THE MINISTRY of Women and Child Development will soon issue a notification to facilitate inter-country adoption under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA). According to the new regulation, families adopting under this Act can receive a no-objection certificate from Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the government’s adoption authority, to take the child abroad.

Currently, families have to approach the courts for the no-objection certificates.

Last month, the ministry issued a notification waiving the two-year mandatory period that an adoptive family would have to stay in the country for constant monitoring by CARA and other authorities. According to this new rule, adoptive families can now intimate Indian diplomatic missions two weeks in advance of their intent to travel with the adopted child. The families are to furnish all details, including that of residence. The Indian missions will then monitor the progress and security of the adopted child, instead of CARA and other authorities.

Ministry officials on Tuesday said these measures were being taken to facilitate ease in carrying out adoptions, while at the same time ensure prevention of abuse or child trafficking.

Enacted in 1956, the HAMA is a personal law applicable to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains and largely pertains to adoptions within a family. Adoptions under it are simpler as the two parties along with the child only need to approach a court. On the other hand, CARA has strict stipulations prior to and after adoptions, such as Home Study Reports of the prospective parents which are prepared through social workers of selected Specialised Adoption Agency.

NEW DELHI: In a bid to ease inter-country adoptions, the Central Adoption Resource Authority has framed regulations under

the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act on the direction of the Union government, an official said on Tuesday.

Till now, there were no regulations for the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for inter-country adoptions under the

Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA), which covers Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.

"So, when a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or Overseas-Citizen of India used to get adoption done under the HAMA, they faced a

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review a case that centers on whether Native Americans should receive preference in adoptions of Native children.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a sharply divided ruling in April over the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. The law gives Native American families priority in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native children, and places reporting and other requirements on states.

The appeals court upheld the law and Congress’ authority to enact it.

But the judges invalidated some of the law’s placement preferences, including for Native American families and Native foster homes, saying they violate equal protection rights under the Constitution.

The court also ruled that some of the law’s provisions unconstitutionally control the duties of state officials in adoption matters.

SAN ANTONIO — Local adoption agencies are looking out for our community's children, including the unborn, and said they are ready to step up, if needed.

With abortions after six weeks now banned it's possible more children will be placed for adoption.

“Adoption is not an alternative to abortion. Abortion is an alternative to pregnancy that's unwanted. But adoption is an alternative to parenting,” said Elizabeth Jurenovich with the Abrazo Adoption Associates.

It has been one week since SB8 became law in Texas. Now, abortions after six weeks are banned.

Some wonder if this will this lead to more adoptions? Jurenovich said it's normal to assume that. However, it isn't the typical outcome.

The benefits scandal seems to have been pushed into the background for many. The first victims received 30 thousand euros from the government, and 70 thousand children have been promised compensation. But all's well that ends well, unfortunately, is out of the question.

When the figurehead of the benefit victims Kristie Rongen, known for her impressive performance in the election debate against Rutte, recently tweeted with dismay that the daughter of a benefit victim has been locked up in an isolation cell in a youth care institution since May, my interest was aroused.

According to Rongen and other victims, Youth Care also plays a controversial role in the so-called 'allowance families'. While it is precisely these care providers who should have stood next to parents.

I spoke to the mother of the girl who is currently in an isolation cell, Karin van Opstal. She is the mother of four children and a law student (HBO) when she was suddenly put on a fraud list by the tax authorities in 2006.

She has no idea why, as a student she is entitled to childcare allowance. But she has to pay back 56 thousand euros. Due to the harsh collection policy of the Tax Authorities (they are claiming 990 euros per month), she loses her house.

Search for information about Mother Home De Hoeksteen, where unmarried mothers and their babies were cared for and separated from each other

From 1946 to 1973, unmarried mothers and their babies were taken care of and separated from each other in De Hoeksteen on Beethovenlaan in Hilversum. Fiom is looking for information or files about the 'mother home'.

In the past, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 women in the Netherlands gave up their child - under duress - for adoption, voluntarily or involuntarily. In the 1950s to 1980s, women often came to mother and/or children's homes such as De Hoeksteen at 13 Beethovenlaan in Hilversum. They stayed there during (part of) their pregnancy and sometimes after the birth of their child.

Information about this stay and the distance for adoption is recorded in the 'distance file'. In order to give more adoptees and surrogate mothers access to parentage information, Fiom (specialist in the field of unwanted pregnancy and parentage questions) is starting a search for renunciation files and other documents with information.

Distance file

Amanda Janssen's adoption papers contain a name and date of birth that are not hers. She still doesn't know who she is. She hopes one day to find her real mother through DNA. “If someone asks how old I am, I can't answer that question with certainty. And I don't know my real name either. Nor who my biological parents are.”

“I am not the person described in my adoption papers. All I know is that I am from Sri Lanka. It is almost impossible to explain to others what it means to me that I have lost my identity. It's in a part of my brain where there are no words at all. It has a big effect on me. Sometimes I don't even know who I am anymore. And I'm harder on myself than other people. Like I think: if they did this to me, then I should be able to handle anything.”

'Finally recognition'

“Recently it was in the news that intercountry adoption will be stopped for the time being, due to abuses in the past. People now want to make sure that things don't still go wrong. That in itself is good news, I no longer feel like a voice crying in the desert. I have presented so many facts with other adoptees before, and nothing was ever done about it. Now recognition has finally come.”

“But otherwise we are still at the same point where we were already. No concrete help has come for me and other people this has happened to. What I need is a foundation that's right, an adoption file that's right. In other words: identity recovery. A part of me now remains hidden in the mist. The way I put together, my character, the nature of the beast. It's always a bit of a gamble; from whom do I now have which traits? That applies to every adoptee, but if your papers are correct, then you have the choice to start looking.”

Posters with a search for a 13-year-old girl with name and picture hung up in several places - including at Korsør Library. Father misses help for his forcibly removed daughter.

She's found again, so when I'm done with my work, I'm going to go and peel the posters down again.

This is how it sounds from a 55-year-old man when Sjællandske calls the number on a poster hung at Korsør Library on Thursday morning. The headline is 'Wanted'. Including a name and picture of a dark-haired girl and the age of 13 years. At the bottom the phone number.

Anonymized

Sjællandske has chosen to anonymise both the father and the girl, although the 55-year-old father would otherwise like the municipality to be criticized for the efforts for the daughter by name.

EU fails to safeguard human rights

Friday, September 16, 2011

TWO current media topics suggest that Europe has a long way to go before we can consider ourselves civilised.

Mary Raftery’s excellent RTÉ documentary series “behind the walls” details past and ongoing problems within Ireland’s mental health sector; the second story relates to the alleged imprisonment of captive slave labourers in Britain.

While we are rightly concerned and appalled at what has happened in both instances, we seem less concerned as a European community with what is still happening within our borders. In 2004 an Amnesty International report into mental institutions in Romania detailed the use of captive slave labour to prop up an under-funded care system. Individuals who did not need to be in institutions were being retained in the system to carry out unpaid maintenance and facilities work, replacing an inadequate budget with slave labour. No significant reform of the Romanian mental health system has taken place in the interim; suffering as depicted in the RTÉ documentary still goes on today, within the borders of the EU.

Inter-Country Adoptions: Delhi High Court Asks Centre To Submit its Report On A Permanent Mechanism To Deal With Inter-Country Adoptions

The Delhi High Court has directed the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development,

Government of India to file a report before it regarding the manner and mode of creating a

permanent mechanism to deal with inter-country adoptions under Hindu Adoptions &

Maintenance Act, both direct and indirect, within a period of two months.