Pound Pup Legacy

Continuation “DNA case” Indian couple

Zwolle-Lelystad, 23 June 2010 – Today, the three-judge family section of the District Court of Zwolle-Lelystad proceeded behind closed doors with the hearing of the request filed by the Indian couple in the “DNA case”. For further information about this case please be referred to the press releases issued by the court on 11 June and 15 June last.

Adoptive parents present
Today’s hearing was attended by the adoptive parents and their lawyers, the special curator of the child and the lawyer of the Indian couple.

Since the case is heard behind closed doors no further information can be given about the substance of the case.

Child psychologist as expert
The court wants to seek an expert opinion on the question whether the child is able to fully understand the case and the consequences it may have for him. The court intends to appoint a child psychologist as expert. Through conversations with the child the expert will have to try to provide clarity about the above question. The lawyers of the parties have been invited to submit a joint proposal for the appointment of an expert. Subsequently, the court will make the appointment.

Bron: Rechtbank Zwolle-Lelystad
Datum actualiteit: 24 juni 2010

Organizations: ACT CASE Nagarani

Request Indian parents for DNA testing rejected

Zwolle-Lelystad, March 7, 2011 - The Family Court of Zwolle-Lelystad has ruled on March 4 in the case of the Indian couple. The Indian couple's request for a DNA test to determine that a boy adopted by Dutch parents is their biological son, was dismissed by the Court.

Kidnapping

The Indian couple was robbed in 1999 of their son when he was two years old. He would be with the adoptive parents in the Netherlands. These adoptive parents would have adopted their son would in good faith and take care of the now 12-year-old boy since many years.

Request of Indian couple

Organizations: ACT CASE Nagarani

„C?p?unarii“ complic? problema adop?iilor

Andreea Ofi?eru
783 afi??ri
Luni 7 mar 2011

Emma Nicholson (st?nga) ?i Bogdan Panait (dreapta)

FOTO: MIRCEA P?UN

Emma Nicholson (st?nga) ?i Bogdan Panait (dreapta)

Num?rul mare de români care tr?iesc în str?in?tate reclam? modificarea legisla?iei privind adop?iile. Baroneasa Emma Nicholson nici nu vrea s? aud?. Iminenta schimbare a legii adop?iilor a adus-o pe Baroneasa Emma Nicholson la Bucure?ti: aceasta sus?ine c? nu e bine s?-i lase pe copii s? fie adopta?i de românii din str?in?tate.

Dup? ce în 2009, Bogdan Panait, ?eful Oficiului Na?ional pentru Adop?ii, a trimis un memorandum c?tre Guvern pentru ridicarea interdic?iei la adop?iile interna?ionale, acum el vrea s? modifice legea 273/2004 -a adop?iilor na?ionale. Propunerea legislativ? a luat toate semn?turile de la ministere ?i urmeaz? s? primeasc? avizul Guvernului.

Una dintre schimb?rile propuse se refer? la modul în care copiii pot fi adopta?i de c?tre cet??enii români din str?in?tate. Astfel, dac? românii afla?i în alte ??ri vor s? adopte copii din România, ei o vor putea face. La fel, dac? rudele de pân? la gradul IV ale micu?ilor de la noi vor s?-i adopte în ??rile unde î?i au domiciului, ei vor fi l?sa?i de lege s?-i adopte. Bogdan Panait spune c? m?sura se justific?, deoarece sunt multe cereri de la cet??enii români care tr?iesc în Spania, Fran?a, Italia, Marea Britanie.

„Sau sunt cazuri în care un cet??ean român se c?s?tore?te cu un cet??ean str?in, dar cel str?in nu poate adopta copilul so?iei sau so?ului pentru c? nu-i permite legea. Am un caz de curând al unei mame care a decedat ?i i-au r?mas ?ase copii, cu ta?i diferi?i ?i necunoscu?i, iar unchiul din Belgia vrea s? adopte copiii. Mai am un caz al unui ambasador care e în misiune în alt? ?ar? ?i vrea s? adopte copilul. Din punctul meu de vedere, orice român care locuie?te în str?in?tate ?i nu mai are domiciliul în România are acelea?i drepturi ca ?i cei de aici", a spus Bogdan Panait. ?eful ORA sus?ine c? astfel de cazuri sunt la nivelul zecilor într-un an, iar legea vine s? înt?reasc? adop?ia na?ional? ?i s? o clarifice.

