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Russia and the United States end adoption dispute

Russia and the United States end adoption dispute

Topic: Talks on bilateral child adoption agreement

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

© AFP/ Fabrice Coffrini11:38 15/07/2011RIA Novosti commentator Olga Barykova

After long deliberations, Russia and the United States have finally agreed on new terms for child adoption. According to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, only accredited agencies will be allowed to administer the adoption of Russian children by American families, and a single federal body will be established to monitor the process in the United States. The document was signed late Wednesday, Moscow time. Experts praise the agreement but are reluctant to vouch for its results until they are convinced of the continuous monitoring of adoptive families by American social services agencies.

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Interlandelijke
adoptie Haïti: opvolging na aardbeving 2010


14 juli 2011


De
aardbeving in Haïti in januari 2010 heeft gevolgen gehad voor de interlandelijke
adopties uit dat land. Om de situatie op te volgen werd in juni ll. een
driedaagse conferentie georganiseerd in Haïti met de centrale
adoptie-autoriteiten uit Duitsland, Canada, Quebec, USA, Frankrijk, Italië,
Nederland en Zwitserland. De Vlaamse adoptieambtenaar heeft zich hierbij
aangesloten.



Het persbericht hieronder geeft het standpunt weer van de deelnemers aan deze
driedaagse conferentie. De ‘Groep van Montréal’ verwijst naar de plaats
Montréal, waar voordien reeds een beperkter aantal centrale autoriteiten zijn
samengekomen om de situatie in Haïti aangaande interlandelijke adoptie te
bespreken.


Voor Vlaanderen betekent dit dat het herstarten van de adoptiesamenwerking
met Haïti afhankelijk blijft van de resultaten die in de komende maanden zullen
geboekt worden om het belang van het kind in interlandelijke adoptie vanuit
Haïti te waarborgen. De Haïtiaanse autoriteiten zijn in grote mate bereid om
hieraan mee te werken.


De VCA volgt dit verder op en informeert via de website over alle nieuwe
ontwikkelingen in dit verband.





Conferentie van de Groep van Montréal over interlandelijke adoptie in
Haïti


Port au Prince 22-24 juni 2011 - Persmededeling


Op initiatief van Quebec en Frankrijk werd van 22 tot 24 juni 2011 in Port au
Prince een conferentie gehouden van de “Groep van Montréal” waarop negen
centrale autoriteiten vertegenwoordigd waren (Duitsland, de Vlaamse Gemeenschap
van België, de federale autoriteit van Canada, de Verenigde Staten, Frankrijk,
Italië, Nederland, Quebec en Zwitserland), de Spaanse ambassade, de
vertegenwoordiging van UNICEF in Haïti, het Permanent Bureau van de Conventie
van Den Haag en de centrale autoriteit van Chili. Overheidsautoriteiten en
parlementairen van de Haitiaanse Republiek en het IBESR, - de Haitiaanse
adoptieautoriteit -, waren eveneens aanwezig.


De Montréal Groep herbevestigde zijn gehechtheid aan de principes van de
Haagse conventie van 1993 inzake de interlandelijke samenwerking en de
bescherming van kinderen op het gebied van interlandelijke adoptie.


Na de bijeenkomst van de Montréal Groep van december 2010, waar de grote
lijnen werden uitgezet voor een actieplan met het oog op ratificatie van de
Haagse conventie, was de ondertekening van deze conventie door Haïti op 2 maart
2011 een sterk, door de internationale gemeenschap verwacht, signaal van de wil
van de Haïtiaanse autoriteiten om de adoptieprocedures veiliger te maken.


President Martelly hield er aan om persoonlijk een boodschap aan de Montréal
Groep te brengen.


Hij engageerde zich sterk om het ratificatieproces van de Haagse Conventie te
voltooien binnen de duur van zijn mandaat, om de adoptiewet op de parlementaire
agenda te zetten met van zodra mogelijk een onderzoek door de senaat en
eventueel een tweede lezing door de kamer van afgevaardigden, en om, in
afwachting van de stemming van de wet, een presidentieel besluit te nemen dat de
verplichting zal opleggen dat elke adoptieaanvraag via een erkende dienst moet
verlopen.


Het staatshoofd vervolgde “zo zullen we, in vertrouwen en in volledige
transparantie, de weg en de middelen kunnen vrijmaken voor een hervatting van de
interlandelijke adoptie in Haïti. Dit is mijn diepste wens in het belang van de
kinderen en met respect voor hun meest fundamentele rechten.


