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Intercountry Adoption—Moving Forward From a 55-Year Perspective

An International Forum in Washington, D.C.

Participants from around the world gathered in Washington, D.C. (April 14-16) to celebrate 55 years of intercountry adoption at the International Forum, sponsored by Holt International and Adoptees for Children. The conference was an unprecedented examination of international adoption and child welfare through the lens of adult adoptees.

Since the environment for international child welfare and adoption is influenced by global concerns and challenges more than ever, Washington D.C. was selected as the conference site so national and international policy makers could participate. Notable presenters from various countries presented during the conference. This was the first significant conference to highlight the unique personal perspective of adoption professionals who also happen to be adult adoptees. Too often the influence and voices of those who have lived the experience are not represented. As the organization that pioneered intercountry adoption, Holt International benefits from the experiences of three generations of adult adoptees.

Many of these adult adoptees attended the International Forum and represented the critical importance of adoption in the lives of children. The adoptees met with government officials, international guests, child welfare experts and Members of Congress and their staff.

Countries: United States of America

China's government trafficking babies from poor families

Countries: China

40 arrested in China for child trafficking

(AFP) – 9 hours ago

BEIJING — Police in China have arrested a gang of 40 people suspected of buying at least 22 children in the nation's southwest and trafficking them to a wealthier region, state press said Friday.

The suspected trafficking ring allegedly bought young children -- 22 of them have so far been recovered -- in impoverished areas of Yunnan province and sold them in coastal Fujian province in the southeast, the Beijing Times said.

More than 200 police were involved in the Wednesday arrests that took place in the two provinces, it said.

Countries: China

Foreign countries adopt 142 Lagos orphans

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Written by Kunle AwosiyanFriday, 13 May 2011

NO fewer than 200 Lagos children have been adopted by some European countries and members of the public in the state in the last one year, the Special Adviser to the state governor on Youth, Sport and Social Development, Mr Dolapo Badru has said.

He said this during the annual ministerial news conference to mark four years of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration on Thursday, adding that 174 orphans had their adoptions legalised through the Juvenile Court.

According to him, most of the children were adopted by foreign countries with Switzerland having the highest number of 25. The breakdown shows that 20 children were adopted by Italy; 41 by Netherlands;15 by Spain;25 by Denmark; eight by Belgium;16 by United States; eight by United Kingdom; two by Germany and five by Canada.

Badru also said that 161 babies were rescued and referred to various government homes and private orphanages in the last one year.

According to him, many applications had been received from prospective adopters, locally and internationally to determine their suitability for adopting children out of which 177 of it had been approved.

While urging members of the public to contribute their quota to government’s initiative of removing the underprivileged citizenry by making donations to registered orphanages, motherless babies homes, churches, mosques or other recognised social welfare institutions in the state, Badru explained that his office was currently working on new guidelines for adoption both locally and internationally.

He named countries such as Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada where many applications had come to adopt children.

He said, “International adoption gives succour to children with medical challenges. We have to conduct screening for international adopters who wanted to adopt children from Lagos. At present, 152 children have been adopted so far by 10 countries such as Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium.

Meanwhile, the government from has deported over 3,105 beggars and lunatics to their countries and states of origin.

Giving a breakdown of the statistics, Badru revealed that Sokoto State had the highest number of beggars with 196 arrested on Lagos streets, followed by Oyo State with 83, Kano State 75, Osun 67, Ekiti 21, while Ondo State had seven.

On the number of lunatics he said available statistic showed that Niger Republic had the highest number of beggars and lunatics arrested by having 12, Chad Republic 2 and Cote D’Ivorie had just one.

Badru explained that the state government has zero tolerance for begging and destitution in state adding that picking of unwanted persons from streets of Lagos will be a continuous exercise.

He said that his office would continue to work together with security agencies to rid the city of these unwanted persons, saying it is an offence to indulge the beggars who troop to the state on daily basis to beg for arms.

On the essence of the state’s rehabilitation centre at Owutu, Ikorodu, where beggars, destitute, mentally challenged and drug addicts picked from the roads are taken to, he said the state government will continue to make provision for facilities to help rehabilitate the beggars/destitute .

He said the mentally unstable picked on the roads across the state would be given adequate medical attention, while 38 able bodied among those picked on the roads who were suspected to be criminals have been handed over to the State Task Force for prosecution.

To effectively tackle the problem in the state, Badru appealed to members of the public to desist from giving alms to beggars/destitute on the street, pointing out that giving alms to beggars will encourage them to remain in the act which is fast becoming a profession of some people disguising to be beggars.

