A New York bill to grant visitation to birthparents who’ve had their rights terminated goes too far.

Of the more than 25,000 children in foster care in New York state, some 3,500 are waiting to be adopted. But legislation that passed the state Assembly and Senate in June could make it much harder for these children to find permanent homes.

Introduced by Bronx Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner, the Preserving Family Bonds Act would let birthparents whose rights have been terminated by the court apply to visit their children. They would be entitled to a hearing to argue that their continuing contact is in the child’s best interest....

After losing his parents, Elvis Izabayo, a TV presenter, had no option but to stay in an orphanage.

Though he managed to forge a living, life was never easy growing up in an orphanage.

He recalls being exposed to abuse, exploitation, neglect, and lack of love and care from parents. It was so painful that he lived with these scars for so many years.

“This affected me and some of my other colleagues that even when we left the place, we had to battle emotional and behavioral issues. I was emotionally needy, insecure, and poor,” he recalls.

Five years ago, the Government embarked on a mission to close orphanages and other children’s institutions and reintegrate the children into family-based care.

Woman (56) says she was coerced into having her baby adopted nearly 40 years ago.

The High Court has dismissed a damages action against the Adoption Authority of Ireland brought by a 56-year-old woman who claims she was coerced into having her baby daughter adopted nearly 40 years ago.

The woman sued both the Adoption Authority (AAI) and an accredited adoption agency, Cúnamh, for personal injuries and an alleged breach of constitutional rights arising out of the adoption of her baby in 1979.

The woman, who gave birth when she was 16 years of age, also claimed the authority had failed to ensure that she was in a position to give informed consent to the adoption of her child.

In a pretrial motion, the authority sought to have her action struck out on grounds including that the case was statute-barred and over the lengthy delay by the woman in bringing the proceedings.

Aboriginal children will be excluded from a plan to boost adoptions of children in state care in South Australia because of cultural sensitivities around the Stolen Generation, the State Government says.

Key points:

The South Australian Government has begun consulting on a plan to increase open adoptions of children in state care

The open adoptions will exclude Aboriginal children

No children have been adopted out of state care in the past five years

Aboriginal children will be excluded from a plan to boost adoptions of children in state care in South Australia because of cultural sensitivities around the Stolen Generation, the State Government says.

Key points:

The South Australian Government has begun consulting on a plan to increase open adoptions of children in state care

The open adoptions will exclude Aboriginal children

No children have been adopted out of state care in the past five years

An American woman is facing life in prison for brokering an illegal adoption online with a teenage girl from the Philippines and trying to smuggle the 6-day-old boy out of the country, officials said.

Jennifer Erin Talbot, 43, was busted on Wednesday as she allegedly tried to board a Detroit-bound flight at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila with the Filipino infant hidden in a sling bag.

Talbot, who says she has five children and owns a home in Sandy, Utah, was paraded before the media in handcuffs on Thursday as she was charged with human trafficking and kidnapping.

“The child’s situation must have been very difficult during the time that he was put inside that bag,” said Auralyn Pascual, a spokeswoman for the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation.

Security-camera images released by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration show the carry-on bag in which the boy was allegedly being held slung behind Talbot’s body as she sneaked past Filipino immigration officials.

There are nearly 3.8 lakh children living in over 9,500 childcare institutions-run by state governments and NGOs in the country.

NEW DELHI: India’s apex child rights body has flagged the issue of a large number of children in various states being made to live in shelter homes “unnecessarily” by district child welfare committees.

The Commission has now decided to audit the decisions by the CWCs to declare the kids as “children in need of care and protection”, which paves the way for them being put in shelter homes where they often face neglect, sub-standard care and even abuse.

There are nearly 3.8 lakh children living in over 9,500 childcare institutions-run by state governments and NGOs in the country.

Officials in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights said in its statutory meeting recently, it was highlighted that many CWCs are defaulting in declaring children as CNCP before sending them to shelter homes. The Commission has therefore decided that a fact-finding exercise will be carried to examine the decisions taken by the CWCs.

New Delhi, Sep 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear on September 17 a matter related to alleged child trafficking from an orphanage in West Bengal so that "tussle" between the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the WB SCPCR is resolved.

The NCPCR and West Bengal State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WB SCPCR) are at loggerheads over the issue related to powers of NCPCR in initiating inquiry in a matter which is pending before a state commission.

A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the apex court would hear and decide the issue so that such tussle does not arise again between the NCPCR and any other state commission.

"We must decide this matter otherwise this tussle will go on. Two years ago, stay was given by this court but no orders have been passed by the NCPCR," the bench said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for NCPCR, said inquiry by the national commission is going on in the matter.

Out of the way - and delivered to the state

For four years researchers have worked up the administrative supplies. Now the final report is available. The content is disturbing.

There were tens of thousands. Tens of thousands who were locked up in Switzerland without being guilty. In educational homes, in prisons, in psychiatric hospitals. "Administrative Supplies": What sounds like an official act is a disturbing aspect of the Swiss rule of law in the 20th century. It is the story of arbitrariness, compulsion and injustice.

Gabriela Merlini was first treated at the age of 18 months. This because she was illegitimate. A child of a couple who was not married in the mid-1960s. "We were not only torn from our social environment, but have experienced torture-like abuses," Merlini told the media yesterday.

At least 60 000 people affected

For many mothers, their adoption decision was a deal made with a guarantee of secrecy.

The discussion in the Senate on the Adoption and Tracing Bill brings to mind interviews I did in 1998 with women who were planning to give up their babies for adoption as part of the Women and Crisis Pregnancy study.

Adoption was one of three ways of responding to a “crisis” pregnancy for these women, the other two being single motherhood or abortion. For many women interviewed, the possible revelation of the sexual behaviour that led to their pregnancies, augmented by stress and fear, was what led to defining their pregnancy as a “crisis”.

The pregnant women we interviewed who were planning adoption were not in traditional mother and baby homes. They had been offered private accommodation by a voluntary organisation with links to adoption agencies.

They found it very difficult to continue a pregnancy with the knowledge that they would later part with their babies. In many cases their families were either not aware of their position or, if they were, offered them no support as future lone mothers. Abortion and secret adoption had two things in common: if a woman took either option, no one would know that she had had sex and got pregnant. Both protected family respectability and kept premarital sex hidden.