months before birth of the child, she had come in contact with the doctor couple. Four days after birth of the baby at Karnal’s KCGMCH, Dr Shrivastav told her that the baby is facing respiratory problems and they will provide him better treatment at their hospital in Meerut, free of cost.