AUSTRALIAN INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTEES and THEIR RIGHT TO SEARCH

Overview
Many intercountry adoptees have a great desire and need to access information and reconnect with their biological family, and their country of origin. This can be very difficult for individual adoptees and their families who have little or no knowledge of how to navigate systems overseas and who require professional support and counselling in both Australia and overseas. Australia has facilitated over 10,000 intercountry adoptions since the 1970’s. These adopted people deserve the right to ongoing services. Our aim is to continue to provide professional support to Australian intercountry adoptees to connect with their history and birth families overseas.

 

Were children systematically removed from their parents in East Germany for political reasons? A research consortium funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior has presented new findings on one of the most sensitive questions in coming to terms with the GDR past: The results show how profound these interventions were and what historical consequences they had for affected families between 1945 and 1989.

The results were developed in a three-year study led by the German Institute for Residential Care Research (DIH), in collaboration with partners from the Universities of Düsseldorf, Mainz, and Leipzig, and the Medical School Berlin. The Federal Ministry of the Interior supported the project with approximately one million euros.

The study investigated how the East German state, under the pretext of alleged social or economic "ills," massively intervened in families. Parents and children were separated, often with consequences that continue to affect those involved to this day. The study clearly classifies this practice of East German youth welfare as part of the systemic injustices of the SED dictatorship.

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt: “Injustice must be clearly recognized and named. Even decades after the end of the SED dictatorship, there are still blind spots. The careful investigation of politically motivated adoptions in the GDR closes an important gap.”

The issue of forced adoptions in East Germany has been discussed since the 1970s . It gained renewed attention in 2018 following a petition from those affected. Subsequently, the German Bundestag, with cross-party support, decided to commission a scholarly investigation and tasked the Federal Ministry of the Interior with the research project.

Warning: this report contains offensive and outdated language referencing racist abuse suffered

Black and mixed heritage adoptees and care-leavers who faced "abhorrent" racism and prejudice during the forced adoption era want their lifelong trauma and suffering to be acknowledged by the church and state.

Between 1949 and 1976 hundreds of thousands of unmarried mothers were forced to put their children up for adoption, simply because they were unmarried.

Mothers of mixed heritage children were told they had no choice and their babies would be "better off" adopted.

The reality was that the adoption and care system at that time deemed them as "un-adoptable" and "undesirable", meaning many grew up in orphanages and children’s home, suffering abuse and neglect.

The fact that unmarried women formerly had to give up their newborn children was “a profound and painful event”. 

The Interchurch Contact in Government Affairs (CIO), a partnership of approximately thirty church denominations, announced on Tuesday that the churches acknowledge the suffering. No apologies are being offered.

Family at the center

According to the churches, the value of the family is central to the Biblical tradition. “Based on that premise, keeping mother and child together has been an important guiding principle. Precisely for this reason, it is painful to see that practice at that time was not always in line with those intentions.”

A two-year-old boy's adoption has been overturned after his adoptive mother failed to disclose she was in a relationship with an inmate at the prison where she worked.

In the Court of Appeal ruling, Lord Justice Peter Jackson said the boy was formally adopted by a married couple in Northumberland in November 2025.

However, the child's former social workers were recently told his adoptive father had moved out in October and his mother had begun a new relationship.

Barristers acting for Gateshead Council said the adoption was "unfair to the child" as it had been based on "mistaken" information.

The judge said the prisoner was in custody for drug offences and had previous convictions for battery and possession of weapons.

The Bombay High Court on Monday (May 4, 2026) dismissed two petitions challenging a 2021 amendment to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act that replaces courts with District Collectors for issuing adoption orders.

A Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande ruled that District Collectors are competent to conduct hearings in adoption proceedings and pass orders. The Court said the amendment, which substitutes the word “Court” with “District Collector” or “District Collector (Executive Officer)”, was made to reduce delays in the adoption process and is not unlawful.

The amendment was challenged by two couples. Under the Act and the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) regulations, a valid court order was required for adoption. The amendment now requires a valid order from the District Collector.

When Flanders banned international adoption last week, the message was clear: the best interests of the child come first. But for thousands of adoptees, aftercare remains inadequate. VUB student Ignace Ismayilov knows what he is writing about: as a child, he was illegally removed from his biological parents, after which the system legally whitewashed that abduction. What remains when the product has been delivered and the guarantee period expires?

A few months ago, Flemish Minister Caroline Gennez supported Groen's proposal to ban transnational adoption in Flanders. The best interests of the child must take precedence, she stated. Last week, that proposal was effectively implemented, but for thousands of adoptees, aftercare remains inadequate. 

Support in Belgium stops as soon as the adoption is finalised: everything before that is arranged down to the last detail, but afterwards, it remains remarkably quiet. As an internationally adopted person, I received no structural guidance whatsoever regarding identity development, loss, or trauma. No psychologist with knowledge of adoption trauma. No support when I found my family after years of searching. The system guides adults' choice to adopt but often leaves the adopted person alone with the consequences.

However, the Law of 24 April 2003 explicitly states that adoption can only take place 'in the best interests of the child' and that prospective adoptive parents must be informed about the importance of aftercare. But there is a gap between 'providing information about aftercare' and a right to aftercare. Support ends as soon as the procedure is complete, and all burdens fall on the child.

South Korea will remove the term “out-of-wedlock child” from government forms used in child welfare administration, as authorities move to update official language in line with changing views on family and childbirth.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday it had issued an advance notice of revisions to the enforcement decree and rules of the Child Welfare Act. The proposed changes also include measures to strengthen responses to child abuse and suspected abuse-related deaths.

The term has already been removed from the Child Welfare Act itself, but remained in some lower-level administrative forms used by public officials in the field, including attached forms under the act’s enforcement rules.

Dozens of prospective adoptive parents were informed this week that their process will be halted, often just before the final stage. Flemish Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez (Vooruit) wants to gradually phase out intercountry adoption, with a complete halt in 2027. A number of prospective parents are exploring the possibilities of challenging the decision before the Council of State.

Lisa Lefèvre

Published:Wed 29 Apr 20:00

In short:

Following a decision by Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez, intercountry adoption will cease completely by 2027, and a phase-out scenario will be implemented in the meantime.

Anita Wiesendt has petitioned the Karnataka High Court, seeking the disclosure of her biological parents' identities from St. Martha’s Hospital, citing a "lifelong struggle with identity."

Written by: Mustafa Plumber

5 min readBengaluruUpdated: Apr 28, 2026 10:41 AM IST

In her petition, Anita has claimed the Bengaluru hospital failed to acknowledge or respond properly. Representative Image