Promising practices in child protection is out now

The child protection network of Denmark is a professional network for NGO’s working in the care sector. On our page you will find our seminar series ‘Alternative care talks’ that aims at improving intra-sector knowlegde dispersion and help us build new innovative knowlegde. We wish to Increase knowledge on how to work with a rights-based approach to protect children from, and put an end to, domestic violence through expert presentations and working in groups with concrete examples.

In December 2019, the annual Resolution of the Rights of the Child addressed for the first time ever children without parental care in recognition of the vulnerability of this group of children. The purpose of these seminars is to explore how to use the Resolution and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, in order to safeguard and promote the rights of children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care

The Gujarat High Court has ruled in favour of using a duly registered adoption deed as valid proof to change the father’s name in a child’s birth certificate. The court emphasized the binding nature of a registered adoption deed on the Registrar of Births and Deaths, which cannot be ignored or disregarded.
The bench of Justices N V Anjaria and J C Joshi, stated, “The outweighing aspect in the facts of this case is that the change of the name of the father was prayed for on the basis of the Registered Adoption Deed. The petitioner became the adoptive father of the child in view of the execution of the Registered Adoption Deed. The Registered Adoption Deed is binding to the authority under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act.”
The court added, “Once it is a registered deed of adoption, its validity and effect cannot be called in question by the respondent authority. The Registrar is bound in law to incorporate change in the register of Births and Deaths on the basis of the Registered Adoption Deed. The same cannot be ignored or disregarded for its effect.”
The ruling was given during a series of appeals heard by the bench. These appeals were launched by the Registrar of Births and Deaths department against orders issued by a single judge of the HC permitting changes in birth certificates based on adoption deeds.
One such case concerned a man who married a widow and legally adopted her child. He drew up an adoption deed and requested to replace the child’s biological father’s name with his own. Despite this, the Birth and Death Department denied the application.
After taking the case to the Gujarat HC, the man received a favourable verdict. However, the Registrar of Births and Deaths then challenged this verdict before the two-judge bench, arguing that an adoption deed does not mandate the department to alter a name.
The registrar maintained that corrections could only be made if the entry was flawed, fraudulent, or improperly made. He contended that no grounds existed under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to permit the name change.
The court, after careful consideration of prior judgments and legal principles, dismissed the appeal and rejected this argument. The court’s judgement sets a legal precedent regarding the weight and significance of adoption deeds.

If someone had said to me a few years ago that one of the most controversial subjects I’d ever write on would be women’s freedom to assert their rights to single-sex spaces, services and sports, I’d have thought they were crazy. I wouldn’t have believed that in a mature democracy people would lose livelihoods, be kicked off degrees or be issued with unlawful police warnings after expressing the belief that sex remains materially relevant in society, a moderate and widely shared view that remains the current legal position in the UK. But the bullying tactics of campaigners who believe that the gender with which someone identifies should, without exception, override their sex, plus the lack of leadership across many big institutions, means this is where we have ended up.

The latest entry in the so-mad-you’d-barely-believe-it column is the unsuccessful attempt by the trans charity Mermaids to get LGB Alliance stripped of its charitable status, in a legal fight that has gone on for years and cost both sides hundreds of thousands of pounds. They have opposing views on sex and gender, and what constitutes appropriate healthcare for children questioning their gender.

Mermaids is an established charity – it was awarded a grant of £500,000 from the national lottery fund in 2019 – which has lobbied the NHS to make puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones available to younger children with gender dysphoria.

LGB Alliance is a fledgling “gender critical” gay rights charity that says gender identity cannot replace sex in society. It argues that being gay is a matter of same-sex (not same-gender-identity) attraction and lesbians have the right, without being called bigoted, to assert sexual boundaries that exclude males who identify as lesbians. It is also concerned that gender non-conforming young people struggling with same-sex attraction are being encouraged on to an irreversible pathway to medical transition.

Proper sex education, change in perceptions of single motherhood needed, experts say

A series of alleged infanticide cases that have emerged in an ongoing nationwide investigation into “ghost children” has laid bare the dark stories of South Korea’s mothers of unwanted pregnancies and how the country lacks protective measures and adequate sex education, according to observers here.

Mothers not wanting to confess their pregnancies to their parents or endure economic hardships, in particular, have contributed to the infanticides, according to a study published by professor Kim Youn-shin at Chosun University’s medical school. The study, which analyzed recent court rulings on infanticide cases, showed that many women -- mostly single mothers -- hid the pregnancy from family as they feared becoming a single mom. The stigma of being an unwed mother has persisted in Korean society and, in most cases, leaves an indelible mark on the mothers’ lives, according to the study. Many women also resort to foul play as they are not equipped with economic resources, it added.

