AT THE TABLE Cooking and dining for hours. AD Haagsche Courant joins fellow locals every week for a snack, a drink and a good conversation. This week with Varsha Gerritsen (30) from The Hague, for whom Indian food is not only tasty, she also needs it. Her body responds better to turmeric and lentils than to Dutch dairy.

The smells that haunt Varsha Gerritsen's hall already reveal the type of cuisine she is serving this evening: Indian. A mix of garlic, ginger and slivers of onion is simmering in a pan on a separate burner in her student room in The Hague.

Chili peppers
"Garlic and ginger are kind of my basic ingredients," says 30-year-old Varsha. "I use them for almost every Indian dish. Not that it is the same everywhere in India. That differs per region. But in the In the region where my roots are located, garlic, turmeric, ginger and chili peppers are common. As a result, they are used for many different dishes. You carry something like that with you from your youth."

Varsha came to the Netherlands at the age of 2. A new country with a completely different food culture. “Lots of dairy. Something that Dutch people experience as healthy. But for me this was not always the case. My body is not built for the large amounts of dairy that are used here."

Curry
Varsha couldn't get used to the Dutch way of cooking. It was therefore soon time for her to take up the cooking utensils herself and delve into flavors and products that her body wanted: ginger, garlic and those chopped onions. Her interest in Indian cuisine was sparked.

Tarka dahl

Ingredients for 2 people
• 150 g red split lentils
• 50 g mung dhal
• 500 ml of water
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp grated garlic
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground chili powder
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 onion in cubes
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 tomato in cubes
• 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander

Preparation: Boil the red lentils, mung dahl, ginger, garlic, turmeric, chili powder and salt in the water for 20 minutes, with the lid on the pan. Mash the mixture until it is a creamy soup. Add salt. Put oil in another pan and fry the onion with the mustard seeds and tomato for 2 minutes. Pour the tarka over the lentils and garnish with coriander.

THE BODNARIU CHILDREN ARE COMING HOME!

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Hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets across the globe. Hundreds of thousands of social media posts, mailings, e-mails, phone calls and meetings.

Tens of millions of hits on various domestic and international news articles in the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. Millions of visits to various blogs and news outlets.

Approximately 270,000 visitors/views at Delight in Truth, and many more at Agnus Dei, Popas Pentru Suflet and other blogs.

Grandmother of Madonna's adopted African daughter Mercy begs to see her one final time

22:10, 3 JUN 2016 UPDATED 22:10, 3 JUN 2016

BY DANNY BUCKLAND

Lucy Chekechiwa pleaded for “one last chance” to be with the grandchild she hasn't seen since she was adopted by the singer in 2009

REUTERSPop star Madonna sits with her adopted Malawian child Mercy JamesMadonna with her adopted Malawian child Mercy James

Joint meeting to discuss the progress on deinstitutionalisation

03-06-2016 Eurochild News -

The European Commission and the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care met on 1 June in Brussels

A joint meeting of the European Commission (EC) and the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (EEG)- of which Eurochild is a member- was held on 1 June in Brussels. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the progress on deinstitutionalisation in several Member States through the exchange of positions between representatives of state institutions, civil society and the European Commission.

The situation in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic was discussed. Eurochild took part in the meeting and its members from Bulgaria represented the views of civil society – the National Network for Children was represented by Vania Kaneva, Policy and Advocacy Adviser at For Our Children Foundation. Vania presented a joint position of the NNC and the coalition "Childhood 2025" on the progress on deinstitutionalisation of children in the country. The position describes the key successes that were achieved during the first stage of the process (2010-15) and the key challenges that emerged during this period, along with recommendations to address them.

Museveni assents to children’s Bill

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President Museveni

President Museveni

By LILIAN NAMEGEMBE

Police hand over 26 boxes of secret files as Kincora abuse investigation opens

Panel told they will have to consider claims of State-sponsored child prostitution

By Lesley-Anne McKeown

PUBLISHED

01/06/2016SHARE

Adopciones ILEGALES en el PERÚ (años oscuros en las adopciones peruanas)

