The news came as a surprise to Jyoti Weststrate even though she had been waiting for it for as long as she could remember. “I wasn’t expecting the Dutch government to go that far,” says Jyoti, 37, speaking from her home in Deventer in the Netherlands.

On February 8, the Netherlands announced a total freeze on all international adoptions after an official inquiry exposed systemic abuses in the past, including baby theft, child trafficking, fraud and corruption. The Minister for Legal Protection, Sander Dekker, even apologised for the wrongdoings which, the investigation found, the government was aware of but had done nothing to stop.

Soon, Sweden also decided to investigate international adoptions in the country, and more countries in the E.U. are likely to follow suit.

Jyoti, who was adopted from India in 1985 as a two-year-old, is elated that intercountry adoption has been banned. “No child should have to end up rootless in an alien land, like me. Child trafficking must stop,” she says. She testified before the commission and offered evidence.

Her cheer, however, is marred by a familiar despondency. “There is still no clarity on how I will find the answer to this one basic question — who am I?” Jyoti was hoping for some concrete action — damages for personal loss or financial help to help her search for her roots in India. But none came.

The Taoiseach's State apology on mother and baby homes will mean nothing unless a full investigation is immediately launched into thousands of incomplete adoption files, campaigners say.

The €11.5m which was left unspent by the mother and baby homes commission must now be used to fully investigate what happened to thousands of children with incomplete adoption files.

State adoption agencies cannot say what happened to thousands of children for whom files were opened but an adoption order was not granted.

'No excuse for delaying full review'

The Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL), Aitheantas, and the Clann Project have all said a lack of funding or resources cannot be used as an excuse to delay a full review and say a forensic investigation into incomplete adoption files is now required.

Nikwi Hoogland (26) found her biological parents two years ago, after a search that went much more smoothly than she expected. With her acquired knowledge, she started advocacy organization Adoptiepedia - which she launched last week - to inspire, inform and connect other adoptees. "I picked up my phone and read: 'Congratulations, it is your birth mother'."

Nikwi was 9 months old when a Dutch couple adopted her from China. The period that followed was not always easy. "When I first went to school, I was the only Asian. Other kids felt it necessary to emphasize that and were constantly shouting things at me like 'slit-eye' and 'bamibal'."

"I'm outgoing and therefore quite present. My bullies thought that was annoying, I guess - and then said, 'Gook, shut up,' or they would yell in my face that they thought I was disgusting. I felt left out throughout my childhood. The high school bullying reached its peak and they sometimes called me straight to the face 'cancer chinese' or 'hey dirty chinese'. It was terrible. "

'Asians are stupid and ugly'

Because Nikwi was so hated for her origins, she grew disgusted with herself. "In my eyes, Asians were stupid and ugly. I didn't want to have anything to do with it and was therefore not at all concerned with my biological family. Sometimes I even tried to talk exaggeratedly ABN, in the naive assumption that people would tell me as a Dutch person. would see. "

Chennai: Children with special needs have not found favour with childless parents looking to adopt kids. Most children from

adoption centres in Tamil Nadu have found homes abroad, but not within the country, as per data from the department of social

defence.

The United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which India ratified in 1992, insists on paying due regard to a

child’s ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds while giving them for adoption. This aspect is largely achieved when it comes

Basking Ridge, New Jersey (CNN)On a gorgeous spring afternoon, Aimee and Stephen Welch are playing with their five kids in their sun-drenched New Jersey backyard, taking a break from the grind of virtual schooling and working from home.

But their laughs on the swings and shrieks on the trampoline belie a deep sense of sadness -- because one person is missing. It's now been a year since they had their bags packed and hotels booked for a trip to China to adopt their sixth child, a 7-year-old named Penelope.

A weekslong delay turned into months as, by early March 2020, China suspended the country's foreign adoption program. One year later, they are still stuck in limbo.

"Every time I go into her room and just see her pink bed there, that no one has slept in and the drawers full of clothes that have probably been outgrown before they could ever be worn," Aimee Welch told CNN's Poppy Harlow, "it's just a heartbreaking reality."