In light of increasing infant homicide cases, the research team stressed the need for comprehensive sex education programs that offer age-appropriate information about sexual health, such as birth control and safe sexual intercourse, which could prevent unwanted pregnancies. The research team suggested that conventional measures that reflect women’s rights should be introduced.

Sex education in Korean schools mostly consists of a single-session lecture with an hourlong video covering broad concepts of sex, lacking specific information about sexual intercourse, puberty, reproduction, clinical services, abortion and contraceptive use for safe sex in the real world -- all of which could help prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Possible trafficking victim asks help to find biological family

Kuo Downing-Reese (郭慧如), a US flight paramedic who might have been the victim of a Taiwanese child-trafficking ring in the early 1980s, on Thursday appealed for the public’s help in finding her birth parents.

Accompanied by her adoptive mother Mary Reese, Downing-Reese has returned to Taiwan in an attempt to locate her birth family.

Private firms that provide genetic testing to help locate relatives are not common in Taiwan, Downing-Reese said, adding that her search on Web sites such as Ancestry.com and 23&me had proven unfruitful, reducing her hopes of finding her parents.

However, after a number of adoptees reported success in reuniting with their families in Taiwan, she became hopeful and decided to embark on her own campaign, Downing-Reese said.

A team of engineers who surveyed the Bon Secours plot in Tuam has reported similar anomalies at the Co Tipperary site which could be mass burial plots.

There have been calls for a fresh investigation at Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home after the discovery of what’s believed to be mass baby graves.

A team of engineers who surveyed the Bon Secours plot in Tuam has reported similar anomalies at the Co Tipperary site which could be mass burial plots.

An expert survey by TST Engineering Company pinpointed several locations in the grounds of the abbey with likely human activity beneath the surface.

Almost 1,100 babies died at the home in Roscrea between 1931 and 1969 – but only 42 infant remains were found by the Commission of Inquiry.

MILAN. In Italy one becomes a parent in only two ways, by biological relationship or by adoption. Words entrusted to a newspaper by the Minister to the family and equal opportunities Eugenia Roccella after the events in Padua, where last month the prosecutor challenged the birth certificates of 33 children of two mothers. Parents by contract? No thank you. The Italian right (and not only) opposes the Gestation for others (Gpa) so much as to want to transform it into a universal crime and does not welcome other forms of medically assisted procreation either, such as heterologous fertilization which in any case is only allowed for heterosexual couples . Lombardy councilor Guido Bertolaso recently filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's office for a much-contested fertility fair held in Milan last May.

But if the falling birth rate is a problem, primarily for the Government which makes it a flag issue, can we perhaps answer that adoptions are a viable solution? We see. A same-parent couple who have resorted to surrogacy abroad can only resort to a special adoption in Italy, a procedure which requires the intervention of a judge of the Juvenile Court and which in any case does not guarantee a full adoption since not only does it leave the children out of the estate but it is also exposed to the risk of being challenged. A long journey with an uncertain outcome, a limbo of years, as the rainbow families denounce. Ordinary adoption, an option to which heterosexual couples have access, is currently excluded. Although difficult, foster care is possible, but what happens more often than not is that same-parent couples who sign up for lists are never called back. As for the transcripts of birth certificates in the Municipal Registry, the problem is the legislative vacuum, and for dads it is a road that almost always ends with an appeal.

The life of a "traditional" couple who want to adopt is not any easier. Years of waiting and postponements, of social workers and courts, of psychologists, interviews and assessments: a story already written. Like that of Angelo and Vittoria, eight years to embrace Andrea, a native of Burkina Faso, and a coup d'état in between which certainly didn't shorten the times. Or that of Laura and Stefano, also 'linked' to Burkina Faso, who received the suitability decree from the Court of Mestre in 2020 and today may have to wait another year at least before the country's definitive green light.

