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Danish appeal authority approve Wasuthon’s adoption in Thailand and opens up for Danish adoption

Wasuthon who also goes by the nickname “Guide” now has his adoption approved under Danish law. After the family got the adoption rejected twice, the Appeal Authority of Denmark has now overruled the verdicts and the family can file for a Danish adoption for Guide, Fredericia Dagblad writes.

The case of Wasuthon has attracted a lot of attention from the media and politicians in Denmark lately.

The mayor of Wasuthon’s home city Fredericia announced that he was going to write the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Mattias Tesfaye, asking him to urge authorities for a speedy process on the case.

Despite the two rejections for approval of the adoption by The Agency of Family Law, the Appeal Authority have ruled in favor of Wasuthon and approved the adoption. The latest rejection was based on the fact that Wasuthon’s younger brother Chayapon still lived with his grandmother in Thailand and that it therefore would be differential treatment if an adoption on Wasuthon was approved.

But now the Appeal Authorities is saying that the adoption cannot be denied on that basis.

The Challenges and Unaddressed Issues of Child Adoption Practices in India

The second wave of COVID-19 ruptured families across India. Despite widespread media coverage, the conversation overlooked a demographic worst affected by it, namely children.

According to a Lancet study, 1.13 million children across the globe lost their primary caregivers to COVID-19 last year. This figure includes at least one parent or a custodial grandparent.

The National Commission for Child Rights recorded over 3,500 children who lost both their parents during the pandemic in India. However, The Lancet study documents a much higher number of children orphaned, reporting 1.16 lakh minors who lost their parents just between March 2020 and April 2021 in the country. In contrast, the number of children who lost their primary or secondary caregivers was 1.86 lakh. This trend led to a new sub-category of bereaved children, referred to as the ‘COVID orphans’.

Consequently, social media platforms were flooded with unwarranted pictures of children accompanied by requests for their adoption. However, legalities surrounding adoption in India are complex and do not provide for the direct adoption of a child without first being routed through a statutory body – thus, likening social media adoptions to child trafficking. Such viral messages have not only misinformed prospective parents looking for opportunities to jump the long queue but potentially exposed unregistered children to illegal flesh trade, human trafficking rackets and forced labour.

Curiously, the issue received minimal investigation from civil society gesturing towards the general lack of informed discourse surrounding adoption and lacunae in addressing misinformation about it.

Troubled man, 22, who tried searching for his birth parents after leaving home was found hanged in his adopted family’s garage,

Troubled man, 22, who tried searching for his birth parents after leaving home was found hanged in his adopted family’s garage, inquest hears

Ben Murphy, 22, was found hanged in the garage of his adopted parents

He had previously been asked to leave the home in December 2019

Adopted mother claims their family had been 'walking on eggshells' round him

Ben contacted biological parents almost a year after being asked to move out

WCD Ministry to bring rules to ease inter-country adoption

THE MINISTRY of Women and Child Development will soon issue a notification to facilitate inter-country adoption under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA). According to the new regulation, families adopting under this Act can receive a no-objection certificate from Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), the government’s adoption authority, to take the child abroad.

Currently, families have to approach the courts for the no-objection certificates.

Last month, the ministry issued a notification waiving the two-year mandatory period that an adoptive family would have to stay in the country for constant monitoring by CARA and other authorities. According to this new rule, adoptive families can now intimate Indian diplomatic missions two weeks in advance of their intent to travel with the adopted child. The families are to furnish all details, including that of residence. The Indian missions will then monitor the progress and security of the adopted child, instead of CARA and other authorities.

Ministry officials on Tuesday said these measures were being taken to facilitate ease in carrying out adoptions, while at the same time ensure prevention of abuse or child trafficking.

Enacted in 1956, the HAMA is a personal law applicable to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains and largely pertains to adoptions within a family. Adoptions under it are simpler as the two parties along with the child only need to approach a court. On the other hand, CARA has strict stipulations prior to and after adoptions, such as Home Study Reports of the prospective parents which are prepared through social workers of selected Specialised Adoption Agency.

'It is our moral duty to put the best interests of the adoptee first'

The public outcry about the adoption break, which has since been discontinued, diverts attention from what the discussion should really be about. So says Sophie Withaeckx, who was part of the expert panel on intercountry adoption for two years. "The experience of adoptees who have been victims of systematic malpractice is real."

BI was part of the expert panel on intercountry adoption for almost two years. In this I contributed to a thorough reflection on the question of whether and how it is possible to prevent malpractice in intercountry adoption. The final report was drawn up on the basis of intensive research from various scientific disciplines.

The report includes 20 recommendations. On the one hand, they are aimed at a thorough reform of the adoption landscape, and on the other hand, they aim to do justice to adoptees who have become victims of malpractice. The latter can be done, among other things, by expanding aftercare, providing remedial measures and offering public apologies to victims.

The adoption break is necessary for a thoroughly reformed adoption practice that must be free from malpractice.

After the report was published, there was immediate outrage. Unfortunately not because intercountry adoption can still be accompanied by malpractice, but because of the recommendation to take an adoption break pending the reform of the system. That pause is, however, necessary for a thoroughly reformed adoption practice that must be free from malpractice.

Heartbreak in Ethiopia

Sit for any time in the foyer of the Hilton Hotel in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, and you'll see a procession of Americans and Europeans wandering from their rooms across the marble floor to the restaurant or swimming pool with their precious new possessions - babies or infants they've just adopted.

I'd never really thought a great deal about international adoption until I was confronted with the scene as I checked into the hotel in September last year.

I'd arrived to film a story for ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent program about the drought-induced famine.

The longer I stayed, the more I started to think about the adopted children - where they were from and how they must feel to suddenly find themselves alone with someone whose skin colour doesn't match theirs and whose language they don't speak.

They're dressed in alien attire - a brand new Red Sox baseball cap and T-shirt with some cute and cheery foreign slogan plastered across the front - and in an environment like none they've ever seen, when just out on the street is the one they know so well, where their extended family and fellow countrymen reside.

Govt to bring new regulations to make inter-country adoptions under HAMA easier

NEW DELHI: In a bid to ease inter-country adoptions, the Central Adoption Resource Authority has framed regulations under

the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act on the direction of the Union government, an official said on Tuesday.

Till now, there were no regulations for the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) for inter-country adoptions under the

Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA), which covers Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.

"So, when a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or Overseas-Citizen of India used to get adoption done under the HAMA, they faced a

Priority for adoption may be given to those from same state as that of child, say sources

NEW DELHI: The priority for adoption may be given to those who are from the same state as that of the child so that the social and cultural milieu is preserved, a senior official said.

At present, people get a choice of three states from where they wish to adopt.

NEW DELHI: The priority for adoption may be given to those who are from the same state as that of the child so that the social and cultural milieu is preserved, a senior official said.

At present, people get a choice of three states from where they wish to adopt.

Failed, Jailed & Forgotten: The Pains of Delhi's Juvenile 'Justice' System

Children failed by the institutions of care are subjected to a system that sets them up for failure

Santosh was only 14 years old when 3 policemen barged into his house in Delhi's north district. The chaos, the screaming, the image of his elder brother Ravi (17) being dragged by the collar escaped his comprehension. All he felt was fear, as he hid behind his mother who was begging the police to let go of her son.

While two policemen dragged Ravi out of the house, one stayed behind. Few minutes later, a voice called out - "woh doosre ko bhi le aa" (bring the other one also). His mother could not protect Santosh; he followed his brother's fate. In that moment, he ceased to be a "child'; he became a "juvenile" - a "child in conflict with law".

Santosh and Ravi were taken to a police station where they were kept for two days. In those 48 hours, two children, caught in the net of India's criminal legal system for an alleged crime, were ripped off the virtues of their childhood. They were physically and psychologically assaulted, their lives altered, their conscience scarred, for reasons they never understood.

The Quint interviewed many children like Santosh and Ravi in an attempt to document the pains of navigating our criminal justice system as "children in conflict with law". We also interviewed lawyers who represent such children before juvenile courts, as well as child rights activists. We also visited juvenile homes in Delhi to grasp the perils of institutional response to juvenile delinquency.

Biological father sues Catholic Charities over newborn’s adoption

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man who lost custody of his newborn son, only to have an appellate court reverse termination of his parental rights, is suing Catholic Charities West Michigan for placing the child with an adoptive family.

The child was put up for adoption shortly after birth three years ago.

The lawsuit alleges Catholic Charities committed fraud and failed to look for the biological father, Peter Kruithoff. In separate proceedings, a Kalamazoo County judge terminated his parental rights while an Ottawa County judge awarded him custody.

“The conduct of Defendants was extreme and outrageous and beyond the bounds of what is acceptable in civilized society,” attorneys John Moritz and Michael Villar wrote in the lawsuit.

They had originally filed the lawsuit in Ottawa County Circuit Court but Catholic Charities asked that it be moved to federal court.