The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice in a petition seeking simplification in the process of adoption in India.The matter was listed before the be

bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant. The PIL was filed by a charitable trust "The Temple of Healing" through its secretary Dr. Piyush

Saxena.When the matter was called for hearing, Dr Piyush Saxena, appearing as petitioner- in-...

In Sweden, there are about 60,000 people who are adopted from other countries. This makes us the country in the world that has arranged the most adoptions in terms of population. The risk of suicide for foreign adoptees is greatly increased compared with the normal population, which has been demonstrated in several Swedish studies [1-3], where the relative risk increase is stated to be between 2.33 and 3.6. The risk is also significantly higher for eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety, inpatient care for alcohol and drug abuse and suicide attempts in foreign adoptees than in the normal population [4, 5].

When I started in psychiatry as an assistant doctor, I noticed that there was a clear over-representation of the patient group of adults adopted. Common to many was that they had a complex problem with several different and sometimes contradictory diagnoses, and that they were tossed between several levels of care and units. At the same time, there was no reception to refer patients to and no competence center to consult about further treatment. Neither during my education nor earlier in my professional life had I learned that adoptees abroad are an extra vulnerable and complex group of patients. Despite the unequivocal scientific evidence regarding mental illness in patients, there is a lack of specialist care and competence in adult psychiatry.

In 2017, I contacted a number of bodies: the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Board of Health and Welfare, the Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support, the Stockholm Region and the Swedish Agency for Medical and Social Evaluation (SBU). The intention was to sound the alarm about the acute and very serious situation in psychiatry for the patient group, with widespread and great suffering, lack of specialist care and largely non-existent competence in appropriate care and treatment. Responses and actions were completely absent.

Unfortunately, the situation is unchanged. In the absence of sufficient competence and "holistic thinking", patients adopted abroad are still moved around between different clinics without receiving adequate help based on the underlying trauma and shortcomings in early care.

The Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support has procured special conversational support for adoptees [6], which is mainly offered via digital solutions. The conversational support is described as "a complement to the regular health care" and does not aim to medically investigate and treat illnesses and injuries. The agency's support is far from sufficient to provide adoptees with the care they need and are entitled to.

"Is adoption still of this time?" I read. Is war still of this time? Love sickness? Death? The maddening prose of progress of the time readers, who know exactly what time it is on the clock of world history. In the adoption case, a decision will be made today in The Hague about the 'intercountry adoption stop' that has been in effect since February 2021. Is it okay again, a little bit? Because adoption is no longer hip and happening, while in my time, well, I was adopted once.

That noble thing had to get rid of that kind of development cooperation, because those aspiring parents wanted children, and there was certainly an egocentric motive. But how the zeitgeist has changed: adoptive parents, especially of foreign children, are now robbers, imperialists, neo-colonialists, 'white saviors' and, if we go on and on, Putin supporters. How was it again? There are orphanages in distant countries that are full, there are Dutch people who would like to have a child, and that's how those parties were linked. We now know that a lot went wrong: orphans turned out not to be real orphans, papers were forged and the adopted child was sold over the counter. Sometimes.

This total, intercountry adoption by the state can be compared to an absolute ban on car traffic, given the many deaths. No one is allowed to drive a motorized vehicle anymore. Everyone for? No, because people drive cars and motorized, and adoption was and is an exception.

I just read on the NOS site: 'The surnames of Dirk Jan and Christiaan are known to the editors, but have been omitted at their request.' Dirk Jan and Christiaan are a couple, probably a gay couple, because the site mentions 'partner' and that's always right. The two are waiting for a baby from the United States, and they've been doing that for a long time now. These men have become more or less suspicious. D.J. and C. would have been even better, because the state-imposed adoption ban has made them half criminals, not people who want children.

I'm decency to do that for personal reasons, because I won't posthumously say that about my parents.

The aftermath of transnational illegal adoptions: Redressing human rights violations in the intercountry adoption system with instruments of transitional justice

Abstract

A growing movement of illegally adopted individuals request remedies and reparations for the human rights violations that they and their biological families had suffered. This article explores a number of measures that the stakeholders in the receiving countries can use in an effort to repair the human rights violations caused by illegal intercountry adoptions, borrowing ideas from transitional justice. In order to effectively redress the harm inflicted upon victims of illegal adoptions, a policy on remedies should combine instruments of retributive justice, aimed at holding wrongdoers accountable, with measures of restorative justice that focus on the victims’ needs and interests.

