As an organisation, we reognise and work with adoptees and adoption organisations recognising the impact of forced adoption practises and the continued need for transparency and support throughout the adoption process.  Below is a letter sent to members of parlament raising the concerns of the wider adoption community we have signed, 10 years on.

We wish to express our unreserved support for those impacted by forced adoptions in Australia, and our recognition of the immense courage, determination, energy, and grief entailed in coming forward and sharing their experiences. We commend the Australian Government’s recognition of past harms and abuses, and the offerings of formal apologies to communities who bear the lifelong impacts of forced family separation. Gillard’s formal apology in 2013 and Australia’s commitment to increased openness of records and provision of support services was closely watched by adoptee communities overseas and in Australia and is viewed by many as an example to which governments around the world should aspire.
Concerns were raised in the lead up to the 2013 National Apology, regarding the lack of acknowledgement of intercountry adoption and adoptees. Ten years later, we urge you to consider whether it is possible to justify viewing intercountry adoption as exempt from the issues identified in domestic adoption practices. Like domestic adoption and its impacts, which were so poignantly articulated in Gillard’s Apology, issues of consent, coercion, mistreatment, and stigma surrounding single motherhood are also embedded in intercountry adoption practices. 
While there are some safeguards in place, such as the Hague Convention, there are no guarantees that intercountry adoption practices are exempt from the harms identified by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee in 2012. For example, child trafficking has been identified in the cases of Australian intercountry adoptions from Taiwan, India, and Ethiopia. The UN’s Joint Statement on Illegal Intercountry Adoptions in 2022 is testament to ongoing concerns around vulnerabilities in the intercountry adoption system and human rights violations. 
Responding on behalf of the Australian Prime Minister,  a recent letter to Ms Lynelle Long of Intercountry Adoptee Voices, was sent from Tim Crosier (Branch Manager of Children’s Policy Branch), advising  that the government is prioritising a focus on preventing and responding to illegal and illicit adoption practices, expatriate adoption and concerns about past ICA practices. This is a welcome and critical development in acknowledging intercountry adoption practices and their impacts. However, Australia has been historically slow in appropriately responding to the victims of these past practices in intercountry adoption and we would like to see Australia commit to investigating intercountry adoption practices with the intention of providing a formal apology and including appropriate remedies, particularly around support to our human right to identity and origins.
Our concerns are not limited to a handful of intercountry adoptees. In the years since the 2013 Apology, numerous receiving countries have launched investigations into intercountry adoption including Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and France – with Norway commencing an investigation in 2023. 
On the 10th anniversary of the National Apology for Forced Adoptions, we kindly request that:

• Intercountry adoption no longer be considered separate from Australian adoption more broadly;
• Intercountry adoptees be recognised as facing, along with their domestically adopted peers, struggles with identity, belonging, uncertainty, and loss, which can be painful and lifelong; and
• The Australian government commits to an investigation into intercountry adoption practices given Australia’s legal and ethical commitment to ensuring intercountry adoption respects fundamental human rights under the Hague Convention for Intercountry Adoption and the United Nations Conventions: specifically the conventions on the Rights of the Child, Enforced Disappearances, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, and All forms of Discrimination against Women.
• Where it has been proven that an adoptee was stolen from their country of origin, a redress must be considered, as has been done after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

We ask that you also consider what it means to continue to exclude intercountry adoption from a broader acknowledgment of forced adoptions and the message this sends: that overseas born adoptees and their original families do not face similar challenges, and that our experiences and the community-based knowledge we have patiently and painfully amassed over the years does not matter. At this significant historical juncture, we ask you to consider the impacts of this double standard on us, our siblings, families, partners, and our children, who also inherit the legacy of family separation.
Kind regards,
Australian Intercountry Adoptees
           Leah Hamilton, adopted from South Korea, residing in Queensland

