VIDEOBREDA - She has been adopted, Rupika Kop from Breda. Thirty years ago she came to our country from Sri Lanka as a baby. She is incredibly happy with that, she says. Because her parents here saved her life.

Adopting children from abroad? That is no longer allowed. The cabinet's ban comes after a damning report by the Joustra Committee that investigated abuses surrounding foreign adoptions (see box).

And yes, they are terrible, those adoption excesses , Rupika Kop does not deny that. “But by now suspending those adoptions, the cabinet is affecting precisely the children who need help. This measure is far too drastic. For some of those children it is a matter of life or death. I don't hear anyone about that. ''

The Breda resident should know. If she hadn't been adopted thirty years ago, she wouldn't have lived now. Because, she says, her Dutch parents - whom she sees as her only real parents - saved her life. “My neck was completely crooked as a result of a bad pregnancy. After my adoption, I received physiotherapy at home for two years. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have survived. Healthcare in Sri Lanka is not as good as that in the Netherlands. The doctor involved in my adoption sent another letter to my parents a few years later. He wrote that they saved my life. ”

Adoption papers

New corporate due diligence law could put an end to profit from forced labour and child labour

Brussels, 8 February 2021

We are on the brink of a major opportunity to advance and protect human rights for people all over the world. In the next few months, the European Union will further debate a proposed business and human rights law that would require companies operating in the EU to prevent and address human rights abuses and environmental damage in their global supply chains. This commitment to responsible business could help tackle forced labour and child labour in supply chains around the world.

On Monday 8 February, the European Commission closed a public consultation on the proposed law. We took part in this consultation, together with partner organisations in more than 20 countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nepal, South Africa and Turkmenistan. We also actively encouraged our supporters and allies to do the same, and we want to thank everyone who took part: this consultation proved to the European Commission that people all over the world look to the EU to show leadership, courage and compassion for oppressed people everywhere.

Real action needed to combine business and human rights

Ireland's mother and baby homes inquiry has "become aware of backup tapes" after it was criticised for deleting audio recordings of witness evidence.

It is not yet known if the backup tapes contain the deleted personal accounts given by former residents of the homes, but their content is to be examined.

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman revealed the discovery on Friday.

He stressed he did not want to raise expectations unduly but very much hoped they contain the deleted testimonies.

The recordings were made when 549 people who had "lived experience" of mother and baby homes agreed to give evidence to an independent inquiry into the institutions.

PHOENIX -- A former Arizona politician who acknowledged running an illegal adoption scheme in three states, including Arkansas, that involved birth mothers from the Marshall Islands has asked an appeals court to throw out his six-year prison sentence.

Attorneys for Paul Petersen argue that a judge double-counted factors in the case that increased the severity of Petersen's punishment, such as concluding that he abused his position as an adoption attorney.

Petersen, a Republican who served as Maricopa County's assessor for six years and operated an adoption practice on the side, is contesting the first of three sentences he'll receive for arranging adoptions that are prohibited by an international compact.

A month ago, he started serving the sentence for a federal conviction in Arkansas for conspiring to smuggle humans. He is to be sentenced next month on convictions for fraud in Arizona and for human smuggling in Utah.

Investigators estimated that Petersen handled a minimum of 30 Marshallese adoptions a year in Northwest Arkansas. His October 2019 indictment left 19 birth mothers and the prospective adoptive parents in legal limbo in Washington County Circuit Court. Those cases were dealt with under sealed records.

A while ago, the world's second largest Adoption Mediator celebrated the Swedish Adoption Center (AC) for 50 years. AC

In conjunction with the jubilee, gave an anniversary script and in the script found in addition to several interviews and a kind of timeline

who describes AC's history a number of old photographs such as a picture of the Queen who visited AC in 1984

but also a group picture from an AC conference that took place in Skövde in 1997 in connection with AC forming one

special department for adopted who was named Forum for adopted.

Television viewers have been used to Paul de Leeuw chasing laughter over the back of others for years , but in private this is less appreciated. His son has now addressed him about this. The BNNVARA star confesses this in his column in the AD. The Lion was arguing with his son for a day and a half. “ Not a nice word is said anymore. Suddenly the word comes out: he is not happy. That has to do with me. He says he's done with some of the jokes I make. “

De Leeuw's drive to score is not appreciated by his son. " Why? Because it is always at his expense. I still defend that it is not true at all. And that I also see him laughing at my jokes. Yes, he likes them if they are not at his expense. But the jokes I make about him and what others laugh about make him unhappy . ”

De Leeuw first took the criticism of his son personally. " It's quiet at the table and the first thing I think is: more people who don't like me anymore ."

