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Lagos lawyer arraigned for trafficking 11-year-old girl

A lawyer, Igwe Ifeoma, has been arraigned before Chief Magistrate P.E Nwaka sitting at the Magistrate’s Court, Yaba, Lagos State, on Wednesday, on charges bordering on child trafficking, assault of an 11-year-old girl, Esther Onwa.

Ifeoma is facing six counts of conspiracy to traffic a child, child trafficking, inhuman treatment, unlawful assault, and inflicting bodily injuries.

The charges read in part, “That you, Barrister Igwe Ifeoma, on the said date, time and place, in the aforesaid Magisterial District, did take away one Esther Onwa, 11, in order that she would be held or treated as a slave or servitude under your custody.

“That you, Barrister Igwe Ifeoma, on the said date, time and place, in the aforesaid Magisterial District, did unlawfully assault one Esther Onwa, 11, by repeatedly inflicting various degrees of bodily harm on her ears, left eyes, her back, neck, laps, buttocks, and other parts of her body.

“That you, Barrister Barrister Igwe Ifeoma, on the said date, time and place, in the aforesaid Magisterial District, did grievous harm to one Esther Onwa, 11, by injuring her in her eyes with a wire capable of rendering her permanently blind.”

Activist Petitions Nigerian Attorney-General Malami From Prison, Seeks Investigation Into Child Trafficking Case Allegedly Invol

Activist Petitions Nigerian Attorney-General Malami From Prison, Seeks Investigation Into Child Trafficking Case Allegedly Involving Retired Judge, Policemen, Others

In a petition signed by Aghogho and obtained by SaharaReporters, the activist alleged that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), State Security Service (SSS), Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficked-In Person (NAPTIP) had the facts of the case but kept mute by “promoting injustice

Ahuman rights activist, Ighorhiohwunu Aghogho, has petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami over an alleged child trafficking investigation involving Delta State Government officials, police officers, and a retired chief judge among others.

In a petition signed by Aghogho and obtained by SaharaReporters, the activist alleged that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), State Security Service (SSS), Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficked-In Person (NAPTIP) had the facts of the case but kept mute by “promoting injustice against children in Delta State.”

He added that the Delta State Commissioner for Justice and Director of Public Prosecution had similar facts but decided to shield the culprits and prosecute him on trump-up charges instead.

Forced Adoption Compensation

If you were separated at birth through forced adoptions between 1950 and 1980, you may be eligible for compensation under a new redress scheme.

Background

For more than a year, Shine Lawyers has been lobbying for the removal of the statute of limitations for mothers whose newborn children were forcefully taken from them by the State between the 1950s and 1980s.

Unwed mothers were made to feel like they weren’t fit to be parents, and it was their fault this was happening to them. It has taken decades for many to find the courage to seek legal advice only to be told it's too late to sue.

The Victorian government has now responded to the?new recommendations by the Forced Adoption Inquiry?supporting ‘in principle’ the majority of the 56 recommendations. These recommendations included the removal of the significant injury threshold, statute of limitations, and the creation of redress for mothers and children affected.

Past S. Korean gov’ts blamed for abuses, deaths at facility

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has found the country’s past military governments responsible for atrocities committed at Brothers Home, a state-funded “vagrants’ facility” where thousands were enslaved and abused from the 1960s to 1980s.

The landmark report on Wednesday came 35 years after a prosecutor first exposed the horrors at the facility in the southern port city of Busan and details an attempted cover-up of incriminating evidence that would have confirmed a state-sponsored crime.

The commission’s chairperson, Jung Geun-sik, urged South Korea’s current government to issue a formal apology to survivors and explore ways to ease their suffering as he announced the initial results of its investigation into Brothers, including extreme cases of forced labor, violence and deaths.

The commission also called for the government to review the conditions at current welfare facilities around the country and swiftly ratify the United Nations convention against enforced disappearances.

The commission “confirmed that the direct and indirect exercise of government authority resulted in the forced confinement of people deemed as vagrants at Brothers Home and caused serious violations of human rights, including forced labor, physical assault, cruel treatment, deaths and disappearances,” Jeung said in a news conference at the commission’s office in Seoul.

Danish adoptees call for S. Korea to probe adoption issues

Dozens of South Koreans adopted by Danish parents decades ago have formally demanded the South Korean government investigate their adoptions, which they say were marred by widespread practices that falsified or obscured children’s origins

SEOUL, South Korea -- Dozens of South Koreans adopted by Danish parents decades ago have formally demanded the South Korean government investigate their adoptions, which they say were marred by widespread practices that falsified or obscured children’s origins.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Seoul has up to four months to decide whether to accept the application collectively filed Tuesday by the 53 adoptees. If it does, that could possibly trigger the most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions in the country, which has never fully reconciled the child export frenzy engineered by past military governments that ruled from the 1960s to ’80s.