10

JUN

Hace 26 años en el Perú, se realizaron más de 4.000 adopciones internacionales en tan solo 4 años, de las cuales se sospechan que más de la mitad fueron ilegales. Entre los años 1989 y 1991 se pusieron al descubierto una de las redes más oscuras de la trama de tráfico de menores en el Perú. 30 Jueces cómplices con abogados de reconocidos bufetes de Lima capital, realizaron más de 800 adopciones internacionales, en la que se ofrecían niños de 0 a 3 años por 10.000 dólares, según la demanda de las familias extranjeras que venían atraídos como moscas a la miel desde los EEUU, Canadá, Italia, Francia, etc. para acceder a uno de estos menores, los niños se ofrecían por catálogo en los salones de uno de los lujoso hoteles de la época el “Apart Hotel Suite Service”. Esta mafia contaba con la complicidad de clínicas privadas, albergues infantiles de ONG americanas y europeas. Donde captaban a mujeres jóvenes embarazadas con problemas económicos para luego hacerse con sus recién nacidos, niños robados a sus madres en las inmediaciones de los mercados de la capital peruana, como en el interior del país.

Luego en el año 1992 el abogado norteamericano James Patrick Hamel Gagel, fue detenido como presunto cabecilla de una red especializada en la compraventa de 600 niños peruanos para adopción internacional en la que cobran entre 15.000 y 20.000 dólares, dicho abogado fue puesto en libertad como el resto de sus cómplices.

Abstract:

For the full published version, please see: International Journal of Children's Rights, Volume 24, Issue 2, 2016, pp 378-407

There are an estimated eight million children residing in orphanages, or residential care facilities, globally and it is estimated that four out of five of these children are not orphans. It is well documented that many of these children are taken from their families by recruiters and sold into orphanages for the purpose of profit. These children are known as 'paper orphans'. There is no formal legal academic research available on how international law regards this displacement from family and construction as an orphan. This article provides a legal account of the movement of the children from the family to the orphanage, and considers whether this movement can be categorised as child trafficking under international law. The major point of contention as to whether paper orphans are considered trafficked is whether they experience a form of exploitation that is included in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. This article examines the forms of exploitation that have been documented as being experienced by paper orphans and argues that the process of paper orphaning meets the current interpretation of the definition of trafficking.

NB This is a pre-peer reviewed version of this paper as submitted to the International Journal of Children's Rights. For the full published version, please see: International Journal of Children's Rights, Volume 24, Issue 2, 2016, pp378-407

Research Interests: Human Trafficking, Intercountry Adoption, Child Trafficking, and Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Our oldest son, Samuel (10), was five weeks old when we picked him up from Chicago. Last summer we went back to his hometown for the first time. Very exciting, how would it go? There was a meeting with his birth mother and a goodbye. It went well, it turned out to be a dream trip.

More than ten years ago, we were preparing for an open adoption, where we would keep in touch with the biological mother of our child. Every year we sent photos and letters to Samuel's birth mother in the US. No response, unfortunately. When we asked about it, Samuel replied that he would like to meet her.

facebook

We have told Samuel from infancy that he was born of different parents, and that through adoption he became our child forever. Samuel is brown. My husband, our two youngest children and I are light pink-beige. People often ask, “Are those your kids?” “Yes”, I smile pityingly. “All three?” “Yes, all three.”

We tried to teach Samuel about African-American culture, but we didn't know his birth mother. In the summer of 2010 we found her on Facebook. We asked through the adoption agency if she wanted to contact us. She replied, "I think about you daily, I love you, I will think about it, thank you, you are a blessing in disguise . " After a few months, Samuel said disappointed: "She must think very long."

DOUBLE SUBSIDIARITY PRINCIPLE AND THE RIGHT TO IDENTITY

Our Position Paper ‘Double Subsidiarity Principle and the Right to Identity’ is essential to our Research Paper ‘Raising Awareness about False Birth Registration Practices, known as The Brazil Baby Affair’. Originally it was a textbox part of our contribution to ISS’ handbook ‘Responding to Illegal Adoptions’.

However, International Social Services (ISS) has rejected the textbox, declined it for publication and thereby de facto censored our Position Paper ‘Double Subsidiarity Principle and the Right to Identity’.

Before publication, ISS refused to provide any written explanation on this matter. Subsequently, the original reference to our Position Paper, which was left after ISS’ censorship, was removed from our Research Paper, without authorization, and banned to a footnote.

After publication, ISS has been informed that we have publicly shared our concerns regarding their controversial institutional stance – forming the reason for their censoring – disregarding the subsidiarity principle of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in Intercountry Adoption (ICA) cases.