Ciai, one of the authorized bodies and active since 1968, denounces a "constant, dizzying and irreversible" drop in the number of international adoptions in Italy. In 2022 it concluded 16 (there were 20 in 2021, 14 in 2020) and as of 31 December there were 58 pending. Overall in Italy at the end of 2022, the Commission for international adoptions (Cai), which supervises compliance with the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 and operates within the Presidency of the Council of Ministers at the top of which Minister Roccella sits today, has counted 565 successful adoptions. They were 563 in 2021, 526 in 2020 and it is likely that we are heading towards a further reduction. In 2001, according to Istat data, there were almost 4,000 foreign minors adopted in Italy. There are 2,500 couples waiting, according to Ciai data, which moreover has recently opened to adoptions for singles and same-parent couples. What weighs heavily is the lack of children for reasons that concern the international scenario, from the demographic decline in countries such as China and Vietnam to conflicts such as the one in Ukraine, from nationalisms such as in the case of states such as Poland and Ethiopia, to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily. to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily. to the complications caused by administrative and judicial systems subject to continuous shocks, as in Burkina Faso, which combine to close the channels. But that's not all: the inefficiency of social services and juvenile justice also weighs heavily.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
II. Proposal for CGAP .................................................................................................................................. 2
Annex I............................................................................................................................................................... 3
I. General remarks..................................................................................................................................... 3
II. Costs and fees........................................................................................................................................ 3
III. Donations, contributions and cooperation projects............................................................................. 4
IV. Existing tools and next steps ................................................................................................................. 4
Annex II.............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Chinese woman in search for daughter who was forcibly adopted 40 years ago wants to give her US$138,000 inheritance, wins support online

• Mother who became a single parent when her husband went to jail has not seen her daughter since her in-laws took her more than 40 years ago
• Only clues she has are daughter’s name, fact that she has birthmark and that she is in Beijing

A 64-year-old woman’s search for the daughter she was forced to give up four decades ago to give her more than 1 million yuan (US$138,000) in inheritance has captivated China after being aired on television.

Wang Yunjuan from Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, southeastern China, shared the story of her separation from her daughter in a forced adoption on the programme Xiao Qiang Re Xian, or “Xiaoqiang’s Hotline” in English, on June 30.

In 1981 when 21-year-old Wang was expecting her daughter, her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment for assault, briefly meeting their daughter just once in prison after she was born on May 12, 1982.

The Government wanted to empty Shishur Sevay and fill it with new children. That was their plan. We simply would not allow that to happen and it didn’t.

In the life of every orphan child there is a time when suddenly every person, every place, every landmark they have known is gone! No thing and no one is familiar, and the orphan is powerless. That simply would not happen to the Daughters of Shishur Sevay. By the government’s intent, our older girls would be out on their own, living elsewhere. Our disabled girls over 18 would be housed in institutions. Our under 18 would be put up for adoption, ignoring that three girls are already 17 years and severely disabled. The fourth is 13 and the most severely impaired. But to these government officials who were under pressure to place children, our children were just inventory that needed to be moved to make room for new inventory. Gone would be everything that had allowed the our girls to thrive within a family/community of sisters, care-takers, aunts, “mummy”, the people they loved and who loved them. The tagline of our Shishur Sevay logo is, “To not Feel Alone in the Universe.” The orphan child, particularly the severely disabled child is certainly alone in the universe.

I’d known for a few years there would be a challenge as the new Juvenile Justice Act had removed the category of Small Group Homes from its hierarchy of care. Previously the small group home was the last stop before institutioalization. Under the Juvenile Justice Act, the insitutions are formed with groups of minimum 25 children, while the disabled children are in separate units of ten children each. There is no inclusion. Under the JJ Act, children are also segregated by age. Children under six years are the youngest, then 7-11 years, 12-18 years and after 18 they are released or moved to aftercare until 21, or at most 23 years. The JJ Act is/was developed to address the large numbers of children living on the streets, and the abuses that took place within the existing institutions at the time. My understanding is that small group homes were omitted because of expense. Our problem with the JJ Act was that it didn’t apply to us. When we were founded in 2006 we made the choice not to take government aid because that would require us to “discharge” our girls at 18. We have never taken government funds. We promised the girls permanence. The moment we took in the children with disabilities we understood we were committed to lifetime care.

Beginning in 2019 we met with government officials to argue we should not be licensed under the JJ Act because we did not meet the criteria. We lacked the required space. We even lacked beds because we were so small. We sleep on mats in the big room, myself included. Our census was 12 while the minimum was 25. Our ages range from 9 to 25 years, and we are inclusive — abled and disabled, younger and older, all living together in a family style. We were threatened with being closed down if we did not apply and receive JJ Act Registration. When we went to the people who could approve a women’s home they said we had to wait for all the girls to pass 18 years but we still could not be inclusive. To quote them, “You cannot have the handicaps and normals under the same roof.”