Countries: Netherlands, Nigeria, Italy

In Hunan, Family Planning Turns to Plunder

By staff reporter Shangguan Jiaoming 11.05.10 19:10

In Hunan, Family Planning Turns to Plunder

Families in a poor mountainous region have had children seized, and apparently sold, in the name of China's one-child policy

(Shaoyang) – On a long journey in search of his lost child, Yang Libing carries a single photograph. It's a faded snapshot of his daughter Yang Ling, who this year turns seven years old.

Family planning agency cadres in the poor mountain town where Yang Libing lived with his wife Cao Zhimei seized their daughter in 2005 and shipped her to an orphanage because they didn't pay afford a 6,000 yuan penalty – so-called "social support compensation" – for violating China's one-child policy.

Countries: China

Family-planning officials took & sold babies: report

May 10 2011]

By Liu Linlin

Alleged child trafficking involving family-planning officials in Hunan Province stunned the nation on Monday.

Over the last 10 years, family-planning "enforcers" in Shaoyang have seized at least 20 children from Longhui county, who were born outside their parents' birth quota, and dispatched them to a local children welfare center, according to media reports.

Countries: China, Netherlands

German courtcase - adoption Ghana

www.adoptionsinfo.de

OLG Celle 17. Zivilsenat vom 10.05.2011
Die Beschwerde der Beteiligten zu 1. und 2. gegen den Beschluss des Amtsgerichts -
Familiengericht - Celle vom 14. Juni 2010 wird zurückgewiesen.
Der Beschwerdewert wird auf 3.000 € festgesetzt.

Gründe

Die Antragsteller begehren mit ihrem am 11. November 2009 bei dem Amtsgericht angebrachten
Antrag die Anerkennung einer von dem Bezirksgericht … in Ghana ausgesprochenen Adoption
eines Minderjährigen. Das Amtsgericht hat ihren Antrag durch Beschluss vom 14. Juni 2010 mit
der Begründung zurückgewiesen, dass die Antragsteller zumindest die ausländische
Adoptionsentscheidung hätten vorlegen und eine Erläuterung zum Ablauf des
Adoptionsverfahrens nebst Vorlage etwaiger in diesem Verfahren eingeholter und verwerteter
Sozialberichte hätten abgeben müssen. Gegen diese Entscheidung richtet sich die Beschwerde
der Antragsteller. Der Senat hat im Beschwerdeverfahren eine Stellungnahme der
Bundeszentralstelle für Auslandsadoptionen eingeholt.

Die Beschwerde ist statthaft (§ 5 Abs. 4 Satz 2 AdWirkG i.V.m. § 58 Abs. 1 FamFG) und auch
im Übrigen zulässig. In der Sache hat sie keinen Erfolg.

1. Gemäß § 5 Abs. 3 Satz 1 AdWirkG trifft das Familiengericht die Anerkennungs- oder
Wirkungsfeststellung nach § 2 AdWirkG im Verfahren der freiwilligen Gerichtsbarkeit. Das
Gericht hat folglich von Amts wegen die zur Feststellung der Tatsachen erforderlichen
Ermittlungen zu veranstalten und die geeignet erscheinenden Beweise aufzunehmen, § 26
FamFG. Den Umfang der Ermittlungen bestimmt das Gericht nach pflichtgemäßem Ermessen.
Danach können die Ermittlungen dann abgeschlossen werden, wenn von einer weiteren
Beweisaufnahme ein sachdienliches, die Entscheidung beeinflussendes Ergebnis nicht mehr zu
erwarten ist. Allerdings werden die Beteiligten durch den Amtsermittlungsgrundsatz nicht von
ihrer Pflicht entbunden, ihrerseits an der Aufklärung des Sachverhalts mitzuwirken; die
Verpflichtung des Gerichts zur weiteren Aufklärung des Sachverhalts findet dort ihre Grenze, wo
es die Verfahrensbeteiligten selbst in der Hand haben, die notwendigen Beweismittel zu
bezeichnen oder vorzulegen (Keidel/Sternal FamFG 16. Auflage § 26 Rn. 20 f.).
2. Zu den mit einem Antrag auf Anerkennung einer Auslandsadoption dem Gericht
notwendigerweise vorzulegenden Unterlagen gehört das Original der ausländischen
Adoptionsentscheidung, die zudem grundsätzlich mit der entsprechenden Legalisation versehen
sein muss (vgl. Hölzel StAZ 2003, 286, 294). Soweit es die Legalisation betrifft, hat die
Bundeszentralstelle für Auslandsadoptionen in ihrer Stellungnahme vom 1. März 2011 darauf
hingewiesen, dass die deutsche Botschaft in Accra wegen der Unzuverlässigkeit des
Personenstands- und Beurkundungswesens in Ghana die Legalisation ghanaischer Urkunden
eingestellt hat und die Echtheit der Urkunden daher im Rahmen eines an die deutsche Botschaft
zu stellenden Überprüfungsersuchens aufzuklären ist. Auch hierfür ist das Original der zu
überprüfenden Urkunde zwingend erforderlich.

