I have chosen to not disclose the identities of my sources, in order to protect them from possible retaliation. All of the people that I spoke to are child rights advocates working in Uganda.

Uganda, 2016. The East African country has just passed an amendment to the Children’s Act that prevents foreigners arriving in Uganda from removing children from Uganda through a ‘legal guardianship’ order. Previous to this amendment, a ‘legal guardianship’ order was granted to the adoptive parents through district courts, after which the adoptive parents were able to get a visa for the child and fly out of the country. This process allowed adoptive parents to bypass the legal requirements to live in Uganda for three years fostering the child under the supervision of the local Probation and Social Welfare Officer.

A legal loophole led to hundreds of children being taken out of Uganda between 2010 and 2016, after which they were adopted in the adoptive parents’ own countries.

‘Legal guardianship’ orders were never a part of the legal framework for adoption, so this ‘loophole’ led to many children being taken out of Uganda and adopted in the adoptive parents’ own countries. Between 2010 and 2016, hundreds of children were taken out of Uganda through this process.

During this period, one of my contacts was asked to review active cases of children being adopted by couples from two European countries through the ‘legal guardianship’ process. He explains: “I identified fraud, corruption and unethical practices in every single one of the 40 cases I reviewed.” Some of the issues that he identified included:

Stephanie Planckaert faces a few busy months. In addition to the recordings for the second season of Château Planckaert, she will also make the documentary series "Onverwacht" for the VRT together with daughter Iluna.

Stephanie is now making a striking appeal on Instagram Stories. “Giving your baby up for adoption must be one of the most difficult decisions I can imagine, but at the same time so brave and altruistic,” Stephanie Planckaert writes on Instagram.

Stephanie and Iluna would love to talk to anyone who has ever made that choice before their show. "In our one program" Onverwacht "we want to cover all aspects of young motherhood, so adoption can and should certainly not be missed," Eddy Planckaert's daughter continues on Instagram.

Whoever wants to testify can always contact Stephanie Planckaert via Instagram. “Where all messages are treated with the greatest respect and discretion,” Stephanie Planckaert emphasizes on Instagram.

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Parliament has approved a contentious bill that will see adoption considered for children in state care who can't be reunited with their parents, despite concerns raised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island services.

Key points:

The bill passed Parliament on Tuesday despite several concerns raised

Protection groups fear it will lead to forced adoption of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

Minister for Children Leanne Linard said "long term stable care" would be considered "only if there is no better available option"

As the hardship of surviving the impact of COVID-19 becomes an increasing struggle, some mothers are resorting to the desperate measure of abandoning or giving up their babies for adoption to survive.

JOHANNESBURG - The socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on South Africans continues to be felt, with many families having to make extraordinary sacrifices.

One of these is mothers who have had to give up their babies for adoption in order to alleviate the burden of abject poverty.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the pandemic has hit women’s labour market opportunities the hardest in at least 55 countries.

Eyewitness News spoke to a mother who was on the verge of giving up her child in a desperate bid to survive.

Key Areas of Focus: Intercountry Adoptee Rights

What They Do:

InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV), previously known as ICASN (InterCountry Adoptee Support Network) began in 1998 in Sydney, Australia as a support network created by intercountry adoptees for intercountry adoptees, of any country of origin.

ICAV’s informal network has grown to include adoptees and adoptee led groups from around the world. Today, ICAV provides a platform for adoptees to connect in, share, educate, and advocate to the wider public about the issues they face – political, social and emotional, including the not so positive aspects of intercountry adoption.

ICAV is one of the major adult intercountry adoptee led platforms that brings together and encourages adoptees / groups to advocate for the needs and rights of intercountry adoptees.

A Kenyan woman has been charged with fraud with a very bitter aftertaste in Nairobi. She is accused of cheating a single Dutch farmer who wants to have children as much as 2.9 million Kenyan shillings (about 22,300 euros) with a non-existent surrogacy agreement. "After she showed me the contracts, I felt that I could trust her and her agency," said 36-year-old Dion van Aardt in an emotional testimony in court on Tuesday.

“I couldn't be lucky when the surrogacy agency reported that the first scan showed that he was going to be a boy. Filled with paternity, I began to prepare, buy diapers and baby food, and look for a household help to help me raise it, '' the court and Kenyan media told the 30-something.