1. Julie Colbert, adopted from Korea to QLD
2. Dr Indigo Willing, adopted from Vietnam and residing in QLD, Australia. Adjunct Research Fellow, Griffith University. Founder, Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI). 
3. Benjamin Kelleher, adopted from Brazil, residing in Queensland
4. Kim Faulkner, adopted from Indonesia, residing in NSW
5. Brooke Arcia, adopted from Sri Lanka to NSW
6. Kisharni Eggleton, adopted from Sri Lanka, NSW, Australia. Founder of Sri Lankan Adoptees in Australia
7. Emma Pham, fostered from Vietnam to NSW in 1973, adopted at 1990
8. Meg O’Shea, adopted from South Korea and residing in NSW, Australia US Korean Rights Group (AUSKRG)
9. Kisani Hayes. Adopted from Sri Lanka, NSW Australia
10. Samara James, adopted from South Korea, living in Sydney, Australia. 
11. Michelle Piper, adopted from Korea, residing in NSW, Australia. Committee member of Australia US Korean Rights Group (AUSKRG).
12. Damian Rocco, adopted from Vietnam to NSW
13. Linzi Ibrahim, adopted from Sri Lanka, NSW, Australia. Sri Lankan Adoptees Australia group 
14. Sara Vidler, adopted from Sri Lanka, Parkes, NSW, Australia 
15. Jaya Mather, adopted from Sri Lanka 1983, living in New South Wales Australia 
16. Dr Liz Goode, adopted from South Korea, residing in NSW 
17. Paula Park, adopted from South Korea to NSW
18. Joel de Carteret, adopted from the Philippines, residing in NSW
19. Dominic Golding, adopted from VietNam, residing in ACT
20. Hannah Brugman, adopted from South Korea, living in ACT, Australia
21. Jai Jaru, adopted from Thailand to South Australia 1981
22. Roopali Gulab Meshram (Paula Karvouniaris) - illicit adoption from Preet Mandir, India, adopted to Adelaide South Australia 
23. Lalitha Robinson adopted from Sri Lanka to South Australia 
24. Sumana Filmer adopted from Sri Lanka to South Australia. 
25. Kimbra Smith, illegally adopted from Taiwan, living in South Australia, Australia
26. Hilina Winkenweder, adopted from Ethiopia 2001, living in South Australia
27. Theodora Sullivan, adopted from Greece to SA, founder of Adopted from Greece
28. Kai Hambour, adopted from India to SA
29. Thomas Philp, adopted from Thailand to South Australia. Adelaide. 
30. Min Mednis, adopted from Thailand to South Australia 
31. Lynelle Long adopted from Vietnam to VIC
32. Ebony Hickey illegally adopted from Haiti to Australia, Victoria.
33. Catherine Robinson, adopted from Malaysia to Victoria Australia
34. Dr Jessica Walton, adopted from South Korea, residing in VIC, committee member of Australia US Korean Rights Group (AUSKRG)
35. Dr Ryan Gustafsson, South Korea, residing in VIC, member of Ibyangin International Network & Australia US Korean Rights Group (AUSKRG)
36. Geetha Keogh, adopted from Sri Lanka, Black Rock VIC, Australia 
37. A.Gale, adopted from Vietnam, living in Victoria
38. Jack Hamilton, adopted from South Korea, living in Victoria
39. Mya Ballin, adopted from China to the US, residing in VIC
40. Ché Stevenson, adopted from South Korea to US, residing in Victoria
41. Tia Brown, adopted from South Korea, Perth Western Australia.
42. Carly Reid, adopted from South Korea to Australia, residing in Perth, Western Australia
43. Meseret Cohen, adopted from Ethiopia, WA, Founder of Buna Chat
44. Chae Ryan, adopted from South Korea and living in WA, Australia US Korean Rights Group (AUSKRG)
45. Jasmine Eberhardt, adopted from South Korea to Tasmania
46. Jason Hardy, adopted from Vietnam to NSW, residing in NT
47. David Hopkins, adopted from Sri Lanka to NSW, living in Sydney 
48. Leanne Tololeski, adopted from South Korea, residing in Western Australia
    
    InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV) - Australia wide & International  

Ibyangin International Network: Adopted Overseas Koreans Creating Change. Steering committee in Seoul, Melbourne, Montreal, Oregon, Idaho, and Copenhagen (https://www.ibyangin.org/)
Australian Domestic Adoptees
           Peter Capomolla Moore, domestic adoptee, President Adoptee Rights Australia Inc., NSW. 