Keywords

Illegal intercountry adoptions, receiving countries, transitional justice, human rights violations, remedies and reparations

VIDEO

Klokkenluiders moeten in Europa beter worden beschermd. Eurocommissaris Frans Timmermans komt met een voorstel om dit in de hele EU wettelijk af te dwingen.

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The following text is the second piece of the Amicus Brief submitted to the Korean Court to assist the judges in understanding the historic meaning of this case. Special mention and appreciation must go to Raymond Ha (M.A. '21, Stanford Univ.), Hyejin Jang (B.A. '21 Princeton Univ.), Do Yon Lena Kwon (J.D. Candidate '22, Penn Law), Hailey M. Lee (J.D. Candidate '24, Penn Law), and Lydia Lim (J.D. '21, Penn Law) for fully translating this 70-page brief into English as an act of solidarity for the rights of adoptees. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

A diagram showing system of 'orphan-making' / Courtesy of Lee Kyung-eun

Question: In the plaintiff's case, his inter-country adoption was processed through the creation of an "abandoned child" family register, even though the agency knew and had information about his biological mother. What is the process of adopting through the "Family Registration for Orphans," and why has it become a customary practice of adoption between the Republic of Korea and the United States?

Answer: The U.S.' orphan regulations and the Korean government's orphan certification process are key elements of inter-country adoption between the two countries.

On the dark web, men fantasize about private brothels with Ukrainian women or wait at the borders with minibuses and dubious job offers. The NGO International Justice Mission fights against human traffickers.

They distribute flyers, research the dark web and campaign for announcements on trains: The NGO International Justice Mission (IJM) fights modern slavery and forced prostitution worldwide. The organization is currently providing emergency aid and education at the Eastern European borders, where women fleeing Ukraine arrive. Dietmar Roller, Germany chairman of IJM eV, fears that human traffickers will massively exploit the plight of women and children.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Roller, what are your employees currently observing on site at the borders?

Roller: You report on men who drive minibuses to the borders or bus stations and specifically address women. These men offer Ukrainian women great jobs in London, Madrid or Germany. A volunteer recently observed a man trying to convince the grandmother of a 16-year-old to give him the girl. He doesn't have room for everyone in the car, but the girl is safe and can work in Berlin. Our employee prevented this; the man disappeared.

SPIEGEL : Do these problems only exist at the borders or also at German train stations?

The images of severely neglected Romanian orphans in bare children's homes are still etched on the retina. But the images need adjustment. "The Romanians really tackled the problems."

by Runa Hellinga June 29, 2006 , 11:03 am

BUCHAREST - From January 1, Romania will definitively ban international adoptions under pressure from the EU. Brussels has demanded such a ban to end suspicions of child trafficking around adopted babies. For example, a year ago there was a scandal surrounding a hospital where mothers were told that their babies had died, when in reality the children had been sold abroad.

To put an end to this kind of abuse, Romania has had a moratorium on international adoptions for two years now. Not everyone is happy about that. The US, Spain and Italy, countries where Romanian adopted children are very popular, argue in favor of keeping adoption options open. They do not deny the problem of child trafficking, but believe that the rules should be tightened up. According to the three countries, children are ultimately better off in a foreign adoptive family than in a Romanian home.

Anyone who remembers the horrific TV images of the early 1990s can only sympathize with that point of view. But those images need to be adjusted. “The problems in the children's homes have really tackled the Romanians. The situation there has improved a lot in recent years," said a Western diplomat in Bucharest.

China’s one-child policy formally ended in 2016, yet the impact it has on international adoptees is timeless. A program that lasted nearly 40 years took away something many people hold invaluable: their basic identity.

The Chinese adoptees that I have come to know, including myself, do not know their natural parents or true birthday. Information that the majority can recall in a split second doesn’t hold true for adoptees. The one-child policy stripped us of our initial identity, and what came next was determined by an endless amount of possibilities.

There were children fortunate enough to have been taken straight to an orphanage. Others were abandoned in disturbing places, such as the gutter or a landfill.

Some never made it at all.

I feel compelled to share my story and others’ because we are miracles that should not be forgotten.

Adoptions are still possible in the future. They were discontinued after a damning report. But the new cabinet wants to allow it again under certain conditions. Anyone wishing to adopt a child can only do so through a newly established government organization. Emeritus professor of adoption Rene Hoksbergen reacts to the news. Sarah de Vos, herself adopted and very critical of adoption from a knowledge center, also tells what she thinks of these cabinet plans.