3. Mit dem verfahrenseinleitenden Schriftsatz vom 2. November 2009 haben die Antragsteller die
Übersetzung einer Adoptionsentscheidung des Bezirksgerichts … vom 17. Dezember 2008
vorgelegt. Das Amtsgericht hatte danach durch Verfügung vom 18./19. November 2009 - unter
anderem - die Vorlage der Adoptionsentscheidung angeordnet; auch auf Nachfrage vom 1. April
2010 erfolgte darauf keine Reaktion. In seinem Beschluss vom 14. Juni 2010 hat das Amtsgericht
die Zurückweisung des Antrages ausdrücklich darauf gestützt, dass es an der Vorlage der
Adoptionsentscheidung fehlt. Im Zuge des Beschwerdeverfahrens haben die Antragsteller
wiederum nur eine bereits bei Verfahrenseinleitung eingereichte Übersetzung der
Adoptionsentscheidung, nicht aber die Adoptionsentscheidung selbst vorgelegt. Auf das
Erfordernis der Vorlage der Originalentscheidung hat auch die Bundeszentralstelle in ihrem
Schriftsatz vom 1. März 2011 nochmals hingewiesen. Obwohl die Antragsteller daraufhin selbst
eine ergänzende Stellungnahme bis zum 11. April 2011 angekündigt haben, ist eine weitere
Reaktion bislang nicht erfolgt. Bei dieser Sachlage sieht der Senat unter Berücksichtigung des
bisherigen Verfahrensverlaufes von weiteren Ermittlungen ab

Persons: Peter and Iris Thiel-Brokman

Countries: Ghana, Germany

Serbia - Blog about illegal adoptions

Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Monday, May 09, 2011

Formal Announcement

To all my readers:

Countries: Serbia, United States of America

Organizations: Reece's Rainbow, About A Child

Persons: Jasmina Jankovic

US pressure on Romania to re-open intercountry adoption

Romania is pressured to reopen adoptions for foreign citizens, Romania libera reads following a decision of Romanian authorities in 2005 to block the process. President Basescu gave plenty of assurances that the situation will not change in his mandate.

Meanwhile, Romania is under a lot of pressure from US and EU officials to reopen the adoptions program for foreign citizens. In an interview for the newspaper US General Consul James Gray talks about the issues that stand between cooperation of the two countries in this sector.

Gray said that things have changed since 2005 and now authorities have tougher measures that imply real responsibilities to satisfy the state of origin of the children. In his opinion, Romania needs to change legislation and there was a proposal for a limited reopening of adoptions but the incumbent PM Emil Boc refused it.

Countries: Romania, United States of America

Organizations: Lobby to Re-open Romanian Adoptions (2001- )

BREAKING NEWS: Adoption Attorney Susana Luarca in Custody

May 6th, 2011 Erin Siegal/

Susana María de la Asunción Loarca Saracho, known to many Americans by her pen name “Susana Luarca,” has been taken into custody (“captured”) at her residence in Zone 10 of Guatemala City a little over an hour ago, at approximately 4:45 p.m. Police officers, CICIG investigators, and agents from the Ministerio Público were present for the arrest.

Loarca’s arrest follows an April 19, 2011 decision by the First Penal Court of Guatemala City to overturn a prior arrangement made by the Third Court of Appeals, which allowed Loarca to remain free on bail and house arrest. She is being charged with conspiracy, trafficking in persons for illegal adoption and use of false documents.

The case against Loarca, informally known as “the Asociación Primavera case” or “the Primavera case” to Guatemalan investigators, involves a network of at least seven people who will face criminal charges related to illegal adoption and human trafficking of the child known as Karen Abigail López García. There is also an arrest warrant out for Marvin Josue Bran Galindo (known as Marvin Bran), who first offered “Karen Abigail” as an adoptable orphan to the US adoption agency Celebrate Children International. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Countries: Guatemala

Organizations: Asociacion Primavera orphanage (Spring)

Persons: Susana Luarca (aka Susana de Umana aka Susana Maria Luarca Saracho de Umaña), Marvin Bran (aka Marvin Josué Bran Galindo)