The second scan, which, according to Winnie Maina's surrogacy office, showed that the baby was going to be a girl, made Van Aardt decide to name his daughter "after my mother," he said moved. The woman sitting in court then burst into tears. The court had also been visibly affected, as were other family members of the thirties present. They were deeply involved in Dion's impending fatherhood and even organized a baby shower to celebrate the arrival of his daughter. "Winnie Maina had suggested that," said Van Aardt.

Caesarean section

When he heard nothing on the date that the surrogate mother was due, according to the agency, the farmer from Nanyuki (about 200 kilometers north of Nairobi) did not immediately feel wet. "The surrogate mother was not yet in labor," it said. He was then put on the line for several weeks with news that the woman had been hospitalized and that she refused a caesarean section, the only option, so to speak. Van Aardt then started packing his luggage and preparing for a stay in Nairobi to be with his daughter. "When I was about to leave, Winnie Maina called with the message that mother and child had died," sniffled the Zimbabwe-born Dutchman.

Parliament has approved a contentious bill that will see adoption considered for children in state care who can't be reunited with their parents, despite concerns raised by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island services.

Key points:

The bill passed Parliament on Tuesday despite several concerns raised

Protection groups fear it will lead to forced adoption of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

Minister for Children Leanne Linard said "long term stable care" would be considered "only if there is no better available option"

BIHARSHARIF: A 16-year-old boy was absolved of charges of kidnapping a

minor girl and allowed to take care of his “live-in partner” and their eightmonth-old infant at his parents’ home by Nalanda Juvenile Justice Board

(JJB) principal judge Manvendra Mishra on Monday. The girl is 18 months

older than the boy.

“The act of the minor boy was punishable in law, but he was acquitted in

You can't miss Sushila Maier. The Rottenbucherin is happy, lively, talkative. Really Bavarian, she says. But also really Indian. The story of an adoption that began with the help of Mother Teresa.

Rottenbuch - “Oh, there it is!” Sushila Maier is getting faster. The freezing wind rushes through her hair. She stops in front of a tree and looks. "Hm, no. Then the one. ”She points to a mighty specimen next to it. A lightning bolt once split this tree, and thick trunks stick out in several directions. “Mei, we climbed around in there.” Full of enthusiasm, she talks about the adventures in the forest, behind the church wall.

From swimming in the Ammer, "my blue lagoon". The wind blows through the branches, and with Maier's colorful descriptions you can almost hear the laughter of children from back then. The happy riot of the little Sushila who came back today, on a wonderful winter day. She is 42 years old. And in love with Rottenbuch. Into the woods, the parental home, this almost outrageous idyll. "That's my home. I love the landscape, the people, the language, ”she says. Then she takes a deep breath. "Even so, not everything was nice here."

Sushila Maier today: The actress visited her old home in winter - including a joyful dance in front of her parents' house and a conversation with the local newspaper.

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“F*** the f***!” shouted Kaval Raijada raising his middle finger at a journalist who had clicked him with the sour-faced Arti Dhir puffing a cigarette outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on a rare pleasant January day in 2019. At thirty, Raijada looked like a grumpy teenager whose attempts to fit in with the english blokes only made him stand further apart, as his fifty-four-year- old wife looked on with a dull resigned look of a passing stranger witnessing the tantrums of a spoilt brat.

There was nothing in the behaviour of the two that showed them as a loving couple keen to establish a happy family or the mature compatibility required to raise a boy of eleven. Dhir and Raijada were at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London to fight their extradition to India on charges of murdering their adopted son to claim money from his life insurance...

The Indian government requested Britain to extradite Arti and Kaval to stand trial in India on six counts: conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempt to commit murder, kidnapping, abduction for the purpose of committing murder and abetting a crime. On 29 June 2017, a provisional warrant was issued and the two were arrested that same day and produced in Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Initially, they were remanded into custody.

When substantial securities were paid, they were remanded on conditional bail. on 29 August, a certificate was issued to pursue the case under section 70 of the Extradition Act 2003 where India, being a Category 2 territory, had to show a prima facie case before extradition could take place.

After the case management hearings, a two-day trial was fixed for 21 and 22 January 2019 in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, being presided over by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot who a month before had ruled to extradite liquor baron Vijay Mallya to India. With what seemed like an open-and-shut case, many were confident that this case too would meet with the same conclusion. Alas, it was never meant to be so!