President Martelly gaf tevens aan dat hij in dit verband rekende op “ de
steun en de medewerking van de internationale gemeenschap en in het bijzonder
van de landen die kinderen opnemen”


De voorzitter van de Kamer van afgevaardigden, de heer Saurel Jacinthe,
verzekerde de Montréal Groep eveneens van zijn wil om het onderzoek van het
wetsontwerp op de wetgevende agenda te zetten en betuigde zijn steun aan de
evolutie van de Haïtiaanse wet naar een grotere overeenstemming met de
internationale normen.


De deelnemers aan de conferentie verwelkomen de bereidheid van de hoogste
autoriteiten van het land om de Republiek van Haïti resoluut te engageren in het
voordeel van de bescherming van kinderen en om zich op het vlak van adoptie te
richten naar de principes van de Haagse conventie.


De Montréal Groep zal, in overeenstemming met het sinds december 2010
ontwikkelde actieplan, verder samenwerken met de Haïtiaanse regering om
procedures in te stellen, conform de Haagse conventie, die eventueel zullen
toelaten om de interlandelijke adoptie in dit land te hervatten.

Live-ins are not eligible to adopt kidsJ

Live-ins are not eligible to adopt kidsJul 12, 2011, 06.47am IST TNN[ Swati Deshpande ] MUMBAI: Live-in couples desirous of adopting children have no hope on this front any more. The existing adoption guidelines, which were silent on the issue, have been amended to specifically bar them from adoption. “Couples in a live-in relationship are not eligible to adopt a child,” says the concerned rule unequivocally. The new rules, recently notified by the ministry of women and child development, focus mainly on “the source of the child” (abandoned, orphaned or surrendered), placement priority and ethical issues. While live-in couples have been barred, unmarried individuals will continue to be allowed to adopt, while married couples “may” have to show only “two years of stable marital relationship” instead of the earlier five years. “The adoption rules have come into effect. They have been gazetted,“ said the government lawyer. The guidelines ease some provisions, seek to fast-track adoption of “children with special needs” and promote domestic adoptions by enforcing an 80:20 rule. The rule will require an adoption agency in India to place only 20% of its available children for inter-country adoptions as against the existing norm of 50-50. Children with special needs however are not counted in the 20%. To speed up adoption procedures, there is a two-month deadline. To check the plight of children in failed foreign adoptions—which in recent years has seen a rise—the rules now require foreign adoption agencies to shell out $5,000 before repatriating a child after court orders are passed for such repatriation. A whole section is devoted to repatriation under the guidelines. The money has to be deposited with a public sector bank and the documents will be in the custody of the state government. The child will get the money on becoming a major. Where the old guidelines were silent on the rights of adopted children seeking information on their biological parents, the new rules specifically address such rights. Section 52 is titled ‘Roots search’ and it recognizes this right as stemming from the UN convention. Adoption Agencies will now have to “facilitate an adopted child's roots search, but will keep in mind his or her age and maturity.” The guidelines, however, ban roots search by a “third party.” The provisions also clarify that personal information cannot be revealed “if the biological parent/s specifically requested anonymity while surrendering the child”. The new rules, titled the Guidelines Governing Adoption of Children, 2011, have relied on the Juvenile Justice Act, two international conventions—The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Inter-Country Adoption, 1993, and the 1989 UN Convention on Rights of the Child as well as the findings of the 1984 landmark Supreme Court judgment on adoption in Laxmikant Pandey vs Government of India. Central government advocate Vinod Joshi presented the guidelines before the Bombay HC on Monday. The HC bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi was hearing a petition filed by the Pune-based Advait Foundation and another NGO that raised several “disturbing” issues concerning the adoption of children from and in India. The lawyer for the NGO, Pradeep Havnur, has sought two weeks’ time to study the new guidelines. He said that there appeared to be several provisions in the new norms that contravened the Supreme Court ruling.”

Advocate Jamshed Mistry, who represented a foreign adoptee, Arun Dhole, in the apex court in his search for his biological mother's identity, said, “Including the concept of roots search is laudable—however, the guidelines also impose severe restrictions which are tantamount to curbing the right it seeks to give.” Email this article to a Friend More Mumbai

i

Adoption is back in business at home

Adoption is back in business at home

Sunday, July 10, 2011, 13:11

Rashi Aditi Ghosh/ Zee Research Group

Adoption is back in business in India. The adoption levels within the country more than doubled in the last four years. In contrast, adoption of kids born in India abroad has registered a sharp fall. But nobody is losing sleep over that.

