A still from "The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger" (2010), Jane Jin Kaisen & Guston Sondin-Kung

Conference info

Co-organizers: Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University & Center for Korean Studies, University of Tübingen

Date: 7-8 May, 2026

Mirjam Hunze, 53, from Willemsoord, and her Chilean Adoptees Foundation have managed to find a biological mother for the first time. It's a breakthrough in a bizarre story of child theft and kidnapping that began in the 1970s. "I'm deeply moved."

It concerns Anna Nilson from Sweden, who had been searching for her biological mother in Chile for years. A successful DNA test provided the final answer: her mother was found.

This was achieved thanks to the efforts of Mirjam Hunze's foundation. "As a foundation, we are incredibly proud that we managed to travel to Chile ourselves and successfully administer a DNA test," she says.

Each year, women make the desperate decision to abandon their babies. Specially designed ‘baby windows’ can help – but some argue they make matters worse

When Romina discovered she was pregnant in 2021, she was 39 years old and homeless, without a euro to her name. She did what many a lonely and frightened woman has done throughout history, on learning that she was going to have a baby, and pretended she wasn’t. “If you don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist – something like that,” she told me, more than three years on.

By the time she noticed the changes in her body, she had been homeless for nearly seven years. Before that, she had lived a comfortable, secure life in The Hague, with a man she had fallen passionately in love with. But the man had become controlling, she said, preventing her from working or seeing her friends, spying on her and eventually threatening her if she left him.

She left him anyway, one night around Christmas 2014, and so opened a very dark chapter in a life that, to hear Romina, had already known its fair share of darkness – her parents’ divorce when she was three; years of sexual abuse at the hands of a stepfather; her mother’s many suicide attempts, the last of which, in 2009, succeeded; estrangement from her two half-siblings; and separation from her two sons (one of whom was just a toddler) after she entered into that last, abusive relationship, leaving them with their fathers.

Updated: Melania Trump wrote letter to Putin about protecting children

Editor's Note: This article was updated with additional details after U.S. President Donald Trump published the letter to social media on Aug. 17.

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children as he arrived in Alaska to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, Reuters reported on Aug. 16.

Trump handed the letter to Putin during the two leaders' nearly three-hour meeting on Aug. 15, two White House officials told Reuters. While the officials did not specify the letter's contents, they said it raised the plight of Russia kidnapping Ukrainian children.

Trump later published the full letter to his social media platform Truth Social on Aug. 17 in response to criticism of his meeting with Putin.

"Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their hearts, whether born randomly into a nation's rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility and safety from danger," the letter begins.

"Justice to this child is a factor not to be ignored. Rather, his assertion demands that truth be known, when truth has to be established, as it undoubtedly can," the Court said.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently held that a man's right to privacy cannot override the right of a child to know the identity of his father.

Justice Archana Puri passed the ruling while dismissing a revision petition that had challenged a trial court’s decision to allow a child’s plea for the comparison of his DNA sample with that of a man he claims to be his father.

“Justice to this child/plaintiff, is a factor, not to be ignored. Rather, his assertion demands that truth be known, when truth has to be established, as it undoubtedly can. Simultaneously, the right of defendant No.1 [man claimed to be father] to privacy and dignity, also has to be taken into consideration. However, the right of privacy, as such, cannot override the right of the child and vest interest in his favour,” the Court said.

However, the High Court added that the trial court's directive to allow the use of police force to ensure that there is no resistance by the defendant when his DNA sample is taken, was unnecessary.

“The hidden history of Romania’s international adoptions is a wound that never healed, for the children sent abroad, the families left behind, and the country that let it happen,” Romanian feature debutant Laurentiu Garofeanu explains to BDE the necessity of his Lost and Found: Romania’s Hidden Adoption Market. “[It] is a personal investigation, a human story unfolding in real time, with emotional stakes that cross borders.”

For Jessi, who was adopted almost 30 years ago, what starts as a search for identity becomes “a confrontation with the post-revolution marketplace, a post-communist system that sold thousands of children for international adoption,” the notes for the film project underline. Back in Romania and filmed over seven years, she uncovers “unbelievable truths, contradictory records, meets evasive officials, and finds the sister she never knew existed.” All the while, Garofeanu accompanies her on “a vérité journey into memory, loss, and resilience.”  

“I’ve spent two decades telling stories people thought would never be told, from London and New York to the Black Sea and entire Balkan region,” director/producer Garofeanu further underlines his credentials in telling this vital story. “I know how to win trust in places where trust is rare. In Lost and Found, that means sitting with birth mothers in their living rooms and across from people who swore they’d never speak on camera.”

“The production is small but relentless: experienced researchers, filming across two continents, multiple countries, and a network of trusted collaborators in Romania, Canada, Belgium and Spain. Our editor turns chaos into clarity. Our cinematographers capture intimacy without intrusion,” he adds.

Garofeanu promises to deliver a visceral cinematic experience to reflect the urgency of the subject he depicts. “Imagine the intimacy of a home movie colliding with the raw momentum of a personal investigation,” he says. “The film moves between two visual worlds: the grainy, discreet footage from small cameras that lets us disappear into the moment, and the composed, high-quality images that give the search for truth its cinematic value.”

The man assaulted his minor granddaughter who came to care for his ailing wife, resulting in her pregnancy. He then gave the child she bore up for adoption

A shocking and distressing incident has emerged from Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand. A 70-year-old man has been accused of raping his minor granddaughter, who was brought along by his daughter after her marriage. The crime came to light when the girl’s stepmother reported the ordeal to the authorities.

According to reports, the girl had initially come to care for her ailing step-grandmother, but the grandfather harboured sinister intentions towards her. Over time, he sexually assaulted her, resulting in pregnancy. The situation worsened when the victim gave birth to a child, whom the accused then gave up for adoption.

The victim, terrified by threats from her step-grandfather, remained silent for a long period. However, she eventually confided in her stepmother, who then informed the family.

NEW DELHI: Noting that the present adoption law is too cumbersome and frustrating for adoptive parents, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the procedure needed to be streamlined and simplified to encourage childless couples to take the legal route to adopt rather than doing it illegally.
 

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan, which was hearing a case on the menace of child trafficking in the country, said people take illegal routes to adopt children as the adoption process takes years. It said not having children is a social stigma and such parents "want a child badly but the process is cumbersome".

The total number of adoptions crossed 4,500 in 2025-26 as of March 31, the highest in 11 years.

Average waiting period for adopting kids is 3.5 years

However, for many prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), the process of adopting a child continues to be a challenge with an average of 3.5 years waiting period for those seeking infants and young children. The Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara) dashboard shows there are over 36,616 PAPs across various categories registered to adopt while the number of children available for adoption is merely 2,756.

"The present adoption process is taking too long. Parents want a child badly but the process is cumbersome and frustrating for them," SC said.

It added the existing flaw in the system was reflected in a case that was decided by it a day before, in which four parents from Telangana had adopted children, but not as per the procedure laid down by law, and police thereafter took away custody. The court allowed the plea of the four adoptive parents and restored custody of the children - aged between a few months and three years - to them by invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution.

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Komal Sakpal (in the picture), who has been in ASHA's OSI sponsorship program since she was in the 5th Grade (2015), was recently recruited by the Anand Group of companies in their Satara branch. In 2021, ASHA recommended Komal for the Anand Group's scholarship in mechanical engineering diploma course for deserving girls from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. With the scholarship, she completed the mechanical engineering diploma course from Marathwada polytechnic college in Kalewadi with 81%. Komal will complete her degree course along with her job.

Komal lives in Janata Vasahat near Parvati Payatha. Her father, a daily wage worker who suffers from night blindness, is not a very active worker, while her mother is a domestic help. As part of OSI's sponsorship program Komal received assistance not only for studies and tuition classes but also for health, nutrition and other activities. Komal has always been a bright and sincere student and had scored 87% in the SSC exam in June 2021. Through Limitless Child International, Komal participated in a STEM focused summer camp for 3 years where she participated in various hands-on learning activities and helped to start a weekly club focused on “deep-dives” into various topics ranging from life drawing to composting and organic gardening, to dance, Also good at sports, she played in inter-school Khokho matches. Besides, she also participated in football organized by ASHA through the International non-profit organization Limitless Child International. Recognizing her abilities in sports, ASHA supported her football coaching, leading her to play at the district level.