According to the State Department, about 400 American families' adoptions of children in China were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bombay High Court recently refused permission to a couple to take custody over a twoyear-old child on the strength of a "notarised adoption deed".

A Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale ruled,

"We are of the opinion that by merely executing a notarized document purporting to be an

Adoption Deed, the petitioners cannot claim that they have a right to hold custody of the girlchild."

The petitioner, who claimed to be the child's adoptive parents, approached the High Court

Habtamu de Hoop from Easterein is the youngest member of the new House of Representatives at the age of 22. De Hoop, who comes into the Chamber for the PvdA, saves 46 years with the oldest member, PVV'er Harm Beertema , according to the NOS .

Habtamu de Hoop is not the youngest Member of Parliament ever. That honor belonged to Farshad Bashir, who was 20 when he entered the House of Representatives for the SP in 2008. Before that, Bashir was a member of the Leeuwarden municipal council for two years.

Gera ter Meulen, KennisBureau ter Meulen, for Foster Care and Adoption

The Joustra Committee's research has yielded much good. She states in her report that in the past the government failed to take timely measures to combat abuses, which Minister Dekker acknowledges and for which he apologized. He is also taking measures to give adoptees more support in the search for their origins and to improve their legal position. And there will be an expertise center. This is all very positive.

However, the Joustra Committee also concludes that intercountry adoption remains vulnerable to abuses and that the current system cannot therefore be maintained. Intercountry adoption should be suspended. Based on my expertise as a scientist specializing in adoption and foster care, I have read the report carefully and have several critical comments on this last conclusion.

Children's rights

First of all, the scientific literature on which the Committee relies appears to be very one-sided and important articles that provide a broader picture of adoption as a child protection measure have not been included. It almost seems that those who focus on adoption abuses will at some point become trapped in one side of a reality and lose sight of other points of view such as child protection.

Minister Ferd Grapperhaus of Justice and Security has set up a committee that will investigate the nature and extent of sadistic child abuse.

The full House of Representatives had asked for such an investigation in a motion. This in response to the Argos broadcast Glass shards and dark rituals on June 27, 2020. The research will be led by Jan Hendriks, professor of Forensic Orthopedagogic Diagnostics and Treatment at the University of Amsterdam.

On March 1, Argos reported that the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC), which was initially asked to carry out the research, had given back the order . The WODC saw no possibilities to conduct this research in a scientifically responsible manner.

Order

The task given by the minister to the committee chaired by Professor Hendriks is as follows: ' Collect the available information about the aforementioned phenomenon of organized sadistic abuse of minors by making use of as many sources as possible (including victims, therapists, scientific sources and experts in this particular field). On the basis of the findings, give advice to the investigation. In addition, based on the findings, give advice on setting up a reporting center. '

I have chosen to not disclose the identities of my sources, in order to protect them from possible retaliation. All of the people that I spoke to are child rights advocates working in Uganda.

Uganda, 2016. The East African country has just passed an amendment to the Children’s Act that prevents foreigners arriving in Uganda from removing children from Uganda through a ‘legal guardianship’ order. Previous to this amendment, a ‘legal guardianship’ order was granted to the adoptive parents through district courts, after which the adoptive parents were able to get a visa for the child and fly out of the country. This process allowed adoptive parents to bypass the legal requirements to live in Uganda for three years fostering the child under the supervision of the local Probation and Social Welfare Officer.

A legal loophole led to hundreds of children being taken out of Uganda between 2010 and 2016, after which they were adopted in the adoptive parents’ own countries.

‘Legal guardianship’ orders were never a part of the legal framework for adoption, so this ‘loophole’ led to many children being taken out of Uganda and adopted in the adoptive parents’ own countries. Between 2010 and 2016, hundreds of children were taken out of Uganda through this process.

During this period, one of my contacts was asked to review active cases of children being adopted by couples from two European countries through the ‘legal guardianship’ process. He explains: “I identified fraud, corruption and unethical practices in every single one of the 40 cases I reviewed.” Some of the issues that he identified included: