in The International Journal of Children's Rights

Author: Sheila Varadan 1

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Online Publication Date: 10 May 2019

Volume/Issue: Volume 27: Issue 2

Children are not merchandise

Last week there was plenty of news about the fraudulent practices in adoptions from Ethiopia, which will also be the subject of a parliamentary committee this week. More and more stories are being published about malpractice in adoptions. Time to ask us whether international adoption is a good child protection measure.

Danger of exploiting global inequalities

At the end of April we - academics and professionals working on the topic of adoption from different perspectives - took the initiative to organize a symposium entitled "Intercountry Adoption: How should it go on?" Which focused on this question. The aim of this symposium was to make socio-scientific - anthropological, sociological, historical, legal and ethical-philosophical - insights into adoption more widely known. In Flanders, adoption has until now mainly been studied from a psychological and pedagogical perspective.

Such research yields valuable insights into the interactions within adoptive families, but social science research has the characteristic that it studies transnational adoption as a social and social phenomenon, and therefore encounters faster the unequal global power relationships and socio-economic inequalities underlying these. practice.

The eight-day-old infant who had gone missing from government general hospital in Sangareddy on Tuesday was traced by the police in Yellareddy of Kamareddy. According to the police, a couple, Bangari Santosh and Shoba whose baby died in Niloufer hospital in Hyderabad had inquired for a baby at Sangareddy hospital for adoption. Later, they stole the baby from Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) at Mother and Child Care Centre (MCCH). The police traced the couple in Kamareddy and brought them to Sangareddy to hand over the baby to the parents. The police later took the couple into custody.

Most of the developing countries in the third world receive almost unlimited assistance for local social development from international non-government organizations (NGO). Sri Lanka is one among those recipients scattered in the third world. Most of these NGOO are ready and willing to assist the developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and even in the developed countries in the rest of the world. It is rarely that we come across an international NGO organized to assist only a particular developing country. Reference here is made to an international NGO in Belgium named ADOPTIE SRI LANKA BELGIUM VZW. The very name of the organization indicates that it was established particularly to assist Sri Lanka. This also is the only foreign NGO that publishes a newspaper named AYUBOWAN in their local language.   

In 1989 over three decades ago this NGO was introduced to Sri Lanka by a Belgium tour guide organizer named Gaston Dillen who used to visit Sri Lanka once or twice a year with a group of tourists. He was a devoted social worker. The emergence of “Adoptie Sri Lanka Belgium VZW” was connected with a project to donate free spectacles organized by Mr. Gaston Dillen. In the year of 1989 he arranged to distribute over 22000 new and used pairs of spectacles free of charge, after examination of the eye sight of the recipients. Under the supervision of the Department of Probation and child care a scheme was formed called Sevena Sarana Foster Parents Scheme under which nearly 3000 destitute children received financial adoption. An innumerable number of school children in various areas received monthly scholarship assistance from Adoptie Sri Lanka. This includes the children in many pre-schools all over the country.

Pre-schools with new buildings, fully equipped playgrounds and libraries were established in Pamunuwa, Vana Mee Kanda in Mirigama, Thunthalawa in Eheliyagoda and in Kandy.   

The girls’ home in Mattegoda in Colombo district named “Sinha Salsevana Girls’ Home” was opened in July 1996. Several girls from this home got married recently. By 2018 there were 27 girls being looked after in this home.   

Some remote underdeveloped villages were selected for development by supplying basic social needs and infrastructure. One such village is Vana Mee Kanda in Mirigama area. New houses and toilets were built for 28 families with two drinking water scheme. A new building was constructed for a pre-school with fully equipped playground. There are 42 students in the pre-school and 128 students in the scholarship scheme. Food-clothing- books and equipment are supplied for the children in the pre-school. A similar program was launched in a village called Thunthalawa in Eheliyagoda area with same benefits and facilities. There are 18 students in this pre-school and 125 students are receiving scholarship facilities.   

CB-CID, on Tuesday, took into custody the three suspects arrested in connection with the child adoption racket case.

NAMAKKAL: CB-CID, on Tuesday, took into custody the three suspects arrested in connection with the child adoption racket case. Led by DSP Krishnan, the CB-CID officials moved the district court on Tuesday and sought the custody of the retired assistant nurse, a middleman and an ambulance driver, who had all been lodged in Salem Central Prison.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) M Karunanidhi allowed two-day custody of the retired nurse and three-day custody of the other two. CB-CID officials were directed to produce the suspects in court on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

According to Kerala State Child Rights Commission, of the total 737 children in government-run child care institutions in the state, 300 had returned to their homes as part of the summer vacation.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With institutional care hindering the normal growth and healthy psychological development of children, the state government is mulling deinstitutionalisation. It will be the District Child Welfare Committees which will spearhead the deinstitutionalising efforts.

The DCWC while giving priority for reuniting children with their families and looking for alternative care, including foster care and adoption, has also been directed to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of children in residential care. The decision was taken during the one-day workshop on ‘A Road Map for Child Protection in Kerala’ at the Government Guest House, Thycaud, on Tuesday.

“Across the world, efforts are on to reduce the number of children in institutional care. The prime reason for the same is the impact of institutionalisation on children. Also, the statistics available with us shows that a majority of the children in residential care could, in turn, be reunited with their families,” said C J Antony, member, Kerala State Child Rights Commission.

According to him, of the total 737 children in government-run child care institutions in the state, 300 had returned to their homes as part of the summer vacation.

Report on the conference "Searching for Origin in Biographical Work"

This year's 19th Annual Meeting of the BAG ADOPTION and INPFLEGE on the weekend in Frankfurt offered four interesting lectures on the topic "Searching for Origin in Biography Work":

Future grows from origin - The biographical appropriation of adoption history

Dr. Peter G. Kühn, www.adoptionsforschung.de

How do youth welfare offices and adoption agencies support the root searches of the children they have previously taught?

Marco Griffini confirmed to the presidency: "We leave behind the most difficult three-year period"

With new enthusiasm, with a strategic plan in three points and after the most difficult three-year period in its history, the activity of Ai.Bi. - Amici dei Bambini. Once the previous three-year mandate expired, the Governing Council of the organization was renewed, with its main institutional headquarters in San Giuliano Milanese. The shareholders' meeting resolved its composition in the past few days, electing the five members.

Marco Griffini was reconfirmed as president, Cristina Riccardi, former president of the AiBi Foundation, was elected vice president as general secretary Ermes Carretta, former president of the AIBC Social Cooperative, and further members were Giuseppe Salomoni and don Massimiliano Sabbadini , respectively the next president and spiritual adviser of "La Pietra Scartata", the Association of the faithful made up of adoptive and foster families of abandoned minors.

In addition, the constitution was approved, in view of the forthcoming revision of the statute, which must be approved within the deadlines set by the reform of the Third Sector Code, of a "National Council of Ai.Bi." composed of all the regional coordinators of the association .

"The assembly - explains the president Marco Griffini - wished to express heartfelt thanks to the outgoing Board of Directors, which had to face one of the most difficult, perhaps the most difficult, periods of the association's more than thirty-year life, culminating in the crazy attack of the former CAI vice president Silvia della Monica supported by the Renzi government and by the weekly L'Espresso against the very idea of ??international adoption. The tireless work and the tenacious resistance of the members of the Governing Council, the regional coordinators and all the collaborators of the association, as well as the unshakable trust and support of the hundreds of families have allowed Ai.Bi. not only to be able to overcome the numerous obstacles ... but above all to be able to trace the guidelines of a strategy, which the new leaders will have to implement, during their mandate, to relaunch the whole sector of the reception of those who are in family difficulties ”.

Draft – to be agreed at the International Conference on Children's Participation in Decision-Making and Policy-Making at European Union level, on 6-7 May 2019, Bucharest

Children from all over the European Union have gathered in Bucharest to present their commitment and to call on the leaders of EU Member States and of the European Union to make child participation a priority and a reality.

We are dreaming of a European Community that enables and encourages the involvement of children in decision-making. Why? Because we want to be consulted on issues that influence our lives directly, both as citizens of our respective countries and as Europeans. Because we are a significant part of Europe’s population and we are writing our own story through marches, vocalization, and representation. Because our opinions, feelings and voices are forming now and we belong to the present just like the seed of the plant in the spring, before the flower blooms. We want to live in a Europe that requires and values our involvement in the decision-making process.

THE CONTEXT

Thirty years have passed since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by all EU countries. Under Article 12, it stipulates the right of all children to be heard and have their views given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity.