Briefing Note Surrogacy, especially through international arrangements, is increasingly used as a method of family formation around the world. Although there are no precise global figures on how many children have been born through surrogacy, the development of assisted reproductive technology (ART), changes in social norms and the trend for having children later are leading to more children being born through surrogacy. Children born through surrogacy have the same rights as all children under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Regardless of individual State positions on surrogacy, all States have a duty to protect the human rights of all children born through surrogacy without discrimination, including ensuring appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks exist at the national level to protect and promote their rights. This Briefing Note is intended for use by legislators, decision-makers, policymakers and practitioners in all States where surrogacy issues require attention. Main challenges for children born through surrogacy To date, no internationally agreed definition of the different forms of surrogacy exists. In some instances, surrogacy occurs in ways that protect, respect and uphold, the human rights of children born through surrogacy. However, currently, international human rights law does not provide safeguards specifically focusing on domestic surrogacy and International Surrogacy Arrangements (ISAs), which places children born through surrogacy at risk. Moreover, very few States have domestic legal and policy frameworks that provide safeguards for the rights of children in ISAs and, in some instances, domestic surrogacy. The Concluding Observations and Recommendations of the CRC Committee, the thematic reports on children and surrogacy of the UN Special Rapporteur on sale and sexual exploitation of children, as well as the Verona Principles, provide guidance on protecting the rights of children born through surrogacy. Children born through surrogacy, especially ISAs, are at risk of multiple human rights violations – particularly, their right to an identity, including name, nationality, family relations and access to origins; the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health; and the right to not be sold [the latter also stated in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (OPSC)]. Decisions may be made by adults in surrogacy situations which are discriminatory based on the child’s disability and/or gender, and which are contrary to the child’s best interests as the paramount consideration. Given the predominantly commercial nature of many surrogacy arrangements, children born through surrogacy are at risk of being sold and/or exploited. Specific concerns are raised in this regard in ISAs and in surrogacy situations in which parentage is established solely on the basis of private arrangements. Confidence in the integrity of the circumstances of their surrogacy arrangement is crucial to uphold the child’s rights. The human rights of surrogate mothers, in particular the protection of girls, should be protected by preventing the potential for exploitation in surrogacy arrangements – for example, through coercion and a lack of informed consent of all parties. 2 February 2022 During a surrogacy arrangement, the rights of children are at risk in the following ways: Establishing and preserving identity can be difficult or impossible for children born through surrogacy. The child’s rights under Articles 7 and 8 of the CRC – which protect the child’s rights to be registered at birth, to preserve their identity, and to re-establish their identity if they have been illegally deprived of some or all of its elements – can be negatively impacted by decisions made about the child in surrogacy situations. Decisions about whether to preserve information relevant to a child’s identity can have a lifetime impact on the child, and future generations, in several ways. Knowing one’s origins is fundamental to the child’s physical, psychological, cultural and spiritual development. Having one’s own identity is also a gateway to the enjoyment of the child’s other fundamental rights, such as those related to protection, health, education, and the maintenance of family ties. Persons and organisations facilitating and/or undertaking surrogacy are not always aware of the importance of collecting, storing, and preserving identity information of children born through surrogacy, so the child can know their origins. In the absence of systems to preserve the child’s identity rights, restoration of the child’s identity may be impossible; particularly in circumstances where there is donor and/or surrogate anonymity. This also leads to challenges in birth registration and certification, as only a few civil registration systems are set up to record identity information related to family relations in surrogacy and other forms of assisted reproductive technology. Legal parentage in surrogacy raises challenges to the child’s rights. Although it is in the best interests of children to have legal parentage established as soon as possible after birth, the integrity of a child’s legal parentage in surrogacy needs to be protected through minimum standards. These include, for example, pre-surrogacy safeguards, best interest determinations (BID), consents of all parties to the arrangement, and protecting the child’s right to access their