"Ceea ce se în?elege prin adop?ie interna?ional? se refer? de fapt la cet??eanul român din str?in?tate, dar nu deschide nicio porti?? pentru alt cet??ean", precizeaz? Panait. Ca argument pentru schimbarea legii, Panait spune c? a discutat cu sute de oameni care lucreaz? în adop?ii ?i c? ace?tia i-au spus c? au aceea?i problem?.

Baroneasa vrea ca micu?ii s? r?mân? în ?ar?

Chemat? de Secretariatul General al Guvernului s?-?i exprime o pozi?ie oficial? fa?? de aceast? problem?, baroneasa Emma Nicholson, fost raportor pentru România în problema protec?iei copiilor, nici nu vrea s? aud? de plecarea micu?ilor. Nicholson a fost weekendul trecut în Bucure?ti ?i s-a întâlnit cu oficalii ORA. "Am o pozi?ie foarte clar? fa?? de aceast? propunere. Este o gre?eal? ?i îi va face r?u Romaniei ca na?iune, va fi d?un?toare copiilor ?i va redeschide uria?ul scandal interna?ional de corup?ie al adop?iilor interna?ionale, care a fost închis înainte de intrarea în Uniunea European?", a declarat Emma Nicholson, pentru "Adev?rul".

Baroneasa afirm? c? propunerea încalc? de fapt Conven?ia ONU privind Drepturile Copiilor, care se reg?se?te în legisla?ia româneasc?, unde adop?ia interna?ional? este considerat? ultima solu?ie. "Copilul are dreptul la identitate, la intimidate ?i peste toate, la protec?ie. De aceea, este gre?it s? spunem c? trebuie s? r?spundem românilor din str?in?tate care vor copii. Datoria Guvernului este fa?? de copii ?i fa?? familiile din care ei provin", a precizat Nicholson.

Un alt argument adus de baroneas? este c? românii pleca?i în str?in?tate au emigrat pentru a-?i asigura supravie?uirea economic?, ceea ce înseamn? c? nu ob?in joburi foarte bine pl?tite astfel încât s? poat? s?-i între?in? pe copii. "Argumentul c? familiile de români din str?in?tate vor copii nu se sus?ine, nu st? în picioare nici în privin?a drepturilor copilului, nici în datoria Guvernului Roman fa?? de ei sau în situa?ia economic? mai bun? din str?in?tate", a declarat Nicholson.

"România va fi omul bolnav al Europei din nou"

Fostul raportor pledeaz? pentru înt?rirea sistemului na?ional de adop?ie. "ORA mi-a spus c? procedurile pentru adop?ia intern? nu sunt perfecte, dar dac? a?a stau lucrurile, atunci este de o mie de ori mai dificil s? avem proceduri corecte pentru str?in?tate", a mai spus baroneasa. Ea a completat c? indicele de corup?ie al României a crescut în ultimii doi ani, pe fondul crizei economice.

"Dac? atunci când indicele de coruptie era mai mic, erau probleme la adop?ie, acum, o s? fie ?i mai r?u", a spus Nicholson. Ea a recomandat ca ORA s? renun?e la modificarea legii adop?iei. În caz contrar, România se va afla într-un scandal imens în UE pentru c? sunt grupuri sensibile peste tot în statele membre care nu sunt de accord cu lucrul acesta.

"Iar eu ?tiu multe astfel de grupuri minunate în Spania, în Italia, în Fran?a, multe în Marea Britanie ?i Irlanda. România va fi catalogat? din nou ca omul bolnav al Europei ?i va c?dea drastic", a concluzionat baroneasa.

