Anne Linnet's adoption of two Romanian children aged 7 and 12 is far from normal practice. So far that the association Adoption & Samfund sees the possibility of easier access to adoption for singles and homosexuals in the future.

The well-known singer and composer's adoption of the siblings, Peter and Maria, was the subject of a heated discussion over lunch when the Adoption & Society association held a national meeting at the weekend.

"We see it as a softening of the practice that has been in force until now, which must have fundamental importance for future adopters. Especially for single adopters and homosexuals. If other adopters are not treated according to the same principles, it will be an expression of double standards,' says the chairman of the association Adoption & Samfund, Lars Kluver.

There are three factors in particular that the association sees as completely fundamental in Anne Linnet's adoption case:

She already has three biological children and with the adoption of the sibling couple, she reaches a group of five children. She is single and has publicly confessed that she is sexually attracted to both men and women.

"The adoption departs from the counties' previous principles that special questions are asked when adopting a third child when there are already two children in the family. This case strongly undermines that principle, so that in future the counties should no longer look at the number of children in the family,' says Lars Kluver.

"The principles in the case must in future make it easier for single people to adopt, so that special requirements are no longer made.

Thirdly, I see it as a principled attitude towards gay adopters in this decision, which must have consequences for future practice.

Today, single adopters are asked questions, i.e. women, about whether they have regular contact with men, so that the child can have a natural relationship with men. With this decision, I think the logical consequence must be that these kinds of questions are no longer asked of single, female adopters. After all, this is a public figure who has made his sexuality known to both men and women,' says the chairman of Adoption & Society, who is not aware of similar cases that have so violently affected a current practice.

The adoption association is not enthusiastic about the way Anne Linnet has adopted the two Romanian children that she previously had as holiday children:

"It should not become a back road to adoption that you first take a holiday child with the aim of adopting later. Today it is a potential back road, but it should ideally not become the case that you automatically adopt holiday children. There are completely different criteria for being approved as a family for a holiday child than for an adopted child,' says Lars Kluver.

It is the association DanAdopt in Birkerød that has helped Anne Linnet get the adoption papers in order with the Romanian authorities. Here, office manager Ole Bergmann states that only very few children are adopted from Romania, i.e. maximum of five children per year.

"Romania is a very difficult country to work with because the information about the children is not always correct. It is a country where you have to be careful not to fall into the clutches of people who are corrupt and do not have good motives," says Ole Bergmann, who has four other cases on his table involving the adoption of holiday children."
 

Wasuthon who also goes by the nickname “Guide” now has his adoption approved under Danish law. After the family got the adoption rejected twice, the Appeal Authority of Denmark has now overruled the verdicts and the family can file for a Danish adoption for Guide, Fredericia Dagblad writes.

The case of Wasuthon has attracted a lot of attention from the media and politicians in Denmark lately.

The mayor of Wasuthon’s home city Fredericia announced that he was going to write the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Mattias Tesfaye, asking him to urge authorities for a speedy process on the case.

Despite the two rejections for approval of the adoption by The Agency of Family Law, the Appeal Authority have ruled in favor of Wasuthon and approved the adoption. The latest rejection was based on the fact that Wasuthon’s younger brother Chayapon still lived with his grandmother in Thailand and that it therefore would be differential treatment if an adoption on Wasuthon was approved.

But now the Appeal Authorities is saying that the adoption cannot be denied on that basis.

Meeting Commissioner Rehn with DG Enlargement

Brussels, 29 November 2004

Question Roelie Post

The Commission monitored children’s rights in Romania under the Copenhagen criteria. It found that children’s rights were not sufficiently protected. Following this the Romanian government addressed this issue.

However, this issue exists also in other countries in the region. It may even increase there, after Romania’s successful approach.

. Wenceslasz de Lobkowicz sent the position paper of DG Enlargement to Francois de Combret

. 