There are untold numbers of children around the world who, for any number of reasons, are without a family and in need of a loving home. Recognizing this need, Americans have proven year after year to be among those most willing to help. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a 2022 report, “U.S. families have historically adopted half of all children eligible for intercountry adoption.” We are a country eager to open our homes to children all over the world and welcome them into our families.  

In recent years, however, procuring intercountry adoptions has become exceedingly difficult due to a number of factors. Travel restrictions, war, and the outright suspension of intercountry adoptions by some nations, among other factors, have continued to shrink the number of children brought to America to be united with a forever family. And according to the State Department’s most recent Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption, those difficulties persisted (and in some ways grew) last year. 

What did the report reveal?

Since 2004, intercountry adoptions in America have been in a precipitous decline, a trend that continued once again last year. For instance, in 2004 almost 23,000 children joined a new family here in the United States via intercountry adoption. After years of steady decline, that number dipped to 1,517 in 2022, a decrease of more than 90% in less than 20 years and the lowest in recent history. 

Of the 1,517 children who were adopted from other countries, the largest numbers came from Colombia (235), India (223), and South Korea (141). 

'What to others appears to be purely administrative paperwork, for adoptees often represents the only potential, tangible link with the first period of their lives, the people from whom they were born, their origins, an important part of who they are, a part of their identity', writes Ae Ra Van Geel. She calls, among other things, for better monitoring and retention of the administration. At Flemish level, it is expected that a decision will be made in September on the list of countries from which Flanders will adopt in the future.

Work is currently underway in Flanders on a new decree on intercountry adoption, as well as on screenings of all countries of origin from which Flanders is currently moving and adopting children, such as Portugal.

Much has been said and written in recent years about what should be important in the policy on transnational adoption, including by myself. The adoption field, that collection of forces, powers, individuals and often conflicting interests, is extremely complex. This field includes parents and their children; people with an unwanted and unfulfilled desire to have children; people who want to do 'good'; adopters; adoption services; governments in both sending and receiving countries; people who had to give up their child due to socio-economic circumstances, for example.
In response to recent current events in Flanders and the Netherlands, I would like to draw attention to a number of considerations that I believe are important in decision-making and policy-making regarding transnational adoption.

This is how I think of the recurring 'interests of the child'. This empty and meaningless phrase has been used to legitimize, condone and frame distance, forced displacement and adoption for decades. However, it has been known for just as long that the interests of the child are merely an excuse for other, less noble-sounding interests such as economic gain or fulfilling a desire to have children in the global North. This was recently demonstrated once again in an article that De Morgen published, based on written documents from the early 1970s.. The image of children as a commodity to be monetized emerges from this. In this way, money was made from deceased children and money was saved by exchanging children. Prospective adopters were also scammed because they were charged non-existent fees. The Belgian ambassador already mentioned such a lack of competence among the adoption services involved at the time. However, thorough investigation was not found necessary.

Whose interests did this serve?

In the matter pertaining to the issue of whether children born out of a void or voidable marriage had a right in parents' ancestral property as per the Hindu law, the Supreme Court discussed whether in case of a notional partition before the death of a father, a child born to the said father from a void or voidable marriage would be entitled to the property inherited by the father in the...

The nine persons allegedly running a criminal surrogate mother and adoption ring on Crete through an assisted reproduction unit testified on Sunday at the court in Chania, western Crete

Officers of the Greek Organised Crime department have successfully dismantled a criminal organisation operating in Chania, Greece, involved in human trafficking and illegal adoptions of babies.

Two prosecutors are involved in the testimonies being collected. The first defendant to testify was a 73-year-old doctor and head of the controversial unit of assisted reproduction. Citizens expressing support for him rallied outside the courts.

On Saturday, Health Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis removed alternate professor of gynaecology (University of Athens) Nikolaos Vrachnis as head of the National Authority on Assisted Reproduction. The Authority is responsible for overseeing all assisted reproduction facilities and approving their licensing.

An inquiry into historical adoption practices has been warned the government will be holding a similar inquiry into donor-conceived children in years to come, and likely issuing them an apology. 

It comes as Jigsaw WA, which is a key agency connecting people with their biological parents, revealed it will close its doors at the end of the year. 

