YEREVAN. – The Investigative Committee of Armenia continues its activities to find out all the circumstances of cases of illegal adoption of children in the country.

One person has been charged with attempting to buy two children for adoption, the Investigative Committee informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

On November 18, the Investigative Committee accepted the criminal case initiated by the National Security Service on abuse of power and going beyond official power to attempted child trafficking.

According to the data obtained from the investigation, during 2016-2018, a number of employees of a medical center and state institutions in Armenia had convinced more than a dozen mothers-to-be to give up their children for adoption and consent to adoption in spite of their will.

It turned out that one of the people who attempted to adopt and buy children is a female resident of Yerevan, born in 1976. The 43-year-old woman had reached an agreement - with foreign citizens, in one case, and with Armenian citizens in the other - to launch - in exchange for €20,000 and $5,000, respectively - their adoption of healthy children in orphanages in Armenia, but she failed to accomplish her goal for reasons beyond her will.

Asha (name changed), is a slight thin woman, who a few would mistake for being 23-year-old. A

brisk affair with a family friend, however, prompted Asha to give birth to a healthy baby girl in midNovember. The new mother is now embroiled in a police investigation aer her child was sold to a

couple for Rs 30,000.

Sources said Asha’s mother, Sudha (named changed) objected to the child being born because it

had been conceived out of wedlock. This unyielding point of view allegedly prompted Sudha to

MANILA, Philippines — The alarming prevalence of “baby-for-sale” cases should prompt a

comprehensive review of the adoption process and anti-trafficking laws in the Philippines, detained

Sen. Leila de Lima said Wednesday.

“Assessments from experts point out that one of the problem areas that exacerbate the baby-for-sale

trade is the adoption system in the Philippines,” De Lima, chairperson of the Senate Committee on

A HISTORY OF THE ETHIOPIAN ADOPTION

When in 2017, Zahara Jolie-Pitt's biological mother tries to get in touch with her daughter, this is the outcry. One tears up: between those who proclaim loudly that she wants money and those who insist that she remains her legitimate mother, the mother insists to make it clear that she does not want money or her child but just spend some time with her.

This story could inspire many adopted children whose parents are unknown or dead, even though most of them are naturally frustrated by the brutal separation of intercountry adoption.

But unfortunately, from their complexes, another arises, bigger and more formidable than that of not knowing: to be used for pecuniary purposes.

Because unfortunately, despite all the information circulating about the seemingly endless growth of Ethiopia, its booming economy is not adapting to the Ethiopian people, who are still without the Internet, facing drought and a terrible recurrence of famine - almost usual.

Three cases registered; five people arrested; two babies handed over to orphanages

Investigations into the abduction of an infant outside Mahim railway station in June have uncovered a racket of selling babies, with two more cases being registered with the Mumbra and Khandeshwar police. While the agents remain the same, the seller and purchaser are different in every case.

On June 26, a two-month-old baby, who was sleeping with his twin brother and parents on the pavement outside Mahim station, was stolen after midnight. Around 2 a.m., when the mother found the baby missing, the family approached the Government Railway Police in Dadar.

Senior inspector Prasad Pandhre and team found the baby and arrested kidnapper Shahbaz Shaikh (26). Since the case came under the jurisdiction of the Mahim police, the case was transferred to them along with the accused.

An officer from Mahim police station said, “On interrogation, Mr. Shaikh revealed that he was promised ?25,000 for providing a baby boy to one Raju and Sujata in Panvel. He was to meet them near Panvel railway station, but they did not turn up. So we nabbed them at their residence and later, they were arrested.”

Legal experts have said the Attorney General's advice to the Government that it is unconstitutional to give adopted people unrestricted access to their birth information is "incorrect".

Earlier this month, Katherine Zappone wrote to adoption rights stakeholders about the paused Adoption Information and Tracing Bill, advising them that it was the Attorney General's view that it is "constitutionally unacceptable to allow unrestricted access to birth information for adopted people".

However, a legal opinion signed by nine legal experts - including three specialising in Constitutional Law and the current special rapporteur on child protection Dr Conor O'Mahony - has been sent to Ms Zappone advising her that this view is "incorrect".