The application cites a broad range of grievances emphasizing how scores of children were carelessly or unnecessarily removed from their families amid loose government monitoring and a lack of due diligence.

Perhaps more crucially, the country’s special laws aimed at promoting adoptions practically allowed profit-driven agencies to manipulate records and bypass proper child relinquishment.

Lemmy was adopted from South Korea: I mistakenly thought I was a lost child

It is crucial to get the truth about South Korea's adoptions, says 50-year-old Lemmy Kook Lyngholm, after a Danish association has put pressure on South Korea to launch an investigation


3 Danes who were adopted from South Korea as children are now demanding that the South Korean government investigate the circumstances surrounding their adoptions.

At the head of the initiative is lawyer Peter Møller, who himself was adopted from South Korea. He has just been to South Korea to make the claim on behalf of the association Danish Korean Rights Group. A South Korean truth and reconciliation commission now has four months to decide whether to accept the request.

Lemmy Kook Lyngholm, you are deputy chairman of the Korea Club, whose members are adopted from Korea. What does it mean for you personally that Peter Møller has been to South Korea to demand an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 53 adoptions?

It is very important to create openness about the South Korean adoptions. Worldwide, it is probably around 200,000 South Koreans who have been adopted over the past six decades. Today, many do not have access to the full truth about their adoption.

Kyiv accuses Russia of illegally giving more than 1,000 Ukrainian children up for adoption

"More than 1,000 children from Mariupol were illegally given to foreigners in Tyumen, Irkutsk, Kemerovo and in the Altai district" in Siberia, says the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Ukraine accused Moscow on Tuesday, August 23 of organizing massive illegal adoptions of Ukrainian children transferred from occupied areas to Russia. "Russia continues to kidnap children from Ukrainian territory and arrange for their illegal adoption by Russian citizens," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"More than 1,000 children from Mariupol" , a port city in south-eastern Ukraine that fell into the hands of the Russian army, "were illegally given to foreigners in Tyumen, Irkutsk, Kemerovo and in the district of 'Altai' , in Siberia, the ministry said, citing information released by authorities in Krasnodar, a city in southwestern Russia not far from Ukraine.

More than 300 Ukrainian children are also kept in "special establishments" in the Krasnodar region, he said.

"Deportations"

Building a ‘wonderful family’ through adoption

Marshall couple finds good solution for their desire in becoming parents

MARSHALL — Jason and Amber Swenson wanted a family after they first got married, so they turned to the adoption system.

More than a decade later they’re the proud parents of two adoptive sons, Leo and Brayden. They adopted Leo in 2013 and Brayden in 2019.

They said they turned to adoption after efforts to have children on their own did not result in pregnancy. They chose it rather than going through fertility specialists.

“It just came up in a conversation one day,” Amber said. “We’d both had thoughts about adoption and were very interested in it. Things went forward based on that.”

Danish adoptees demand an investigation into the adoption process in South Korea

Nanna Nørby Hansen

53 people, via the group Danish Korean Rights Group, have today demanded from the South Korean government an investigation into the circumstances of adoptions from South Korea to Denmark in the 1970s and 1980s.

They do so on the basis of testimony that adoption information has been incorrect.

According to AP News , the group believes that some of the adoptions were corrupt and that the children were wrongly registered as orphans.

- The Korean state at that time stamped many papers saying that people were found on the street. If you do a little math, it would mean that from the 1970s and 1980s Seoul would be flooded with baskets of children lying around on the street, says Peter Møller, who is a lawyer and co-leader of Danish Korean Rights Group.

Thirty years later, how a son helped nab his mother’s rapists

Savita was 12 when she was raped. A DNA test from her son, born out of her rape, helped the police track down the accused.

On the morning of August 11, Savita, 42, was getting ready to leave for work when she received a phone call from her lawyer.

He told her the Uttar Pradesh police had arrested two men for repeatedly raping Savita nearly 30 years ago. Savita had been 12 at the time.

“I felt relief, exhaustion, sadness, joy, anger – all at once,” Savita told Newslaundry. “I want to see both of them once and give them one slap. They ruined my life.”

As a result of the rapes, Savita had delivered a child when she was 13 years old. It was a DNA test that matched the child to one of the accused which led the police to finally make the arrests. The two men – Mohammad Razi, 48, and Naqi Hasan, 51 – are brothers.