origins. Establishment or transfer of legal parentage cannot be linked to remuneration or other considerations, and the rights of the child should not be sacrificed to create legal certainty in parentage prior to birth, including in the event of unforeseen developments in a surrogacy arrangement. Such developments may include those related to uncertainty created by emergency situations and/or changes in the circumstances, or wishes, of the parties to the surrogacy arrangement. Children are at greater risk of being sold in commercial surrogacy arrangements. Sale and trafficking of children born through surrogacy is occurring, especially in ISAs, due to a lack of protective safeguards being implemented by States. A legally binding contractual relationship between the surrogate mother and the intending parent(s) established pre-birth, in which the transfer of the child would be made conditional upon payment, would constitute the sale of a child. It can also lead to incorrect information being included in civil registration systems and falsification of identity information. The financial aspects of surrogacy arrangements often lack clarity, suggesting that they go beyond mere compensation for surrogacy-related expenses, including in purported “altruistic” surrogacy arrangements, amounting to the sale of children under Article 2 of the OPSC. The identity and family relations of a child cannot be for sale. Children born through surrogacy can be at risk of statelessness. This is especially prevalent in ISAs when children are born in States that do not recognise the child as a national, nor do any other States. This may occur in situations where the intending parents are nationals of, or reside in, States that prohibit surrogacy and travel to a State that allows surrogacy arrangements. This contravenes State obligations under Articles 7 and 8 of the CRC and the State’s duty to prevent statelessness. It follows that States that permit surrogacy should limit access to surrogacy solely to intending parents from other States which also permit surrogacy. 3 February 2022 Recommendations for protecting children’s rights in surrogacy arrangements States Parties to the CRC and the OPSC, should take the following actions to protect the rights of the child in in all types of surrogacy arrangements by ensuring that: ▪ Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems include and preserve identity information relating to each child born through surrogacy. Children’s access to identity information should be facilitated in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. This will give children the opportunity to access information concerning their identity and origins and will support the child’s enjoyment of other rights. Specifically, the identity of surrogate mothers and donor(s) should be known. An agreement to share their identity information with children born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement should be obtained prior to the arrangement being entered into. The child’s right to identity can be further supported by openness in surrogacy arrangements. ▪ Timely and disaggregated data on children born through surrogacy are collected by States. CRVS systems should be set up to collect, store and disseminate such data as part of their vital statistics reports. ▪ National legislation and regulation include a prohibition of the sale and trafficking of children as outlined in OPSC and its Guidelines, ensuring this extends to the surrogacy context. Contractual provisions purporting to determine definitively legal parentage or parental responsibility pre-birth should not be enforceable. States should guard against the falsification of identity information in surrogacy and safeguard the appropriate recording of identity information by the civil registrar. ▪ Intermediaries in surrogacy are prohibited from undertaking any activities that may constitute or lead to the sale, trafficking, and/or any other forms of exploitation of children and other persons. States that permit surrogacy should ensure that intermediaries are regulated and subject to national oversight. ▪ A post-birth best interest determination (BID) is conducted in any surrogacy arrangement when pre-surrogacy evaluations lack sufficient rigor, the surrogate mother and/or intending parent(s) dispute legal parentage, the transfer of legal parentage is considered, or unforeseen developments arise. The best interests of the child must be the paramount consideration in decision-making regarding children born through surrogacy arrangements. The BID should consider the child’s full range of rights under the CRC and should ultimately determine legal parentage and parental responsibility, taking into account any pre-surrogacy safeguards. ▪ Children born through surrogacy can enjoy their rights from birth. States that permit surrogacy should prohibit ISAs involving foreign intending parents from States that prohibit such arrangements. ▪ Children are not discriminated against or abandoned on grounds of disability in those States where surrogacy is sought and practiced. These practices are based on stigma and prejudice and contribute to discriminatory attitudes towards children with disabilities. ▪ Mechanisms are in place to prevent any child born through surrogacy being stateless. Any child born through a surrogacy arrangement shall be granted a nationality from birth, as part of their right to identity.

Gurgaon: In a step to make the process of adoption of children hassle-free and to end the ambiguity around the process, the district administration on Sunday announced that a new state-backed adoption agency will come up at the Old Age Home in Sector 4. The centre will be inaugurated by the vice-chairperson of the state child welfare council, Parisha Sharma, Monday.

“There are many orphaned kids in the city, but the process of adoption of such kids involves a lot of legal aspects and that’s where this agency will be of help. It will assist childless couples adopt orphan kids and raise them responsibly,” said deputy commissioner Yash Garg.

“The Central government has constituted Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to adopt a child. Any couple in the district will be able to adopt children following the rules laid down by this adoption agency,” he added.

“Online applications can be made on the official website of CARA. Besides this, there are some conditions for the adopting couple to satisfy, as well. It is necessary for the couple to be physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially capable,” Garg added.

A single woman can adopt a child of any gender while a single man can only adopt a boy.

That's a very difficult question. Cases with old adoptions (according to the old adoption law before 1977) are complicated. It depends, among other things, on whether you were of legal age on December 31, 1977 or not and whether the inheritance and/or compulsory portion rights of the adopting party were excluded in the adoption contract at the time. In the case of a minor adoption, those involved could also object to the application of the new law.

Normally, an adult on January 1, 1977 has an inheritance and compulsory share right over his or her birth parents and adoptive parents. However, the right of inheritance towards his adoptive parents can be excluded in the acceptance contract (= adoption contract), which still applies today.

In the case of minors as of December 31, 1977, the adopted child normally has an inheritance and compulsory portion right vis-à-vis the adoptive parents and their relatives, but no longer vis-à-vis the biological parents and biological relatives. In the event of an objection to the new adoption law, which was possible up until December 31, 1977, the legal effects are the same as for an adult on December 31, 1977 (see above).

The following description must be worked through in detail in order to determine your entitlement to an inheritance and/or compulsory portion.

1. Overview of legacy adoption

For 15 years, Isabella dos Santos lived a "true soap opera", as she says: as a girl, raised by an adoptive family in Paris with the name of Charlotte, she began to suspect that there was something wrong with her adoption, investigated her past, confronted his mother, with whom he had a troubled relationship, and discovered that he had been a victim of human trafficking when he was still a baby.

Ten years ago, he came to Brazil, his native country, even though he spoke little Portuguese and practically without documents. He followed his search for a few more years until he found more pieces of the puzzle. She found her biological sister and discovered that she was sent to France in a criminal scheme to sell children

Today, at age 35, Isabella has adopted a Brazilian name and surname, given by her biological mother, and is working on a documentary that will tell her story and that of other people trafficked for adoption in Europe, like her. Childhood Isabella in France, raised as Charlotte Image: Personal archive In an interview with Universa , she tells her story. "I heard so many stories that none of them seemed true" "I always knew I was adopted. I didn't physically resemble my adoptive parents and they were much older than the other parents. I also knew that I was born in Brazil and that I had been taken to this family in France - which, in fact, was not it was quite a family, because it was a very troubled couple, my adoptive father had problems with drinking and drugs, and I

had no other relatives.

But at the same time, my adoptive mother didn't talk about it much, didn't give details, it was taboo. She always told

When Tom Romano, an Air Force veteran who was incapacitated by an injury he initially suffered during the Vietnam War, was reunited with his son who had been deported in an adoption snafu, they wouldn’t let go of each other.

The drive north from JFK in New York seemed to take forever.

Robert Romano sat in the passenger seat as his lawyer, Ann Elise McCaffrey, did the driving. By the time they got to Tom Romano’s place in Manchester, N.H., it was dark and freezing.

A family friend, Bryan Clark, let them in, and father and son embraced for the first time in five years.

“I got my boy back,” Tom Romano said, his voice somewhat muffled, as his face was buried in his son’s shoulder.

PLANO, Texas, Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BEB and Uganda's Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) announced last week that 8,000 children from licensed, Ugandan children's homes now have digital profiles in BEB's Children First Software (CFS), putting them on the path to family care. This statistic reflects an additional 5,000 children with profiles in CFS since the start of 2021.

BEB Leaders met with the MGLSD team on January 25 to present the Global Child Protector award and to review first-ever, comprehensive reports of Ugandan children living in licensed institutions and their needs. BEB Founder Craig Juntunen shared about the award, "Despite many obstacles in their way [Uganda] gathered the courage and resolve to produce real, sustainable change." President Mark Schwartz told MGLSD Commissioner Mondo and his team, "Uganda is a bright light for our mission for children… and an example for all of Africa by taking the first step. Accomplishing what you have through COVID and quarantine is amazing."

The statistical report provided by MGLSD shares that 149 approved homes are currently using CFS, Uganda's alternative care management information system. 621 Ugandan social workers have been trained to use the software. The report provided that "usage of CFS will be a requirement for licensure and will support the Ministry in its effort to elevate overall standards."

Also critical to success in 2021 was the Tiny Hearts project that focuses on the youngest children in institutions and applies all CFS modules to accelerate their placement. The project began in the last quarter of the year; of 21 children who have records in CFS, 15 were reunified with biological family and 6 are in the process of adoption. This pilot continues to enforce that when users take advantage of the entirety of CFS it equips them to quickly and correctly place a child into a family.

