Eighty-eight Romanian NGOs accused President Klaus Iohannis and MPs of making it harder to prosecute human trafficking and child pornography cases by adopting a controversial new law.

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest in September. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

Eighty-eight Romanian NGOs published an open letter on Sunday criticising President Klaus Iohannis for promulgating on October 29 a controversial law that effectively reduces the statute of limitations for crimes related to human trafficking and child pornography.

“We note with deep disappointment that one week after the publication of the European Commission’s Human Trafficking Report in which Romania is presented as the state with the highest number of victims in Europe… the President of Romania enacted a law more favourable to defendants in crimes of child trafficking and child pornography,” the NGOs’ letter said.

The letter said that the new law unjustifiably removes references to child trafficking and child pornography from a paragraph of the country’s criminal code.

(Jamaica Star) Marlon* says he has been restless since September when he discovered that his eight-year-old daughter was given up for adoption overseas without his consent.

The fuming father said he is seeking assistance from the relevant authorities to reverse the procedure.

“I can’t sleep at nights. I don’t know if my child is happy. I need to speak to my child. I would do anything to reverse the adoption. I am all about a better life for my child but do it the right way. Mi never did have to find out from others say mi daughter get adopted because no loving father would feel good,” he said. “I want to have access to my child and I don’t want her to have another person’s last name.”

Marlon said although he and his babymother, Faith*, parted ways when she was pregnant, he is adamant that he was very involved in his daughter’s life. But he admitted that his name is not on the birth certificate.

“I was at work when my baby was born and when I went to the hospital the following morning, her mother was not answering her phone,” he said.

A total of 3,531 children, including 2,061 girls, were adopted in India during the one year period ending March 31 with Maharashtra recording the highest number of adoptions among states, according to government data. As per data from the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), 1,470 boys and 2,061 girls were adopted from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020.

In the context of widespread and generational preference for sons across cultures in the country, an official said people's mindset is slowly changing and they are becoming more accepting towards adopting girls. "We give them three choices - one can opt for a girl, a boy, or can give no preference (while applying for adopting a child). Many people prefer to adopt a girl child," he said. Activists, however, say more girls are adopted because more of them are available for adoption.

"Even a casual visit to an adoption agency will tell you there are far more girls than boys to select for adoption. So to attribute it to progressive values may be a bit exaggerated or over-simplistic," said Akhila Sivadas, executive director at the Centre for Advocacy and Research, a non-profit organisation. She said many families have a strong preference for sons and go to the extent of taking recourse to pre-natal sex determination and selection to abort the female foetus, with some even abandoning the girl child. "There is a sense of collective wrong and guilt among some people who genuinely strive to redress it by adopting girls," she said.

According to the data, 3,120 children were adopted in the age group of 0-5 years while in the age group of 5-18 years as many as 411 children were adopted between April last year and March this year. The official said adoption of older children continues to be an issue as most parents still prefer to adopt children below two years of age. "People prefer to adopt younger children due to which it becomes more and more difficult to get a child adopted as he or she grows up," he said. Sivadas said people might prefer younger children to experience the joy of parenting a child from the time it is born or soon after it is born.

"However, we must recognize that adoption is not always done with the altruistic motive of giving the child a better life. As a result children with any kind of challenges including inter-sex children are rarely adopted," she said. She further said "to what extent all this is reflecting changing values is yet to be established and only an in-depth study can resolve this matter with some degree of certainty and authority". Within the country, 3,110 children were adopted while 421 inter-country adoptions took place in 2019-20, according to the data.

Mandira Bedi on adopting a four-year-old and the challenges that come with it

When Raj and I were getting married 20 years ago, I told him that I not only wanted to have a biological child, but also

wanted to offer another child the same opportunities, hope and a new life. Both of us, however, got caught up with our own

careers and that plan was soon forgotten.

In fact, it took a while before I became a mother, in 2011, when my son Veer was born and biologically, I was certain, I

The fun starts when the interview ends. Jim Cockburn has sat through a two-hour inquisition.