Puncte de vedere diferite pentru relaxarea adop?iei în Europa

TAGURI

Cât despre rezolu?ia din ianuarie a Parlamentului European, prin care acesta recomand? relaxarea adop?iilor în ??rile europene, Emma Nicholson a spus c? "nu e treaba Parlamentului European s? se ocupe de adop?iile in?ernationale".

"Adop?iile europene nu exist?. Este un lucru fals. Parlamentul European încearc? s? se ocupe de un lucru pentru care nu are competen?e. Am auzit un coleg din acest parlament c? adop?iile din Europa ar trebui s? fie o pia?? liber?, ceea ce înseamn? de fapt trafic", este de p?rere Nicholson.

Fa?? de aceea?i problem?, Bogdan Panait are p?reri diferite. El sus?ine c? aceast? ultim? rezolu?ie a Consiliului Europei arat? clar c? minorul trebuie s? creasc? în familie. "?i aici trebuie s? spun c? partea român? din PE a avut un mare merit, ceea ce nu s-a spus în presa romaneasc? din p?cate", a spus Panait.

Baroneasa se întoarce

Baroneasa Emma Nicholson a fost raportor al Parlamentului European pentru România timp de ?ase ani, înainte ca ?ara noastr? s? adere la Uniunea European?. În vremea mandatului s?u, baroneasa a urm?rit îndeaproape situa?ia sistemului de protec?ie a copilului ?i a criticat de multe ori autorit??ile pentru lipsa de m?suri.Tot în aceea?i perioad?, Nicholson a fost co-pre?edinte al Grupului la Nivel Înalt Copiii României, institu?ie care în prezent exist? numai pe hârtie.

Emma Nicholson a declarat c? va veni mai des în România în calitatea ei de parlamentar, membru al unui grup britanic împotriva traficului de copii, care va avea filial? ?i în rândul parlamentarilor români. Doamna Nicholson va fi cea care îi va ajuta pe parlamentarii din România s? pun? pe picioare filiala de la noi. "Am fost acord ca eu s? fiu partenerul care s? implementeze acest grup în România. În trei sferturi din ??rile europene exista deja acest grup", a conchis Nicholson.

Care sunt gradele de rudenie

Legisla?ia româneasc? prevede c? un copil r?mas f?r? p?rin?i în România ?i declarat adoptabil poate fi înfiat în str?in?tate doar de rudele pân? la gradul III. Bogdan Panait vrea s? extind? aceast? op?iune pân? la rudele de gradul IV, îns? baroneasa se opune. Iata care este ierarhizarea gradelor de rudenie:
-Gradul I - p?rinte-copil.
-Gradul II - fra?i, bunici-nepo?i
-Gradul III - verii primari, nepo?i de frate, unchi ?i m?tu?i, str?bunici-str?nepo?i
-Gradul IV - verii de gradul al doilea, unchii "mari" (fratele bunicului).

Countries: Romania

Persons: Barones Emma Nicholson to Winterbourne

Ombudsman could investigate child 'snatching' by courts

An independent Ombudsman could be appointed to investigate cases in which social workers and the courts are accused of taking children from their homes without justification.

Tim Loughton Photo: UPPA

Patrick Sawer 8:30AM GMT 06 Mar 2011

Tim Loughton, the children's minister, is considering the landmark step after he grew concerned over a number of cases where children have been wrongly taken and placed for adoption.

Countries: United Kingdom

Legea adop?iei a fost depus? la Parlament, în form? final?

de Admin » 16 Noi 2010 10:15

Proiectul redeschide procedurile pentru adop?iile interna?ionale ?i elimin? obstacolele de care se lovesc acum cei care vor s? înfieze un copil

Asocia?ia Catharsis Bra?ov a înregistrat recent, la Cancelaria Parlamentului României, ultima variant? a Proiectului de lege privind adop?ia în România, completat? cu propuneri trimise de speciali?ti ai serviciilor publice sociale ?i ai unor ONG-uri din ?ar?.