A West Australian government committee is investigating the impact of past adoptive policies and practices between1939 and 1980, during which time unmarried mothers were forced to give up their babies for adoption.

Well over 150,000 babies were removed from their unwed mothers across Australia during a peak period from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Giving evidence to the committee, Jigsaw WA manager Isabel Andrews said she and others at a medical conference 30 years ago had warned the issues that had arisen in adoption in Australia were going to occur in donor conception.

Maryland family faces international adoption nightmare: Their daughter is stuck in Nepal

Are You Ok Baby Twitter Review: Directed by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, music by Ilaiyaraja and produced by Monkey Creative Lab, Are You OK Baby movie is released worldwide today.

Samuthrakani In Lakshmi Ramakrishnan Film

Are You Ok Baby starring Samuthrakani, Abhirami, Mysskin, Pavel Navageethan, Mullai Arasi, Uday Mahesh and Aadukalam Naren is the fifth film from director Lakshmy Ramakrishnan. CS Premkumar is the editor of this film. Cinematography is done by Krishnasekar TS.

It is important to note that the film has got positive response from the special media premiere which was organized by the film crew in Chennai recently. Checkout this space for more interesting twitter reviews about the film Are You Ok Baby:

"Majority of audience were tuned to watch only those films with blood, drugs and violence. It is rare to see small films wining big at the box office. This film 'Are You Ok Baby?' has the scope to become a hit like Sillu Karuppatti and Good Night. And I'm sure that 'Are You OK Baby?' movie will stir up debates and controversies. There are multiple layers in the film with ruthless dialogues and adult content, censored with a clean U/A certificate.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances today co-hosted an event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to mark the first anniversary of the joint statement on illegal intercountry adoptionsOpens in new window.  Speakers discussed the content and objectives of the joint statement, highlighted its importance for victims and identified future actions to promote its implementation. 

Olivier de Frouville, Chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, said that the purpose of the joint event was to consider how to implement the joint statement and how to ensure that victims’ rights were protected.  Mr. de Frouville stressed the importance of listening to the voices of victims, who went through great personal stress to tell their stories.     

Mr. de Freuville said there was a rising tide of people adopted during the 1970s and later who were now looking for their relatives.  States needed to respect human rights conventions and instruments, and the joint statement constituted a practical guide in that regard.  The treaty body system offered several procedures that could be triggered to help persuade States to implement effective measures.  In closing, Mr. de Freuville said the practice of illegal intercountry adoptions was a multilateral and a societal issue, and needed to be treated accordingly. 

The joint event was co-hosted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child; the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non-recurrence; the Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children including child prostitution, child pornography, and other child sexual abuse material; the Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children; and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. 

During the session, two panel discussions were held, the first presenting testimonies of victims and States’ experiences, and the second discussing the relevance of the joint statement.  In addition to the co-hosts, representatives of the Governments of France and Ukraine, civil society organisations and persons affected by illegal intercountry adoptions participated in the panels.

Around 25,000 boys and girls once lived in the Berlin children's home in Königsheide. Some are still looking for their parents today. 

Behind the gate with the squirrel emblem, an almost unreal idyll opens up - it's hard to believe that the Schöneweide S-Bahn station is only around 600 meters away: Neoclassical buildings stand in a sparse forest of tall oaks and pine trees. They are reminiscent of the Zenner house in Treptower Park. Here and there there are hammocks stretched between the trees.

All buildings are decorated with blue, red and beige scratch paintings, showing happy children in all walks of life. The houses are on the right and left on a street lined with flower beds. It leads from the entrance gate with the squirrel to an imposing house with figures standing in front of the column-decorated portal. It looks a bit like a miniature of the Weimar National Theater.

This afternoon, a group of two dozen people strolled through the listed complex on Südostallee in Johannisthal, a district of Treptow . Some carry folding stools in their hands; the tour will last two hours, at least.

Balconies were added to the houses a few years ago. The residents of the ground floors were given terraces. There is a sign attached to one: “You should be a caterpillar: eat – sleep. Eat – sleep. Eat – sleep. Zack – nice.” The current residents of the complex want life to be so easy here. But it's not a carefree place.

Today a residential park, formerly the GDR's model children's home