Shining a Light in the Playroom: Improving Transparency in Inter-Country Adoptions Under the Hague Convention.
Public International Law
Human Rights
Rule of Law

As international adoptions increase, so do the concerns that children are adopted in a safe and transparent manner.  This panel will provide a timely discussion of the use of third party intermediaries in the international adoption process and what sort of due diligence is necessary in order to ensure that the third party intermediaries meet the requirements of the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoptions as well as national and international anti-corruption regimes.

Sponsoring Committees:
Anti-Corruption Initiatives & Compliance Issues Committee and International Human Rights Committee

Program Chairs:
Carolyn Lindsey (Moderator), TRACE International, Annapolis, MD
Kathleen Hamann, U.S. Department of Justice, Alexandria, VA

Referee scandal: In Salzburg, Egon Bachler is under attack

Posted 17/09/2008 - 22:08 by Reichmann 

    
When Prof. Dr. Max Friedrich has made an inglorious start to make themselves more and more victims speak out. Whether in abuse, foster care, or visiting rights, the conditions are almost unbelievable. With a report from Frederick, his father could no longer see his children and has taken his life.

But now an even bigger scandal, seems on its way: Egon Bachler from Salzburg finds himself confronted with criticism from dozens of stakeholders. Accordingly, it is to create reports using assembly line techniques, which have serious shortcomings are evident. There is even talk of a verifier monopoly.

Association Kindergefuehle (www.kindergefühle.at)

Of course in Salzburg is also a well-organized club behind the elucidation of these abuses. The association Kindergefuehle, with the director Richard Maier, already held rallies and gave public speeches involving profound professionals and has for long been obvious to these abuses and, above all, a monopoly of expert system in Salzburg.

The youth, almost exclusively entrusted Egon Bachler about his association with the production of TAF reports. Parents will be taken away because technically incorrect advice, the children placed in institutions or have to endure some unnecessary burdens of therapy itself.

Salzburger children spent abroad

It seems obvious here is a thriving business act. As INHR has been known for some time, kept children from Salzburg to so-called abroad. We have had the personal data of children who were forcibly abducted by the youth to Romania and then eke out as farm workers with farmers their existence. These visits cost taxpayers between 5,000 and 7,000 euros per month. The farmer who employs children, which receives about 150 euros for food and accommodation.

No technical assistance

These are children who are usually quite a long time in the youth welfare service, or had previously been housed in various homes. These children need a very intensive psychological and educational assistance. In this country, they make problems, partly because they become delinquent, or otherwise running strike and the media deal with it. To avoid this, these children will be moved under the cover of the special technical assistance to foreign countries.

There are, according to insiders, however, neither psychological nor educational support. Children are consigned there simply uneducated, uncouth people, the children sometimes even beat with a whip, if something does not fit. If a child is not compliant, then it comes into the so-called time-out. This is a special camp, away from the scene. The children as a special treatment to be beaten, humiliated and imprisoned.

The money that should be used for the psychological and educational assistance, shall be below the operators of these dubious institutions. That may change with the children so nothing is probably obvious.

INHR will report in detail on the upcoming Salzburg Romania children and their stay.

 

http://www.inhr.net/artikel/gutachter-skandal-salzburg-steht-egon-bachler-unter-beschuss

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Gutachter-Skandal: In Salzburg steht Egon Bachler unter Beschuss

Timmermans sees improvements in Bulgarian children's home

News item | 10-09-2008 | 14:15

‘A lot still has to be done, but it’s looking good,’ said European affairs minister Frans Timmermans on 9 September, after his follow-up visit to a children's home in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

‘The health of the children in Mogilino is being monitored every day by specialists from UNICEF. But more significantly, the Bulgarian authorities have decided to close the home down,’ said Mr Timmermans.

Earlier this year, the BBC broadcast a documentary, Bulgaria’s abandoned children, about the sorry state of the Mogilino children’s home in Sofia. The programme aroused considerable indignation in Bulgaria and other EU member states. In February, Mr Timmermans visited the home to see the situation with his own eyes. Yesterday, he returned to see whether it has improved since.

3 Nepali kids set to land in US

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, Sept 9 - After a gap of one and half years three Nepali children are all set to land in the U.S with their new adoptive parents. This was made possible for three orphaned girls —Anita Himali, Anisha Sai and Santi Sai — after the government approved their documents related to inter-country adoption.

The adoptive mothers are Bonnie Lee Donohue of Wisconsin, Michelle Kyla Blanchard-Roma of Louisiana and Dr. Teryl Rae Elam of Alaska.

Donohue, who is a general manager in the food service sector, has been matched with three-year-old Himali, Blanchard-Roma, who is a reputed Louisiana-based attorney, has been matched with two-year-old Anisha, and reputed Alaska-based physician, Elam has been matched with nearly one-year-old Santi.

Chinese children's homes pay money to finders who drop children off at homes. This is apparent from an investigation by the Ministry of Justice following a Network report on adoption from China. According to China, these are 'symbolic amounts'.

Netwerk managed to obtain the contents of a draft letter on this subject from Justice Minister Hirsch Ballin to the House of Representatives. In it he discusses the fuss that arose in March about adoptions from China following a report by Netwerk. That report revealed that children's homes in Hunan province pay for children brought in. Many -also Dutch- adopted children come from this province. The ministry then launched its own investigation.

In the draft report, the ministry calls the Chinese adoption system 'vulnerable'. "Possible new irregularities are reported with some regularity," the report said. The Chinese adoption agency has admitted to the ministry that "symbolic amounts" are paid to finders who deliver children to children's homes. Last March's Network broadcast showed that finders were paid semi-annual salaries.

According to the Hague Adoption Convention, which both the Netherlands and China have signed, it is prohibited to pay finders of children. "Not a dollar, not a cent," the Hague Permanent Bureau on the Adoption Convention told Netwerk in March. The letter to the House of Representatives shows that the Ministry of Justice has doubts about whether this ban is being observed in the provinces. "Many children's homes are located in poor regions where small amounts can be of great significance," the report said. That can encourage child trafficking.

Emeritus professor Rene Hoksbergen speaks in a reaction of 'a critical report'. He has doubts about new adoptions from China. Hoksbergen: 'It is extremely difficult for the Netherlands to continue in the same way after this report. But it is up to the adoption organizations to make a decision about this'.

Red tapism delays relief for parents

September 1, 2008

K Praveen Kumar

TNN

CHENNAI: Three years after the controversy over illegal adoptions carried out by Malaysian Social Services (MSS), hit the news stands, the story has made it to the headlines again following a recent report by a foreign publication.

The Great Indian adoption racket across four continents

Lakshmy Ramanathan, TNN, Sep 1, 2008, 05.30am IST

Article

Comments

CHENNAI: Seven thirty on a chill February evening: residents of the Pulianthope slum off the Pulianthope high road in North Chennai had gathered outside their shanties to cook their last meal for the day.

Mohammed Adam The Ottawa Citizen Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Nairobi High Court Building is a grand monument to justice, but when Peggy Taillon stepped into Courtroom 33 one fateful February morning, she wondered what kind of justice awaited her.

Painful truth about adopted children

August 26, 2008

Siobhain Ryan and Sean Parnell

WHEN Julia Rollings first heard that the orphanage from which she had adopted her son and daughter was embroiled in a child-trafficking scandal, she was faced with a life-changing choice.

She could do nothing, safe in the knowledge that her children, Akil and Sabila, had been declared free for adoption by Indian courts, were Australian citizens and were in a place they called home.