Under the legislation, Tusla will attempt to locate and contact both natural parents as soon as an adopted person requests access to their own early life and adoption files.

Where the natural parent does not consent to the release of the information, both parties will make their case before the Adoption Authority of Ireland.

Mother told police that she had been told the child had died

The Halasuru police registered an FIR against doctors and staff of a private hospital for allegedly giving a 17-day-old baby girl for adoption illegally without the consent of her mother. The police were able to track down the couple that had ‘adopted’ the baby and will be booking a case against them, too.

The mother, a post-graduate in computer application, approached the police on Saturday seeking their help. “She said that her mother told her the baby had died, after which she was subsequently discharged from the hospital. We questioned the hospital staff, tracked down the baby and reunited her with the mother,” said a senior police officer.

The incident was brought to the notice of the NGO Parihar, where a counsellor helped the mother file a complaint with the police seeking legal action. According to the police, the mother is 23 years old and unmarried. She was admitted to a private hospital in Cambridge Layout on November 13 for the delivery. However, the grandmother was upset and feared that the family would be ostracised. “She went behind her daughter’s back and told the doctors that they did not want the baby. We suspect she took money from the hospital to give up the child. The baby was then handed over to a childless couple for adoption without due process,” said a senior police officer.

“However, on Saturday, a hospital staff informed the woman that her baby was alive, after which she came to us,” said a police source.

Mother told police that she had been told the child had died

The Halasuru police registered an FIR against doctors and staff of a private hospital for allegedly giving a 17-day-old baby girl for adoption illegally without the consent of her mother. The police were able to track down the couple that had ‘adopted’ the baby and will be booking a case against them, too.

The mother, a post-graduate in computer application, approached the police on Saturday seeking their help. “She said that her mother told her the baby had died, after which she was subsequently discharged from the hospital. We questioned the hospital staff, tracked down the baby and reunited her with the mother,” said a senior police officer.

The incident was brought to the notice of the NGO Parihar, where a counsellor helped the mother file a complaint with the police seeking legal action. According to the police, the mother is 23 years old and unmarried. She was admitted to a private hospital in Cambridge Layout on November 13 for the delivery. However, the grandmother was upset and feared that the family would be ostracised. “She went behind her daughter’s back and told the doctors that they did not want the baby. We suspect she took money from the hospital to give up the child. The baby was then handed over to a childless couple for adoption without due process,” said a senior police officer.

“However, on Saturday, a hospital staff informed the woman that her baby was alive, after which she came to us,” said a police source.

The stories shocked and horrified the world: babies left malnourished in their cribs, sickly children starved to the bone, toddlers beaten and humiliated.

At the violent conclusion of the Romanian Revolution in 1989, an estimated 170,000 children were living in state-run institutions across the country. By 2001 — the year the country placed a moratorium on international adoptions — the number had dropped to 60,000.

It was in Romania that the Bucharest Early Intervention Project was born — an extensive, involved study comparing the outcomes of institutionalized children who were placed in foster homes by researchers early on in their lives to children who remained in institutional care.

For almost two decades, a University of Maryland professor and his two colleagues have followed the participating children. And, thanks to a recently awarded $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the team is preparing to check in with the kids for the seventh time, now that they’re 21.

“We want to know where these kids are now and how are they dealing with becoming adults,” said Nathan Fox, a professor in this university’s human development and quantitative methodology department. “Do they have jobs, have they gone to school, are they using drugs, are they married? No one knows the effects of institutionalization on all those different domains of development.”

KOLKATA: The detective department has busted a gang of traffickers who prepared fake adoption papers of children aged

between two and five and finally pushed them into flesh trade as they turned into teenagers. Cops have rescued two girls aged

— three and 13 — and have traced two more — aged below five — in the Burtolla region who had fallen prey to this gang. One

person, identified as Rituraj Singh (24), has been arrested.

“We came to know of the gang from a 22-yerar-old girl from Agra. Adopted by the racket run by Rituraj and his parents — Pinki