Astfel, în prevederile propuse termenul de „adop?ie na?ional?” va defini adop?ia încredin?at? familiilor care î?i au domiciliul stabil în România. „Adop?ie intracomunitar?” va însemna adop?ia încuviin?at? familiilor sau persoanelor cu domiciliul în ??rile membre UE, iar „adop?ia interna?ional?” va fi adop?ia încuviin?at? persoanelor sau familiilor cu domiciliul stabil în statele semnatare ale Conven?iei de la Haga.

Persons: Azota Popescu

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

Înc? un pas spre reluarea adop?iilor interna?ionale

22.02.2011 10:20:04 (Arhiva)

Publicitate

Propunerea legislativ? a Asocia?iei „Catharsis“ de a fi reluate adop?iile interna?ionale, a mai f?cut un pas c?tre împlinire, membrii Comisiei pentru Drepturile Omului, Culte ?i Probleme ale Minorit??ilor Na?ionale din Camera Deputa?ilor desemnîndu-l pe deputatul Sergiu Andon s? elaboreze, din punct de vedere tehnic, proiectul de lege care va fi supus dezbaterii Parlamentului. „Este o veste extraordinar? pentru noi, decizia comisiei ne arat? c? sîntem pe drumul cel bun. Credem c? vom reu?i s? d?m copiilor o familie iubitoare a?a cum merit?. Dac? lucrurile vor decurge normal, sper?m ca la începutul verii s? putem avea aceast? lege votat? ?i promulgat?“, a declarat ieri, Azota Popescu (foto), pre?edintele Asocia?iei „Catharsis“.

Au cerut acte normative interna?ionale

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

Persons: Azota Popescu

Alleged illegal adoption… Mother collapses at HANCI Commission of enquiry

Umu Jalloh whose twins a boy and a girl were alleged to have been illegally adopted by Help A Needy Child International (HANCI), collapsed yesterday at the government set Commission of enquiry sitting at the Miatta Conference Centre, Brookfields Freetown.
She collapsed while explaining because since her twins were taken away from her 13 years ago by HANCI, she has not set eyes on them or got information about the whereabouts of her twins Sento and Alhassan Koroma.
The widow and mother of five children explained that she lives at Old Magburaka Road, Makeni and sells bananas to sustain her. Narrating her ordeal in tears Umu told the Commission that her husband died shortly after he realized that his twins are no more to be seen.
She maintained that they came in contact with HANCI through one Peter Lamin, Henry Abu, John Gbla and one Dr Kargbo. She further explained that while she was sitting at her house in Makeni breast feeding her twins, Mr. Lamin, Mr Gbla, Mr Abu and one Dr Kargbo met her and said they liked the twins and want to help them with their education.
Umu further stated that after the four people visited her thrice, she handed over the twins to them and they took them to the HANCI Orphanage, adding that after the twins were taken away from her she usually visited the Orphanage Home to see her children.
When I heard that the rebels were coming closer to us, “I went to collect my children at the Orphanage but Mr. Lamin asked me to leave the place. I burst into tears and went home”.
When I went home, she continued I explained to my husband Mr Lexto Koroma the way Mr Lamin treated her and he immediately went in the house and fell sick with broken heart and later died.
Asked by the Commissioners if she received any money or documents in exchange for her twins, she replied no
Umu Jalloh further explained that later on she came down to Freetown to ask Mr Lamin about her tiwns, but she was walked out. She said she did not have any relatives and did not know Freetown well so she was spending the night in a car park nearly going mad because of the way she was treated. “I am pleading to this Commission to help me get my twins back. I have lost my husband, please don’t let me lose my twins”, she cried out loudly and then collapsed.
Earlier on Kumba Mansaray, a widow and amputee explained that she lives in Makeni and she is a gardener. She explained that her husband was killed in Segbewema during the war. She said that she has three children but one Isata Bangura was taken away from her by HANCI adding that Mr Gbla and Mr Lamin from HANCI took her three years old daughter on the pretext that he was going to help her get quality education.
Kumba stated that Mr Lamin told her that because they are of the same tribe, they will not deceive her, and they took the child away.
She said they also told her that some of her friend’s children were already at the home learning and told her that she was free to visit the child anytime.
She further narrated that her child was at the Orphanage when the rebels entered Binkolo and she went to the orphanage and discovered that Mr Gbla and her daughter were no where to be found.
Kumba also told the Commission that when the rebels attacked Makeni she was in the bush for three months and when the rebels left she visited the Orphanage again but found it closed.
She went on that while searching for her daughter she found Mr Gbla at Calaba Town, and she asked him for her child and he told her that the child was in America and he is no longer in care of her.
“I went to Mr Lamin’s house another time and he shouted at me and I burst into tears and went to Mr Abu’s he also shouted at me. I started shedding tears, by then I did not have transport to travel back to Makeni so I begged for three days before having transportation fare”.
Also asked by the Commissioners if she received any documents from HANCI, she replied no and burst into tears.
Because of the pathetic atmosphere at the Commission, the enquiry was adjourned to Tuesday 8 March 2011. The chairperson of the Commission, Justice Ade Elisa Showers asked the Secretary to the Commission to write to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to request for first aid since most of the parents are suffering from high blood pressure.
The Commission was set up by the government of Sierra Leone to look into the issue of HANCI’s alleged illegal adoption, whether the parents gave their children with consent, whether HANCI explained to the parents fully about adoption and whether the adoption is in line with the country’s adoption law.
Mr Mustapha Rogers and Albert Kanu are Commissioners of the enquiry.
By Abibatu Kamara