The Commissioner ended his remarks, "We pray that this year will bring hope and smiles on the faces of children. Every child deserves a place called home. Every child deserves a shorter trip home. Every child deserves to be loved and protected unconditionally. While we are happy about the successes we have made, we also know there is a lot more we need to do."

Scottish mothers who endured the forced adoption of their babies have said an national apology for their losses was “not enough” and called for deep reforms to allow them to heal from the “atrocity” of being separated from their children.

The Movement for Adoption Apology in Scotland has stressed calls for much-needed mental health support for mothers and changes to the management of adoption records, which remain closed for 100 years to parents.

The campaign has also called for a permanent memorial to those affected, with adoption often presented as the only option, both by many families and health professionals, given social attitudes of the day towards unmarried mothers. Many women have spoken of a lifetime of shame, trauma and secrets that followed.

It is estimated around 60,000 women in Scotland were affected by such adoptions, with the period between the 1950s and early 1980s now in sharp focus.

Jeannot Farmer, 65, of MAA Scotland, spoke out as the Scottish Government announced it would start collecting experiences of women with a view to establishing support and action required.

Dear friends, when Florin Müller's therapist Hanne Kloth contacted us to introduce us to this very special young man, we pricked our ears. Because Florin wrote a children's book as an autistic child: " The Brave Little Fireman ". It's a book about his own story. And that's pretty moving.

" The Brave Little Fireman ".

In 1998 he was adopted by a German couple after living in dire circumstances in a Romanian children's home for four years. Florin uses sign language and uses assisted communication to write things he cannot express with them. He only needs a touch on his knee to be able to write.

In 2014 he graduated from a distance learning school. In the same year his first book was published, followed by two more. He took part in poetry competitions, where he was repeatedly among the prizewinners. Today, Florin is also a frequent speaker at training courses, readings and congresses because he loves to discuss his problems with people.

Florin, you were adopted by a German couple in 1998...

A desperate need to know her roots led a young woman from Netherlands to fly down to a nondescript village in Salem.

Coimbatore: What happened next was nothing short of a fairytale. The visit to Poosaripatti village in Kadayampatti Taluk in Salem district turned out to be life-changing for 23-year-old Amada (Amudhavalli), who, found her biological mother, who incidentally shares the same name as her daughter.

The circumstances behind her adoption tale were revealed to Amudha after the emotional reunion. Her poverty-stricken mother had to give her away when she was just 11 days old, in the care of a missionary in Salem in August 1998. Soon after, the baby was adopted by a couple from Netherland.

“It was the most painful decision of my life and one that I regretted throughout. I was constantly haunted by her memories,” the mother said. She works as a domestic help. She had to resort to the extreme step and give away her second girl child after her drunkard husband deserted the family.

The young Amudha, who grew up as a citizen of Netherland, was often plagued by identity crisis in a family of white people, and this triggered her need to look for her biological parents. “I only knew the name of my parents and my birth place through my foster parents. Determined to meet them, I came down to Chennai all alone from Netherland. With the assistance of a guide, I gathered information from Salem Government Hospital and managed to track down my family. It was difficult. But I am glad to have met them at last and am basking in love. It has been a dream come true moment,” said Amada, who runs a bouquet shop in Netherland.

COC Netherlands wants Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) to present a multi-parent law this year. The interest group of the LGBTI community advocates this in a letter to the new minister, also on behalf of four other organizations.

The multi-parent law should ensure that children can have several legal parents and not a maximum of two, as is currently the case. This law is part of COC's Rainbow Agreement, which the new cabinet intends to implement in accordance with the coalition agreement.

"Children have the right to a good legal relationship with all their parents, whether there are one, two, three or four," says COC chairman Astrid Oosenbrug. "There is a wonderful opportunity for Minister Weerwind to arrange this quickly and we will be happy to help him with that."

Gender Registration

COC Netherlands also argues in the letter to Weerwind that every Dutch person should be able to easily change the gender registration in the passport to an 'X' instead of 'M' or 'V'. This is for people who, for example, do not feel like a man or woman or who do not want their gender to be included in their passport. D66 MP Lisa van Ginneken recently submitted a proposal on this point.