Bufdir has asked that adoptions from abroad be stopped while waiting for an investigative committee to look into historical adoptions. But the government would rather strengthen control.

There has been a storm surrounding adoption from abroad in recent years. Among other things, there have been cases of kidnapping, false documents and human trafficking that have been discussed by NRK and VG.

The Directorate for Children, Youth and Families (Bufdir) has therefore started an investigation where all licenses are reassessed. Several of the countries that have cooperated with Norway have already had their permits withdrawn or refused.

Last year, an investigative committee was also set up to look at historical adoptions. Bufdir has asked for a full freeze on adoptions from abroad until the investigation is completed during 2025.

Dong Hee Kim (44) discovered that her adoption from Korea was illegal and that her file was destroyed by the Dutch government. Her sadness and anger is great. “I will never know what life I missed.”

“My birth name is Dong Hee, but forty-four years ago my adoptive parents gave me the first name Stephanie. I was four months old when I came to them in Ede on a so-called adoption flight from Busan, Korea. The fact that I was adopted was often discussed and mentioned at home, and also that my adoptive parents loved me just as much as their two biological sons, my brothers. That openness was important to them. I wasn't really concerned with that myself. However, I did suffer from the fact that I always looked different from the rest. I was short and chubby, but my family consisted of white heads. My youngest adoptive brother never accepted me as a sister and often scolded me. At school I was the only Korean child, and I was bullied about that. When I saw tips for eye make-up in girls' magazines, I just thought: I don't have eyes like that.”

Letter like a bomb

“When I was 12, my adoptive mother started a search for my parents in Korea through the Wereldkinderen adoption service. She had always been determined to do it at that age, before I hit puberty. It took months before we got a response. In retrospect I understand why. That letter set off a bomb in my family's home in Korea because almost all of them thought I was dead. Only my mother knew what really happened. As a six-week-old baby, she had given me up to a home with my father's forged signature. Korea is a traditional country where boys are valued more highly than girls. A dowry also had to be paid for daughters. My parents already had three daughters and were dirt poor, my mother was illiterate. When my father was in the hospital for a few days after an accident, my mother brought me to the home out of desperation. At home she said I had died. That was possible, infant mortality was high in Korea and child funerals were rare. Only I wasn't dead, I was living my life eight thousand miles away. That is very sad for my mother, but also for my father and sisters. They knew nothing and retroactively became angry with my mother. I also feel bad for myself. I was the only one in this family given up and lost everything.”

Measures to be taken in accordance with the revision of the Missing Children Act in September
 

[Seoul = News Fim] Reporter Park Woo-jin = Starting in September, when the police request personal information from relevant organizations during the search for missing children, the relevant organizations will be required to provide the information. The police have begun revising detailed regulations in accordance with this change in the system.

According to the police on the 18th, the National Police Commission held a meeting the day before and decided on three related regulations, including the 'Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children, etc.'

This rule revision appears to be a measure taken in response to the revised Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children (Missing Children Act) going into effect on September 27.

The revised bill allows police chiefs to request without a warrant information from relevant agencies that hold information necessary for finding missing children, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), credit and transportation card usage history, and medical treatment dates and locations. It also stipulates that the relevant agencies must provide the information immediately upon request to the police.

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS/SOFIA - Adoption is often associated with poor countries in the global South. Yet Flanders and the Netherlands adopt children from other European countries, such as Bulgaria and Hungary. This cross-border research shows that Roma children in these countries are discriminated against and end up in the adoption system due to stigma, poverty and a lack of support for families. 

Both Flanders and the Netherlands had a study conducted on the sending countries to decide from which countries adoption would still be possible in the future. The issues of discrimination, poverty and a lack of support for families in Bulgaria and Hungary were raised several times in those screenings. Nevertheless, both countries decided not to break off the collaboration. 

The research was conducted by the weekly magazine Knack, the platform Investico, the TV programme Zembla, the Bulgarian newspaper 24chasa and the Hungarian medium Atlatszo.

