The European executive is pushing for the recognition of parenthood in one country to result in bloc-wide recognition of familial ties, but the initiative could create a rift across the bloc due to the inclusion of rainbow families.

European justice ministers met on Friday (February 4) to exchange views on an EU proposal to recognise parental status across borders. According to the initiative, parentage links established in one EU country would be acknowledged in all member states.

Parenthood and recognition rules currently fall under the competence of member states and vary significantly across the 27.

“We don’t intend to change competencies on this matter,” Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders told journalists after the informal council on Friday.

“We ask member states to have the interest of the child as their concern,” he said, adding that the lack of cross-border recognition could lead to unfair consequences for children in terms of free movement, healthcare, and education.

Birth father searched for him and his mother for two years in vain, living in sorrow and ill health until his death in 2009

Eight months after the poignant reunion of a PhD graduate with his long-lost Chinese birth family – following his adoption to the Netherlands three decades ago – he brought his Dutch father to China to visit his birth mother, envisioning a future filled with love and care from both families.

In early October, Gouming Martens, originally named Gao Yang, revisited his birth mother Wen Xurong’s home in Miyi county in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, accompanied by his adoptive father, Jozef Martens.

They received a warm welcome from Wen and her husband, whom she married in 2010 and with whom she has a teenage daughter.

Wen’s husband prepared local dishes for their guests, while Wen served food to her son and his adoptive father, a traditional gesture of hospitality in Chinese culture.

The Danish state approved adoptions with forged papers and where there was no consent from the biological parents, says the lawyer.

For the first time in Danish history, adoptees from abroad to Denmark are demanding compensation from the Danish state for violations of their human rights.

The eight adoptees who are now demanding compensation are all adopted from South Korea and believe that the Danish authorities have not lived up to their responsibility to protect their rights.

This is what Lisa Dalgas Christensen, a lawyer at Pramming Advokater, who represents the adopted, says:

On October 5, 2022, the Racines & Dignité group filed complaints with the public prosecutor for the opening of a judicial investigation with the main actors who participated in our forced exodus without the consent of our biological families. We are publishing the letter addressed to Mrs. BECCUAU so that our request is taken into account in the face of these crimes against humanity.

October 5, 2022

For the attention of Mrs. Laure BECCUAU, Public Prosecutor of Paris

Madam Prosecutor,

We have the honor to inform you that we are a group of victims born in Romania since the 1960s. We created the group Racines&Dignité in order to denounce the establishment of a child trade and the violations of children's rights to which we have been subjected.

A year. That is how long a temporary adoption stop for children from abroad has been in effect in Flanders. And that adoption stop will remain in effect next year. This is confirmed by the competent minister Caroline Gennez (Vooruit). How come? How far has the screening of countries of origin progressed? And will there also be a permanent stop on foreign adoption here, just like in the Netherlands? “We will evaluate the new rules within two years,” says Gennez.

Quebec recently made a big step forward regarding the rights of adopted persons. The right to know the identities of the members of your family of origin is now included in Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Until recently, the general rule was confidentiality. However, as of June 8, adopted persons can find out who their biological parents were — even if the parents previously refused to have this information disclosed. 

In some other provinces, adopted persons already had this right. In Quebec, some organizations have been advocating for this right for more than 40 years. The ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (department of health and social services) expects to receive between 30,000 and 70,000 applications to identify biological parents as a result of this change in the law.  

What does the law say? 

In Québec, anyone who was adopted can find out the identity of their biological parent or parent of origin. Since June 8, 2024, this right has been guaranteed by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

Are you the child of a deceased adoptee? If you are aged 14 or over, you have access to the same information as your parent would have had while the parent was still alive.

What information?

You have the right to know the identity of:

• Your parents of origin entered in the adoption records, even if they are not registered on your original birth certificate;
• Your brothers and sisters of origin now aged 18 or over;
• Your grandparents of origin.

Province says it made the move to protect children from potential harm

The Quebec government has suspended most new international adoption applications, echoing moves by other jurisdictions that are rethinking the once-common practice because of human rights and trafficking concerns.

Quebec's decision is part of a global "culture change" in recent years as countries have become aware of serious shortcomings in the way many adoptions are carried out, Anne-Marie Piché, a professor in the social work department at the Université du Québec à Montréal who studies adoption, said in an interview Monday.

Despite international agreements that theoretically impose strict rules, "there are countries that have gaps in their adoption procedures," she said. In some cases, she added, "the children don't have their truthful information collected, for example on their parents, on the real reasons for placement, on their circumstances of birth."

As well, she said, mothers are sometimes coerced into signing a document to give up their child, children are falsely reported as abandoned or adoptions are quickly approved for financial gain.

Two French women abduct baby-girl from orphanage

Tamuna Museridze, a 40-year-old journalist in Georgia, discovered her biological father was her Facebook friend for three years during a search for her birth parents.

A 40-year-old woman in Georgia, who had been adopted at a young age, discovered her biological father had been her Facebook friend for three years. According to a report with BBC, Tamuna Museridze, in 2016, was cleaning the house of the woman who had raised her, after her passing away. It was then that she found a birth certificate with her name but an incorrect date of birth, and doubted she was adopted.

Curious to find out about her biological parents, Museridze, a journalist by profession, set up a group on Facebook, hoping to find them.

Some days later, Museridze received a message from a woman who claimed she knew another woman in Georgia who had secretly given birth to a child around September 1984.

The woman believed she might be Museridze’s mother and provided her name to the latter, the report stated.