There’s been laughter aplenty. There’s also been more self-analysis in an afternoon than this exceptionally successful businessman is used to in a year. From the airy confines of his light, minimalist, Edwardian office, the man who single-handedly transformed the fostering system not just in the UK but around the world has reflected on his improbably successfully career. It began in the West Midlands and saw him make tens of millions of pounds.

Having opened newsagents, the worst thing he ever did, he went on to buy supreme race horses in a bid to win the Derby. Having started with nothing he built a business and bought out his fellow directors for £25 million. He’s lost large sums of money on failed ventures, the inevitable misdirected punt on Chinese imports among them, while generating considerable wealth that has bought him a valuable collection of contemporary art and two stunning homes.

When we get to the end of the interview, Jim’s shoulders relax. “Have you seen the Tipton Monkey?” he asks. I shake my head in apology. I’ve not. “Have you? He’s brilliant.” We’ve spent two hours talking about protecting children from abuse, dozens of business ventures and art. But at the end there’s a swell of relief as he gets back to the banter he loves.

“It’s hilarious,” he says, describing a YouTube video of a Black Country man whose face is converted through the magic of computer software to that of a monkey. “He says he’s been in Dudley Zoo for years but he goes home every night, to Tipton. He loves living in Tipton. He doesn’t stay in the zoo overnight, he just turns up each day to make a few quid from the punters then he goes home.”

- They have never been my parents, says 27-year-old Netra Sommer.

"How lucky are you that you were adopted to Denmark."

It is a phrase that many adoptees hear throughout their lives, especially if they come from poor countries.

Netra Sommer does that.

She was born in Mumbai and spent the first part of her life in an orphanage in a poor Indian area until she was adopted to Denmark.

‘I want to see you once’: Adopted woman’s plea to biological mother as she extends search to Australia

Indian born Italian in search of mum

Source: Navya Dorigatti

A woman who was born in an orphanage in India and was adopted by an Italian couple at the age of two, is searching for her biological mother after 34 years. As part of her quest, she has intensified her search to Australia in the hope of meeting her mother at least once in her lifetime.

UPDATEDUPDATED 1 DAY AGO

When they decided to start a family, Sangeetha and Stefano opted for international adoption, giving them the availability to welcome children with reversible diseases such as cleft lip and palate. This is their story.

“My name is Sangeetha, I was born in India 37 years ago and at five I was adopted by an Italian family. Today I live in the province of Brescia with my husband Stefano and our 7-year-old adopted daughter Jana, born in Kottur, India, just like me. "

Sangeetha has always felt the desire to relive, as a mother, the experience of adoption. When she and Stefano decided to start a family they had no doubts and India seemed to them the logical continuation of their path.

"Our intention was to give willingness to accept children with certain reversible pathologies, those that we felt capable of dealing with, such as cleft lip and palate ."

In accepting this pathology, the experience of Stefano, born with cleft lip, also weighed . A further element that, in some way, closed the circle.

“Dear mum, my biggest dream in this world is to meet you. Only one time in life, just to see you if possible… please come back to me.”

 

In an emotional plea, Navya Dorigatti, has launched an intensive search for her biological mother and is asking her to come forward at least once.

 

Navya was born in Calicut, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, in 1984. However, she was left behind by her biological mother in an orphanage and thereafter was adopted by an Italian couple at the age of two.

 

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26 OCTOBER 2020FrontPageAfrica (Monrovia)

By Lennart Dodoo

Monrovia — Criminal Court 'B' at the Temple of Justice has adjudged Ms. Mariah Luyken guilty of child trafficking. She was found liable of sending the children of two Liberian women to the United States of America without the consent of their mothers, Mathaline Johnson & Elizabeth Johnson.

She was accused along with two alleged accomplices Ernest Urey and Edwin Walk, but the Court ruled that the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to link the alleged cohorts.

Last Friday's ruling ends a two-year case that has been dangling in the courts.