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RE: Woo-verzoek inz. Independent Panel EU Family Law

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Children are separated from their parents unjustly and for years, or never allowed to return home: that is what Hungarian child protection has done in recent years. The Flemish government is going to investigate in Hungary whether adoption from that country may still be possible.

'If I hadn't gotten help, my children wouldn't be with me now.' Barbara, a woman with curls and an engaging smile, sits beaming with pride in a grimy armchair. Next to her sit four mischievous little rascals, her sons. They were taken away one by one by the Hungarian child protection services. The reason? Poverty in the family.

Civil rights organization TASZ (also known abroad as HCLU) helps Barbara and other parents to challenge unfair decisions. For Barbara, it took years, and she will never get that lost time back. She is the victim of a child protection system that is flawed on all sides.

'Families in Hungary should primarily solve their own problems, rather than seek support and guidance from the state,' says the international children's rights organisation ISS. In 2022, the organisation conducted an analysis of adoption and child protection in Hungary on behalf of the Flemish government. The aim? Based on this information, the Flemish Centre for Adoption will decide whether adoptions from Hungary will continue to be permitted in the future.

Poverty or neglect?

For many other adoptees they were able to find their biologcal family by doing DNA tests. They were the fortunate ones to be reunited with their family. This begs the question as to when it will be my turn

Fardau’s search has led her back to Sri Lanka five times since 2005. Her adoption papers listed a woman named Redige Baby Nona as her birth mother, but a DNA test in Colombo proved otherwise

For 20 years, Fardau Huisman has been searching for a missing piece of her identity—the truth about her birth family. Born in Sri Lanka in January 1985 and adopted by a Dutch family as a baby, she grew up in Holland with little knowledge of her origins. Her Sri Lankan name was Ganga, but the identity of her biological parents remains a mystery.

Fardau’s search has led her back to Sri Lanka five times since 2005. Her adoption papers listed a woman named Redige Baby Nona as her birth mother, but a DNA test in Colombo proved otherwise. That revelation uncovered a darker truth—Baby Nona

In a growing number of countries, inquiries into past intercountry adoptions take place that identify systemic abuses and irregularities and conclude that adoption stakeholders encouraged or facilitated illegal intercountry adoptions. However, so far, the response from these stakeholders has been inadequate in addressing the profound human rights violations endured by those affected by illegal adoptions. Despite the growing movement of adoptees advocating for justice on behalf of themselves and their birth families and communities, adoption stakeholders in both sending and receiving countries have remained largely passive, lacking a coherent strategy to confront and rectify illegal intercountry adoptions. This inertia is exacerbated by the wide gap in adequate regulations regarding remedies and reparations for illegal intercountry adoptions

Facing the Past: Policies and Good Practices for Responses to Illegal Intercountry Adoptions aims to fill this critical gap by offering insights and recommendations to guide the process of reconciliation. Bringing together the contributions from scholars from various disciplines and adoptees themselves, this volume presents and discusses actionable measures that adoption stakeholders in both sending and receiving countries can employ to address the injustices inflicted upon victims of illegal intercountry adoptions. Targeting a diverse audience, including academics, policymakers, and adoption stakeholders, the book seeks to foster a path toward healing and accountability within the complex terrain of intercountry adoption.

Duration: August 2021 - February 2023 

Commissioned by: PNR 76, national research programme welfare and coercion | website
 

In partnership with Child Identity Protection | website  (for more information including results and presentations)

CONTEXT

Mia Dambach, Co-Founder and Executive Director for Child Identity Protection, on her work as a children’s solicitor in Australia, why ensuring children’s identity protection worldwide is important and the role of her many backgrounds in her daily life.

Dear Mia, you have studied at University of Sydney were you did a Bachelor in Law and a Bachelor in Commerce with a triple major in accounting, marketing and economics before doing your Master of Laws (LL.M.). How did you end up volunteering at a local children’s court during your studies?

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While I was studying law at the University of Sydney, I wanted to gain some work experience to confirm my desire to work with children. I contacted the local children's court closest to the University to see if they needed any administrative help, which would give me the opportunity to watch the closed proceedings. They offered me work, archiving and writing letters to the children following a decision by the children's court magistrate. This allowed me to get a first-hand look at the cases and types of sentences children were given for different offences. Eventually, they allowed me to be a children's court monitor/officer, which is the person who runs the court in terms of saying "silence, please, all stand" when the children's magistrate enters and leaves the court and also records the different proceedings. After a few months, one of the paid staff went on maternity leave and the Children's Court offered me a part time paid position that I could carry out whilst finishing my law degree. This experience confirmed my desire to work as a children's lawyer as well as to learn the different ways that children could be defended well in court.

DCOF-UNICEF ASSESSMENT OF “STRENGTHENING SYSTEMS TO PROTECT VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN CAMBODIA”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report describes the outcomes of the joint DCOF/UNICEF visit to Cambodia to assess the three-year, DCOF-funded project on Strengthening Systems to Protect Vulnerable Children and Families in Cambodia. The assessment visit was carried out in May 2012, toward the end of the project (September 2012). 

Overall, the team found that much progress had been made in terms of legislative developments, such as the Prakas on Alternative Care; the development of minimum standards for residential care, now being used in regular inspections; and the development of a database for residential care facilities and the children resident within them. Other activities benefiting children directly have also taken place, such as working with the Buddhist Leadership Initiative on supporting vulnerable children and families, and the Partnership Program for the Protection of Children (3PC) that UNICEF has initiated with Friends International, which involves a collaboration of nine nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing services for children in a number of provinces in Cambodia. 

The work in Cambodia seems to have proven somewhat challenging, but government capacity is now developing and attitudes toward alternative care are showing greater understanding of those issues. However, the systems put into place still appear to require external support (much like the health and education system) in order to embed themselves firmly in governmental practice at all levels and to be useful in the development of a wider child protection system.