01 October 2024, 18:30 - 21:30

Auditorium A2, Maison de la paix, Geneva

International adoption is currently at the heart of an unprecedented scandal: of the hundreds of thousands of babies adopted since the early 1950s, tens of thousands were stolen. In this documentary, we will join major investigative journalists, activists and researchers in South Korea, Sweden, France, Chile, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. With Christine Tournadre, Sonia Gonzalez (France). Produced by Anne Labro for Tangerine Productions, in collaboration with ARTE France, the CNC, RTS, Telewizja Polska, PROCIREP, the Ile-de-France region and Java Films.

This one-night-only film screening "International Adoptions: A Global Scandal" - parallel to the 27th session of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) (23 Sep to 04 Oct 2024) and co-organized by our Geneva Human Rights Platform with the CED, will explore the ongoing unprecedented scandal surrounding international adoption. The event will be followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A session. 

As I thought about watching the 48 Hours investigative show on international adoption that ran Saturday night, I became anxious. Would their story be similar to the recent negative, sensationalized stories on international adoption that have wreaked havoc on the adoption policies in countries such as Russia and Democratic Republic of Congo? Would they even mention the tremendous number of successful international adoptions that have provided children in need with loving, permanent homes? My hope was they would choose to maintain a proper perspective as the show was being reported by Maureen Mahrer, a reporter who has herself been adopted. We in the adoption world are all too familiar with these stories and their focus on the rare unethical adoption practitioners when we know, in fact, the majority of adoption agencies have processes in place to fiercely guard the welfare of the children they serve and to ensure that adoptions happen in an ethical and transparent manner.

“Perilous Journey” examined two adoption stories, one from Guatemala and one from Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the adoption agency, Celebrate Children International, and the practices of Sue Hedberg, the agency’s Executive Director. It does not need to be said that everyone will agree that what transpired in Guatemala was horrific and we applaud the efforts of the adoptive parent in this story for her fortitude in finding the truth and finally uniting the birth mother with her children. I will admit that when birth mom and adoptive parent finally met, I had tears in my eyes. I am sure that everyone also celebrated when the Owen family was finally able to leave Congo with their two adopted daughters.

Although, shedding light on stories such as these may make for high TV ratings, they don’t accurately reflect the reality that the great majority of international adoptions and adoption agencies are ethical and that adoption can have a positive outcome for the growing number of orphaned children worldwide. The story reported little on the extreme poverty in Congo. No mention of the fact that Congo is listed as the poorest country on earth. As a result there are an estimated 1,000,000 orphans in Kinshasa alone and 5,000,000 in the entire country. International adoption is a much needed avenue for these children in need to find the forever families that they deserve. Due to the poverty in Congo, children die in orphanages from malnutrition and preventable diseases. The orphanage presented in this news story was not reflective of the majority of orphanages in Congo who struggle daily just to feed the children.

As quoted by Maureen Mahrer herself, “Adoption is an amazing, wonderful opportunity for all parties when done correctly.”* I will state unequivocally that the majority of adoptions and agencies are doing international adoption correctly. As a Hague Approved international adoption agency, MLJ Adoptions has an exhaustive list of safeguards in place to ensure ethical adoptions. These include:

• Requiring all of our staff both domestic and international to submit criminal/abuse background checks prior to employment;
• Requiring our domestic and international staff to submit an Affidavit of Ethical Practices (a document that explicitly states the ethics that the individual will uphold while working in adoptions); 
• Obtaining reputable references for all adoption agency staff and foreign providers; 
• Travelling to our program countries on a regular basis to develop, monitor, and provide oversight of procedures and processes; 
• Training for domestic and international staff regarding the proper ethical considerations when working in international adoption and the consequences of unethical practices (termination of employment, criminal prosecution, halting of international adoptions in foreign program, changes in laws, etc); 
• Monthly monitoring for foreign supervised providers and continued quality improvement in all programs based upon observations, additional information and client feedback. 

There is a subject that seems to fascinate Indians. That of these children adopted elsewhere who come back to find their biological family in India 20, 30 years after the adoption. And there is one that regularly makes ink flow because it seems to them surely more crunchy than the others. It is that of this 37 year old man born in Pune (India) and adopted quickly (at 2 months!!!) by a German couple.

Arun believes that his biological father is the brother of an Indian minister, that he is the product of an adulterous affair and that he was taken away from his biological mother at birth. He therefore wants to find his biological mother, and files a lawsuit to this effect in India.

