The Karnataka High Court has said that an adoption deed or registered document is not a must to prove the adoption of a child. If conditions of valid

https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/karnataka-high-court/karnataka-high-court-child-adoption-proof-adoption-deed-hindu-adoption-maintenance-act-233093

Today in the newspaper Le Soir:

POLICY:

'We have to do everything to find out the truth': Govt defends itself on illegal adoptions case

Foreign Affairs Minister responds on handling of illegal adoptions file. Hadja Lahbib will produce, she says, the findings of research in the ministry's archives in the new school year. What about the expected report on adoptions? Justice is working on it.

Image : BELGIAN.

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). 

Adoption Truth and Transparency Worldwide Information Network (ATTWIN) consists of local
and global individuals and families separated by adoption. This social media group was initiated
in November of 2011.
The mission of Adoption Truth & Transparency Worldwide Network is to protect local and
global families from the crisis of trafficking for the purpose of adoptioni

through education and

services that assist victims and survivors and prevent further exploitation.
The group consists now of 7780 members; the great majority (at more than 5100 members are
from the United States). The other nations represented are as follows: Canada, United Kingdom,
Australia, Ethiopia, Netherlands, Ireland, India, Sweden, South Africa. The top ten cities
represented by members are the following: 1) New York, New York; 2) Los Angeles, California;
3) Addis Adaba, Ethiopia; 4) Seattle, Washington; 5) Seoul, South Korea; 6) Minneapolis,
Minnesota; 7) London, United Kingdom; 8) Portland, Oregon; 9) Phoenix, Arizona; 10) Toronto,
ON Canada

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The High Court sitting as Constitutional Court in Blantyre on Tuesday, July 18, 2023 afternoon completed hearing of the same-sex law case and has adjourned the case to August 28 and 29 2023 for hearing of submissions.

Joseph Chigona, a lead judge of a three-member panel, directed that written submissions by parties be filed with the court by close of business on August 4 2023, ahead of oral presentations of the submissions on August 28 and 29.

Claimants in the case, Jan Willem Akstar from The Netherlands and Jana Gonani from Mangochi, want the court to declare some provisions in the Penal Code that criminalise same-sex unions unconstitutional.

The State, supported by faith groups who joined the case as friends of the court, has been objecting to the claimants’ demands.

Ja’Ceon Terry was living at Brooklawn’s psychiatric treatment unit for about three weeks when two employees put him in a physical hold that left him unconscious. He was pronounced dead at the hospital a couple hours later.

A report obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services offers new details into what happened at Brooklawn, a foster care facility in Louisville, the day that 7-year-old Ja’Ceon Terry died last July.

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of the death of a child.

Two nurses, a chaplain and a Louisville police detective were at the 7-year-old boy’s bedside when his time of death was called — 4:48 p.m. on July 17, 2022. His emergency room chart noted that he was a foster child with no parents.

Research into indications of tampering in international adoptions, including in Belgian archives, has still not been conducted. Last year in June, the House unanimously asked for this.

Domestic adoptees have already been given excuses because unmarried mothers were forced to give up their children. Metis were apologized because the colonial authorities in Congo and Rwanda-Burundi stole children of mixed blood from their native mothers.

The international adoptees, on the other hand, received nothing yet. Yet many suspect that many adoptions abroad have been tampered with. There was therefore enthusiastic applause from the public gallery when MPs approved a resolution last year asking the government to conduct an administrative investigation into abuses in international adoptions. A report on this should be completed by now.

But the government took no action. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib (MR), there is nothing in the consular archives about international adoptions. She answered this to a question from N-VA MP Ingvild Ingels. “She said her department does not have jurisdiction over international adoptions, which is not correct. She repeated that answer twice, even after a relevant report had surfaced.'

Children tied up

Illegally adopted children testify: “How could Belgium let this happen? »

False identities, children torn from their biological families and wrongly qualified as orphans, psychological violence... While the word is freed among adopted children, who have become adults in search of their origins, the Belgian government is slow to recognize their status as victims .Article reserved for subscribersA first photo marked with a number for Yung Fierens (left) and a false name for An Sheela Jacobs (right).A first photo marked with a number for Yung Fierens (left) and a false name for An Sheela Jacobs (right). - Dominique Duchesnes.Charlotte Hutin Testimonials - Journalist at the Society DepartmentBy Charlotte Hutin

Published on 07/18/2023 at 06:00 Reading time: 9 mins

En the hands of An Sheela Jacobs, the photo of a chubby baby with dark skin carried by one of the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Kolkata (India). This little girl, more or less 11 months old, is holding an A4 sheet with a first name written in capital letters: Charmain. A name to which An Sheela never felt "connected", but which she thought was her name from birth until the age of 38. “During a second trip to India, I discovered that the data, which appear on the official documents of my adoption and which were accepted by the judge, are false. I learn that the first name given by my biological parents is Sheela. So I decided to call myself An Sheela. An being the first name given to me by my adoptive parents. »

An Sheela Jacobs I still don't know my exact date of birth, the identity of my biological parents, if they really abandoned me, or if it's just another lie
 

The Dutch government has been too careless in the past with adoptions of foreign children, acknowledges outgoing minister Franc Weerwind (legal protection). "All you can think is: How can I do this better?"

Petra Vissers July 17, 2023

In the spring, Minister Franc Weerwind (D66, legal protection) speaks with a woman adopted from China. Her date of birth? January 1st. Just like countless other Dutch people whose cradle was in China. It is an administrative date, nothing more. She tells the minister that she would like to know when she was really born.

My goodness, Weerwind thinks. A date of birth should be so obvious. “Those kinds of examples make the story hit me very hard,” he reflects on that moment in his office in The Hague. “Those questions… Who are you? When were you born, who are your parents, where are you from?”

'I'm not going to justify it'

In the case where a child is put up for adoption without the consent of the parent, the biological family loses all legal connections and rights to their child. This goes against the advice of research and the Human Rights Court, lawyer Martin Olsgaard says.

Not all children live in a happy home. Sometimes, their situation calls for intervention from the authorities. And in some cases, children are forcibly adopted and permanently removed from their biological families.

In Denmark, the number of latter cases is increasing, Kristeligt Dagblad writes. That means that more and more children lose ties and contact with their biological families.

And that is a bad thing, lawyer Olsgaard believes. For his work, he often meets biological parents who cling to the hope that they can keep in touch with their child who was forcibly adopted. However, in reality, this hope is in vain, Olsgaard points out to Kristeligt Dagblad. All ties between biological children and their parents are severed.

That is very painful for the parents, he says. "Their children can get a new name and social security number", he explains. Also, the adoptive parents have the final say in the matter. "If they say no to contact with the biological family, there will be no contact." And this happens in many cases, the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing confirms.