Dozens of adoptive parents have stood up for Ray of Hope, the adoption service that has been suspended by Minister Vogels, in recent days. The parents of Ethiopian adopted children in particular praised the smooth handling of their file and the openness of Ray of Hope. But there are also parents who are not happy about the "unacceptable incompetence" of Ray of Hope. This is evident from the story of three couples who were promised a child from South Vietnam.

by Geert NEYT

Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 04:30

"We had placed our trust in an organised adoption service because we did not want to adopt freely. But Ray of Hope put us on a plane to a foreign country and left us to our own devices." The anger of Danny and Nathalie Noels from Geraardsbergen, Bernard and Hilda Deckers from Vlezenbeek and Wim and Katleen Cornilly from Pittem has not cooled down after a year and a half. Their experiences were just one of the many elements that prompted Kind en Gezin and Minister Vogels to withdraw the recognition of Ray of Hope.

The now closed adoption agency DIA knew their employee in South Africa was working double jobs, but they hid the information from the Danish Appeals Board. DIA also acknowledges that the employment was a way of circumventing aid.

Back in December, the Danish Appeals Board suspended all adoption mediation from South Africa. Barely a month later, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly also decided to suspend the last five countries from which DIA was still mediating adoptions.Michele Spatari/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

An employee at the adoption agency Danish International Adoptions (DIA) in South Africa has worked for both DIA and their South African partner, the organization Impilo, which mediates orphans for national and international adoption. 

DIA was aware of the double-dealing, but on several occasions chose not to inform the Danish Appeals Agency. 

The adoption agency also acknowledges that hiring the employee was a way of providing financial support to Impilo after it was decided in January 2022 that it was no longer legal to give it directly to organizations like Impilo.  

Adoption in the country has, for a long time, remained an emotive issue.

It has often been steeped in suspicion and matters have not been helped by a moratorium on inter-country adoptions (adoption of a Kenyan child by foreigners who live outside the country) placed by the government.

The objective of the moratorium effected on November 26, 2014, was to enable the government to intervene and conduct a comprehensive audit of the policy and legal frameworks, processes, procedures and players involved in the practice of adoption.

However, concerns raised include lack of public participation before the moratorium was enforced. Several laws targeted at regulating adoption have also raised concerns with some parties claiming there are efforts to lock them out.

Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo argues that, though it is possible to abuse the rights of children when the laws are weak, and that there is need to have better regulations, the same should not be used to muzzle those who want to adopt.

Durban - A Netherlands based non-governmental organisation, Against Child Trafficking (ACT), has called for the Dutch government to do a comprehensive review of all adoptions from South Africa and open a criminal investigation.

The children’s right advocacy organisation which opposes inter-country adoption alleged that inter-country adoptions in the Netherlands have been “riddled with scandals”. The organisation was responding to the recent reports by Sunday Tribune where a father of two daughters from Kwangcolosi, near Hillcrest, complained about the adoption of his girls by a Netherlands couple in 2014.

The father believed there were discrepancies in the adoption process as he was not made aware, he now wants the process reviewed and his girls returned home.

The girls, aged six and eight at the time of adoption, lived in Ikhethelo Children’s Village in Kwanyuswa near Bothas Hill, after their mother died.

The Camperdown Children’s Court granted an order for the girls to be adopted by a foreign couple after an investigation by an adoption agency which facilitated the process.

Reporters with cameras and microphones swarmed Maria Hastings as she stepped off the plane in Chile, but she looked beyond them.

• Her eyes searched the terminal for a face just like hers, with a smile so broad it pushed appled cheeks into her eyes.
• She found it, framed with straight black hair and bangs. And the two embraced for the first time in 37 years.

Why it matters: Hastings reunited with her birth mother in Santiago, Chile, last week — a hug her mother thought may never happen again after she was manipulated into giving Hastings up for adoption.

Catch up quick: Hastings spent most of her life in Tampa and thought she'd been given up willingly until she read about Connecting Roots, an organization that reunites the stolen children of Chile with their birth families.

• She's spent the last year talking to her birth mother on WhatsApp, trying to get to know each other through a language barrier and technical issues.
• Last week, Hastings joined a group of other adoptees, and translators with Connecting Roots, on a 10-hour flight to meet their birth families.