Arun, I met him on the English-speaking forums on Indian AI. He had anti-AI positions, had been involved in anti-Indian AI activities and regularly uttered hurtful and insulting words about AI ("International adoption IS child trafficking".). In short, he was regularly kicked off the forums and came back with fake pseudonyms to cause trouble. We could feel a tortured mind, sad to death, despite loving parents, a wife, children...

Despite his extreme positions on AI, his story touches me. Interestingly, he managed to get a DNA test from the biological son of his alleged biological father (I wonder if it was with his consent!!!) which would prove 90% that he is right about his father. In addition, the minister's brother would have played an important role in his adoption (which one??). But despite everything, the Indian justice system seems to be ruling against him.

Hello, I’m attorney Kim Sun-hugh. I would like to share some insights and experiences from working with overseas adoptees during their visits to their agencies, the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC), and the police. I cannot say that having an attorney present during these visits will dramatically affect the outcome, nor can I say whether having such legal assistance is always necessary. 

The Ministry of Social Affairs has decided to close Danadopt's adoptions of children from Ethiopia because there are doubts about whether the agency's mediation of adoptions from the African country is ethically and legally sound.

The Ministry of Social Affairs is now closing down adoption agency DanAdopt's adoptions of children from Ethiopia, DR News has learned.

In addition, DanAdopt must also account for the adoption process in all other countries from which they adopt children.

The other adoption agency in Denmark, AC Børnehjælp, must also account for their adoptions of children from Ethiopia. However, they are still allowed to continue their adoptions from Ethiopia until their account has been assessed by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Lige nu er det stort umuligt for barnløse danskere at adoptere børn fra udlandet, fordi skandaler på adoptionsområdet har sat al aktivitet på pause.

Og det er blevet vanskeligere at forestille sig, at barnløse danskere igen kan komme på venteliste til at adoptere børn fra udlandet. Sådan lød det fredag fra flere af partierne i Folketinget.

Flere partier overvejer nu, om det er tid til at opgive tanken om international adoption endegyldigt. Et af dem er Liberal Alliance, som har meget lidt tiltro til, at adoption fra udlandet kan genoptages på en forsvarlig måde.

Berhampur: A three-month-old baby girl found her home after a Koraput-based couple legally adopted her, two months after being surrendered by her unwed mother in Gajapati district's R.Udayagiri block. 

In a brief ceremony held at Paralakhemundi on Wednesday, Gajapati collector Bijay Chandra Dash officially handed over the infant to the couple, following the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) guidelines. The couple, who run a business in Kolkata, had waited nearly three years for this moment after registering with CARA, an autonomous statutory body under the ministry of women and child welfare. 

"The baby was surrendered to the district administration when she was just 20 days old, as her unwed mother was unable to care for her," said district child protection officer (DCPO) Arun Kumar Tripathy, who was present at the ceremony along with officials from the child care home where the infant had been provided shelter. 

New podcast series from DR Dokumentar reveals that Danish adoption agency was involved in bribery and child trafficking in the 1980s.

In March 1983, the Danish adoption agency AC Børnehjælp received a typewritten letter from one of the agency's employees in Lebanon. It was a Danish woman whose job was to help the agency find children for adoption.

The letter stated that she had been put in touch with a Lebanese midwife who could provide children.

- Apparently she can give us the children we want, but the price is 21-25,000 DKK (the currency of the time, ed.). Nobody gets anything for free in Lebanon. Take it or leave it (...) I'm standing in line with people who are willing to pay any amount for the child.

The story of how Anna came to Denmark

Iresha and Inoka Knops, two sisters who were adopted from Sri Lanka in 1985 by Ine and Ed Knops, are committed to the future of their birth village. The ladies grew up in the Netherlands, but discovered by chance last year that their biological mother, a sister, four half-brothers and a half-sister are still alive. What started as an emotional reunion, resulted in a mission to help the community in their birth village.
 

The discovery of their biological mother came unexpectedly during a holiday of Iresha. "It was very special, emotional and very beautiful," the sisters say. Although they never planned to visit their biological family, the meeting brought peace. "It is nice to know that our adoption went well and that our biological mother supported it."

From support to action

During their visit, Iresha and Inoka were confronted with the poverty in their home village. Although they support their biological mother financially, they wanted to do more for their family and the rest of the community. “We didn’t just want to give money, but to ensure that people can develop and build a better future,” Iresha explains. The idea arose to set up a community college, with which they want to invest in education and development together with the Dutch Sampath Foundation.

A warm childhood in Sevenum