Comments are closed.

Organizations: Help a Needy Child International (HANCI)

Countries: United States of America, Sierra Leone

Kenya: US Department of State Adoption Alert – March 2, 2011

March 3, 2011

From the US Department of State:

Kenya Adoption Alert

Adoption Alert

Countries: United States of America, Kenya

Recalling the pain of forced adoption

Recalling the pain of forced adoption

Image Caption: Gillard reflects on the past (swissinfo)

Related Stories

by Clare O'Dea, swissinfo.ch

They came for her one day in the café where she worked – two policemen and a woman from the authorities. “It’s a nice day,” they said, “we’re going for a drive”.

For the next 16 months Michèle Gillard would be in “administrative care”, her rights as a free citizen temporarily suspended.

Until 1981, young people who stepped out of line could be deprived of their freedom without trial or any means of appeal. A recommendation from the guardianship authorities was often enough to seal their fate.

On the grounds of “depraved lifestyle”, “licentiousness” or “alcoholism”, victims were often placed in prisons alongside genuine criminal offenders. Others ended up in residential institutions. The Swiss justice minister apologised last year to all those imprisoned under this legal provision.

National figures have not yet been compiled as the legal procedure was implemented independently by each canton but Bern, for example, recorded 2,700 cases in the four decades the law was in place.

Many cases involved young girls who got pregnant, were then shunned by their families and ended up being forced to give up their babies for adoption.

Confinement

So it was in the winter of 1970 for 21-year-old Gillard. She cried all the way on the drive from Delémont in French-speaking western Switzerland to the “social home” in Walzenhausen in the German-speaking east.

“It was terrifying, arriving in this building in a forest and seeing the girls’ faces, like a horror film. ‘How long are you in for?’, they asked me but I had no idea, all I could do was cry.”

The home in canton St Gallen was notorious among interned girls as a stepping stone to the country’s main women’s prison, Hindelbank in Bern, according to Gina Rubeli-Eigenmann of the victims support group Administrativ Versorgte 1942-1981.

“For the slightest thing that happened in Walzenhausen, you would end up in Hindelbank and many mothers signed adoption papers under fear of being transferred there,” explained Rubeli-Eigenmann, who herself spent time at Hindelbank under the same “administrative care” legal provision.

For the remaining months of her pregnancy Gillard walked to work every day at a nearby factory in Wolfhalden where she embroidered handkerchiefs. She was not entitled to keep her earnings. In the evenings the girls watched correctional films or knitted.