“ I soon realize that I don't want him to be unhappy about things I say. And I promise to pay attention and hold back . ”

Although it is difficult as a blatant, De Leeuw has managed to date 'not to joke at the expense of the children'.

Journalists Cindy Huijgen and Ruth van der Kolk were babies in the same Chinese children's home and were adopted by Dutch parents. They write to each other about how their fairytale image changed from adoption: "The story I was told is now unsettled."

Journalists Cindy Huijgen (29) and Ruth van der Kolk (27) were born in China and ended up in the same children's home as babies. In the 1990s they both ended up in the Netherlands via adoption. Years later, the women go in search of their roots separately. The romantic image that they would have been rescued from a hopeless situation does not last. An exchange of letters.

CINDY HUIJGEN: 'MY LIFE IN CHINA HAD NOT BEEN HOPELESS'

Cindy Huijgen was adopted from China in 1993 and grew up in a village close to Rotterdam. Since 2019 she has lived in Beijing, where she works as a correspondent for De Telegraaf, among others .

Hi Ruth,

DebateA touch of corruption when the State Treasury on behalf of the government investigates international adoption activities, write Maria Fredriksson and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, themselves adopted from Korea.

On behalf of the Government, the State Treasury has written the report “The organization of international adoption activities (2021: 1). It is based, among other things, on interviews with representatives of relevant actors, such as intermediaries and associations for adoptees, as well as four unnamed adopted persons who have not been members of any interest group. They were contacted through the adoption organization Adoptionscentrum.

Questioned selection

The statements of the four adoptees are similar to those of the adoption agencies, which is why the State Treasury was asked who these four adoptees were. It turned out to be the Adoption Center's current chairman, vice chairman (also adoptive parent), an administrator for the association's activities "Travel and roots", and a former chairman. The choice of these four is justified by the fact that "it is important for the credibility and legitimacy of an investigation to shed light on different perceptions that exist within the discourse."

These adoptees cannot be considered to add any perspectives that have not already been presented via other interviewees other than that, unlike some of the other adoptees, they are clearly in favor of continued adoption mediation. Furthermore, it is serious that the State Treasury seems to consider that a legitimate fight for ethical adoptions and redress is about perceptions and perspectives and that they pose victims of illegal adoptions against opinions from four adoptees who are so strongly linked to Sweden's largest adoption agency.

VIJAYAWADA: The state Women Development and Child Welfare Committee has welcomed the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 that the Union Cabinet approved Wednesday. Post the changes, the adoption process in the country is expected to speed up as district magistrates have been empowered to issue adoption orders and monitor implementation of the law.

“The involvement of civil and district courts in issuing the adoption orders delays the overall process. The courts, which are already burdened by the heavy load of civil cases, struggle to prioritise the adoption-related procedures,” Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) director Krithika Shukla told TNIE.

At present, there are 288 children waiting to be adopted in Andhra Pradesh. While Visakhapatnam tops the table in terms of children waiting for adoption (57), West Godavari (three) is at the bottom of the list. As many as 3,241 prospective adoptive parents have registered from the state, and some of them have been in the queue since 2016.

“Of the 288 children, many were rescued and some were abandoned by their biological parents. They are being taken care of at Shishu Kendras till their adoption,” said WDCW additional director Vijayalakshmi. “The prospective parents have completed all formalities and are willing to adopt children from across India,” she added.

Other proposed amendments to the law require stricter recruitment norms in the child welfare committees. “The Centre has asked for stricter norms for CWC recruitments. Andhra Pradesh has a robust appointment policy in place since 2017,” Shukla added.

The government has failed to combat adoption abuses, but the same government can also organize safe adoption, argues René Hoksbergen.

After the publication of the report of the Joustra committee, there was immediately a lot of attention in the media and also in the Volkskrant for international adoption. It was to be expected that adoptive parents and some adoptees would resist an adoption stop.

The committee's recommendations: acknowledge that the government has failed to combat adoption abuses and suspend all adoptions for the time being, are after all painful for those involved. Serious abuses in intercountry adoption had been known for decades . Only the lawsuits of a few adult adoptees forced the government to set up the Joustra commission of inquiry.

Of course, immediate reactions followed that an adoption stop would be at the expense of foreign children . After all, they are now living well with their adoptive parents. Parents who indeed often devote themselves with love and attention to these children in need. And that's how intercountry adoption started around 1970, with idealism and the involvement of possible adoptive parents. They themselves often already had children. The taboo on adoption had virtually disappeared in the meantime. By the way, the world became more and more open due to the increasing air traffic and the rise of television . Poverty and misery entered the living room almost every day through the CRT . The need for aid to the Third World was widely accepted.

Abuses