"Past abuses should not make adoption from abroad impossible." This is what prospective adoptive parents Marjolein and Kris say after the decision by Minister of Welfare Hilde Crevits (CD&V) to temporarily suspend intercountry adoption. Gitte, herself adopted from Guatemala, disagrees: "Child trafficking will always exist." What should happen next?

Kris and Marjolein are candidate adoptive parents. They are in the final stages of their adoption process. Because Kris himself was adopted from India, the couple chose India as their country of origin.

“We could probably have a baby of our own. But we consciously choose adoption. We believe it is important to welcome a child who has little or no chance of a quality life into our family. We made the specific choice for a child with special needs. Their future is even worse in their country of origin. We can provide minor medical procedures that are very expensive in India in Belgium.”

Many more rules

“A lot of things have changed for the better in the last 30 or 40 years. I am a living example of that,” says Kris. “Two years after my adoptive parents started their procedure, they had me. I was a perfectly healthy 8 month old baby. That situation could never arise again.”

Former Ambassador Susan Jacobs spent much of her career in diplomacy focused on international children's issues, including a position as the United States’ first Special Advisor for International Children's Issues, helping to uphold The Hague Conventions on adoptions and abductions. In this episode, Jacobs joins Annelise Riles to talk about her career in the foreign service, as one of the first married women to become a foreign service officer, and her work as it relates to United Nations Sustainable Development goal number 16, which includes targets related to protecting children.

We need to be working with countries so that children aren't pushed to the borders, that they have opportunities in their own countries that will enable them to have full, productive lives. And I think that our aid programs should be geared more towards helping children be protected and protecting their security so that they don't have to come to the border.”

– Susan Jacobs, Former Special Advisor for Children’s Issues, Department of State

Background reading:

Adoption Support Center believes it is important to support aftercare projects. That is why we launch an annual incentive call with which we want to give aftercare projects a substantive and financial boost. In October we launched the 2024 call. But how did the 2023 projects actually go? Earlier this year we provided an overview of the projects that emerged as winners during the previous round. As the end of the year approaches, it's time to take a look back at some of the completed projects! What did they organize and what motivated them to commit themselves to organizing it?

Diversity Beauty Wellbeing Day - by CAFE

CAFE is an interest group that brings together adult adoptees from all countries of origin, first parents and adoptive parents. People with a foster care background and donor children are also welcome with us. From a critical view of the enforcement of children's and human rights within the transnational adoption system, we stand up for the rights and well-being of our target group. We do this by thinking about policy regarding adoption, denouncing abuses, organizing informative events and contact with fellow sufferers.

With the help of the incentive from Support Center Adoption, we organized our annual Wellbeing Day, which this year had the theme "Diversity Beauty". Adoptees were informed about the care of all skin types and afterwards a make-up workshop was provided.

Giovanna Ricciardi • 3rd+Children’s Rights Specialist at International Social Service (ISS)Children’s Rights Specialist at International Social Service (ISS)1yr • 1 year ago • Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn

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Last week I was delighted to represent the International Social Service (ISS) GS during the transnational roundtable on hashtag#kafalah in Paris in the framework of the Project FAMIMOVE. Together with Sandrine PEPIT - director of Droit d'Enfance (ISS France)- and Wiem Guedira - legal officer at Droit d'Enfance - FondationMéquignon (ISS France) – we joined the discussions on the challenges regarding the reception of hashtag#kafalah in legal systems that do not foresee this protection measure. Important insights on the Dutch system have been shared by Jolien Janse part of the FAMIMOVE Advisory Board, and the Dutch Central authority, as well as by Cécile Corso on the preparation of hashtag#kafils by the Femmes Informations Juridiques Internationales (FIJI).

This meeting has represented a great opportunity for the International Social Service (ISS) to recall the findings of its 2020 publication 'Kafalah - Preliminary analysis of national and cross-border practices' (available in French and English) and to propose possible avenues to ensure that hashtag#kafalah is indeed a child protection measure respectful of children’s rights, both domestically and across borders.

Thank you Fabienne Jault and Mayela Celis for having the International Social Service (ISS) on board!

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Macron slams ‘manhunt’ against Depardieu

French film star Gérard Depardieu still has some friends.

President Emmanuel Macron was interviewed on French TV channel France 5 | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

BY CLEA CAULCUTT

Reflecting on 25 Years as Founder of ICAV

Dec 20, 2023

—

by

lynelle long

On 8 December 2023, the Federal Council revealed the results of a study on the adoption of foreign children in Switzerland. The report highlights frequent irregularities in the adoption process and pushes the executive to want to revise international adoption law.

The Federal Council has not yet finished with the issue of illegal adoptions. Indeed, after a shocking report published in 2020 which revealed the illegal and sometimes mafia-like practices of private intermediaries and Sri Lankan authorities in the 1980s, the executive made public, at the beginning of December, the conclusions of a second study, this time on the adoptions of children from ten other countries between 1970 and 1990. This study conducted by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) states:

"There are also indications of illegal practices in these countries, child trafficking, falsification of documents and false indications of origin."

What happened? What was Switzerland's role? What are the responsibilities? Watson spoke with Sitara Chamot, coordinator of the Bureau d'Aide à la Recherche des Origines (BARO), which supports adopted adults.

On Friday, December 8, the Federal Council issued a statement on the report reporting irregularities in international adoptions committed in the past. What was your reaction to this statement?
Let's say that these are not major revelations; for me, who has worked in supporting adopted people for about ten years, what this report shows was not a surprise. Obviously, we regret these events and the role played by the Swiss authorities who sometimes turned a blind eye, but we are satisfied that this large-scale study was commissioned by the Federal Council.

Mary E. Hurlbutt, born in 1888 in Greenwich, Connecticut, is renowned for her distinguished career as a social worker and immigrants’ rights activist. Having completed her education at Columbia University’s New York School of Social Work, Hurlbutt furthered her expertise through research ventures in Vienna, London, Paris, and Italy. A devout Christian, she actively engaged with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and swiftly ascended to the roles of Immigration Secretary in 1919 and later as the director of the Immigration Service Bureau in 1922.

Grounded in her social work background and enriched by her international experiences, Hurlbutt developed a profound empathy for immigrants. Witnessing the global upheaval post-World War I, she foresaw the evolving landscape and recognized that traditional immigration standards would become outdated.

“In the old days, immigrants used to settle in a few large cities,” Hurlbutt reflected. “Under the present act, they will tend to be more dispersed, increasing the need for all schools of social work to include in their curricula an understanding of technical and cultural problems.”

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Adoptionstrekanten | David Kildendal Nielsen posted 19 December 2023

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In 2022, an employee alerted the adoption agency DIA that they were mediating adoptions from Madagascar on a misleading basis. Still, DIA continued with the adoptions.

When Denmark's only adoption agency, Danish International Adoption (DIA), received an official warning from the Danish Appeals Board in November this year, the message was clear: 

DIA's adoption mediation in the African island nation of Madagascar was in violation of conventions and the adoption law. 

The backdrop for the warning was, among other things, illegal money transfers and an unnecessary delay in the adoption cases of two children. But Danwatch can now reveal that DIA has brokered adoptions to Denmark, even though they knew that the children's papers could contain incorrect information about their biological parentage. 

Danwatch has gained access to a number of children's cases from recent years that contain conflicting stories about the children's past, while there are also two cases where there is doubt as to who consented to the adoption.