Unhappy memories

It was not the first time that Gillard had lived in an institution. After her parents’ marriage broke up, she was sent to an orphanage in Epagny, Fribourg run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Ingenbohl.

In December 2010, the Sisters appointed a committee of outside experts to investigate allegations of abuse and cruelty in the past in the homes and schools run by the order.

Gillard lived in the orphanage in Epagny from the age of six to 13, a time of brutality, hunger and terror, as she remembers it.

There followed an unhappy period when Gillard and her younger sister tried to live with their father and his new wife. Her sister managed to challenge her father’s status as guardian in court and went to live with another family.

At 19, Gillard found lodgings with an old woman in Delémont and started work in a café. She began to enjoy a life of relative freedom after the restrictions and privations of her childhood. It wasn’t to last.

" Phone calls forbidden, visits forbidden, I had no-one. "
Michèle Gillard

“Naive”

“I was having a good time, going out and meeting boyfriends. But I was ignorant, I was naive, I think I was stupid really. We had been told nothing. The only education I received was the ABC.”

On a night out with her brother, with whom she had been temporarily reunited, Gillard was not able to gain access to the house where she was staying, because she says, she had forgotten her key and the landlady was deaf.

So she and her brother decided to sleep outside nearby, only to be picked up by the police. In the conservative society of the time, far from being dismissed as a harmless teenage prank, this incident earned Gillard a charge of vagrancy and put her on the radar of the local authorities.

By the time she fell pregnant, wheels were already in motion to have her sent away to an institution.

Her family, such as it was, was not prepared or able to help. The father of the child, although he said he wanted to support her, was threatened with being cut off by his family and kept his distance.

And so it was that Gillard found herself in the summer of 1971 on the other side of the country in a maternity clinic cut off from anyone she knew.

“Phone calls forbidden, visits forbidden, I had no-one.”

" I was sent back to work and I only saw her for a half an hour per day "
Michèle Gillard

Kindness of strangers

Gillard breaks down as she remembers the kindness of one midwife who asked other nurses to sit with her during visiting hours and brought presents.

“I stayed a few days there and then they came to collect me. I thought everything was fine but afterwards they put my daughter in a different section, I was sent back to work and I only saw her for a half an hour per day.”

Five months later Gillard’s father and step-mother, with the full support of the authorities, wanted to take custody of the baby girl and Gillard was unable to stop them.

After being released from Walzenhausen, she was barred from their home but refused to sign the adoption papers for years until she eventually gave in when the child was aged seven.

Shame

Deprived of her first child, Gillard felt great shame and unhappiness in the years that followed.

She had another child several years later while living independently who was also taken for adoption, after the authorities threatened to withdraw her social security payments. Taken, not given, she says.

Gillard did manage to meet with her two biological daughters when they reached adulthood but she said the gulf was too great to build proper relationships with them.

Now aged 62, Gillard lives with her husband in modest circumstances and does not talk about her past with friends and acquaintances. Out of shame and fear, she explains. Shame for herself after a lifetime of being judged and mistreated, fear of not being believed; of being thought a liar.

Clare O'Dea, swissinfo.ch

Countries: Switzerland

Minister Frattini meets with the Belarus Foreign Minister

Rome 22 December 2010

Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini held a meeting today at the foreign ministry in Rome with the Italian families that have completed the international adoption process for Belarus children hosted in Italy in the context of a therapeutic programme for children affected by the events at Chernobyl. Participants in the meeting included the foreign minister of Belarus Martynov, Cardinal Mamberti of the Holy See, as well as the Hon. Giovanardi.

Expressing his congratulations to the families present, Minister Frattini also thanked the Holy See for its active role in facilitating a positive solution to the cases pending, as well as his hopes that other pending cases would soon be resolved.

Minister Martynov presented Minister Frattini with a list of 100 children the Belarus authorities consider eligible for adoption, thereby meeting the expectations of those Italian families still waiting. A common commitment was confirmed to seek a trilateral consultation mechanism—Italian government, Holy See and Belarus government—for the monitoring of such adoption cases.

Countries: Belarus, Italy

Persons: Franco Frattini