Human rights organization: stop adoptions immediately (Investico, 24/06/2024)

Quebec recently made a big step forward regarding the rights of adopted persons. The right to know the identities of the members of your family of origin is now included in Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Until recently, the general rule was confidentiality. However, as of June 8, adopted persons can find out who their biological parents were — even if the parents previously refused to have this information disclosed. 

In some other provinces, adopted persons already had this right. In Quebec, some organizations have been advocating for this right for more than 40 years. The ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (department of health and social services) expects to receive between 30,000 and 70,000 applications to identify biological parents as a result of this change in the law.  

What does the law say? 

Mandira Bedi shared her struggle with the adoption process and how they flew her daughter Tara home in a private jet during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After having her first child, Mandira Bedi wanted to adopt another, and after years of paperwork, she and her late husband, filmmaker Raj Kaushal, adopted their daughter, Tara Bedi Kaushal. In a recent interaction, Mandira shared her struggle with the adoption process and how they flew Tara home in a private jet during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to Humans of Bombay, Mandira said, “I wanted to have a second child and adopt. When my son Veer was about six, I put in the papers for adoption. It’s a long process, and I don’t know why it’s not easier. I mean, I understand the reasons, but when it’s clear that this is a good family, it should be simpler. It took a while—Veer turned nine, the pandemic hit, and I told Raj, ‘It still hasn’t happened. Why?’ We had gotten caught up and didn’t follow up much. So, I thought, it’s now or never, and we pushed forward.”

Mandira Bedi recalled how they received Tara’s photo via email and instantly felt she was the one. Raj Kaushal traveled to Jabalpur alone to complete the formalities while Mandira stayed back with Veer due to the pandemic. After Raj completed the paperwork, Mandira and Veer flew from Mumbai to Jabalpur in a private jet to bring Tara home. Mandira met Tara at the airport and flew her back to Mumbai.

Pédocriminalité : une femme accuse un groupe d’intellectuels connus de sévices sexuels envers des enfants

 Lecture 1 min

Accueil Justice

L’écrivain Gabriel Matzneff, ici en 1990, était un proche du père adoptif d’Inès Chatin. © Crédit photo : PIERRE GUILLAUD

Par sudouest.fr

The Madras High Court has observed that a woman's marital status should not be a determining factor while considering her child's adoption. Justice GR Swaminathan observed the proviso to Section 9(2) of the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956 which mandates consent of the other parent would not apply when the mother/father of the child to be given in adoption is absent....

KARACHI:

Zia Ahmed Awan, a human rights activist and founder of Madadgaar National Helpline 1098 and Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), have highlighted the issues surrounding child adoption in Pakistan.

While addressing a news conference on Thursday, Awan, who is also a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, underlined the state’s failure due to the lack of legislation, insufficient rules, and procedures, and the absence of proper monitoring mechanisms, which create opportunities for child traffickers under the guise of false adoptions.

Awan said that NGOs play a crucial role in filling the gaps left by the government in caring for street and orphan children. He pointed to the alarming linkage between adoption and child trafficking and called for necessary reforms to address these issues effectively.

Awan said that without comprehensive laws and specialised adoption and post-adoption child welfare agencies, many children are denied the chance for a positive adoption experience, making the process challenging in Pakistan.

Coimbatore: The Karumathampatti all-woman police on Wednesday evening arrested a 54-year-old man in Andhra Pradesh for ‘buying’ a seven-day-old baby boy from a child trafficking racket operating out of Bihar. With this, the number of arrested people in connection with the case has gone up to six.

An investigation officer identified the arrested person as S Srirama Chandra Murthy Devarasetti, a truck driver from Indiramma Colony at Devarapalli in Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

On Thursday, he was produced before a judicial magistrate, who remanded him in judicial custody. He was later lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison.

The officer said the truck driver had bought the baby boy from a Bihar-based couple, who were running a hotel in Coimbatore, for 2.5 lakh.

According to the officer, H Neha Kumari and her mother H Poonam Devi, of Darbhanga district in Bihar, had kidnapped a baby girl and a baby boy from their state and handed them over to M Maheshkumar, 34, and his wife Anjalikumari, 24, a couple from Bihar who were running a hotel at Appanaickenpatti near Sulur.