According to the latest data made available by the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), under the ministry of women and child development, domestic adoption levels increased from 2409 in 2006 to 5693 in 2010. This is by far the best adoption level with the lowest being 1852 recorded in 2009.

Courts shine light on Spain's child-trade shame

Courts shine light on Spain's child-trade shame

Published Date: 10 July 2011

By Raphael Minder

in Seville

AT THE BEHEST of grieving parents, Spanish judges are investigating hundreds of complaints that infants were abducted and sold for adoption over a 40-year period.

A trafficker remains scot-free

A trafficker remains scot-free

JUL 08 -
It was in April this year when three worried adults in Humla
submitted a letter of appeal to the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), a
statutory body under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social
Welfare.



Humble words requested for help in repatriating girl
children from Tamil Nadu, India- “…a place wherefrom it is impossible to learn
of their well being and condition…and where our children have expressed over the
telephone their inability to continue staying”-the letter states in
Nepali.



Guardians Dhan Maya Lama, Saraswati Lama and Krishna Lama
(names changed) of Humla had entrusted the responsibility of their children to a
local politician in the year 2004, convinced of his promises to educate them in
a boarding school in Kathmandu, away from the conflict-ridden place that Humla
was in those years. But in the year 2006, the parents came to learn that their
children had been taken all the way down to Tamil Nadu, and they were not even
informed about it. “When he first took them, we gave him money for taking our
children to a better place. But it has been seven years now and he refuses to
bring them back to us,” said Dhan Maya over the telephone from
Humla.



Claimed by many villagers in Humla, such a practice—of
entrusting one’s child into the hands of people with authority, along with sums
of money—has been a resort for many parents. Humli parents often believe these
persons with authority to give their children a better future. The families of
Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna followed suit and their children were taken
away, later enrolled at the Michael Job Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu—a
Christian organisation that claims to house and provide education to orphan
girls.



About four years ago, another Humli parent Dhiren Lama
(name changed) along with five friends hunted down the person who had taken
their children away. UML member Dal Bahadur Phadera was coerced by the group to
bring their children back. Phadera had succumbed then, taking the group of
guardians with him to the Michael Job Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. “We had
to spend so much money to finally track him down, but even then he tried to
assuage us by saying, ‘Let me celebrate Tihar first, and then I shall get your
children’,” recalls Dhiren. Dhiren and his friends invested significantly in
making their way from Humla, to Kathmandu and Gorakhpur, en route to Tamil Nadu.
But unlike him, Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna, have yet to gather finances
and the courage to make Phadera bring their children back.



At the
Michael Job Centre, Dhiren learned that Phadera was rewarded with money by the
centre for bringing to it girl children. Attempts to contact the centre for
corroborations, however, were unsuccessful as phone calls were not answered. The
centre itself claims to have a mission of saving orphaned girls of Christian
martyrs, after the principal Dr. P.P Job’s own son, Michael, was run down with a
car—as the website claims—by radical Hindus of India. Also accepting orphans of
any other religion, it has had a record of receiving girls from Nepal. But its
reputation would best be defined as ambiguous for a news report titled ‘Mother
seeks return of her daughter’ (Apr. 30 2010) from the Manipur Mail informs of 20
Manipuri girls from Churachandpur district to have been “beaten to bleeding” and
confined all days inside the Michael Job campus. Could this be a reason why the
children express their inability to stay in the centre, as stated in the
letter?



Aside from this, Dhiren’s niece, who was brought back
with 12 other girls talked of receiving an education at the centre in Tamil Nadu
and the place appeared to be good for children in Dhiren’s eyes too, letting one
believe that such a case would be hard to define as trafficking. But says
Dhiren: “He (Phadera) is not a good man. I had given him Rs. 12,000 when I
handed my niece over to him and a separate Rs. 3,000 to my niece for her
personal expense. But Phadera snatched the money off her
hands.”



Dhiren's grit and courage had him get his niece back by
himself. But in lacking such daring, what Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna
should have done is filed a First Information Report (FIR) with the local
police, enabling rescue organisations in India to enter and investigate the
alleged institute where their children are kept. But uninformed of these
criminal justice procedures, and unsure of its advice from local NGOs and INGOs,
Dhan Maya went back to Phadera instead to consult the matter. “He was extremely
angry when I talked to him about this,” recalls Dhan maya, who told the Post of
Phadera’s bullying ways whenever she gathered her voice to ask of her child.
“The school is good, don’t file the report,” Phadera would tell her and end the
conversation. Corroborations with officers of a local NGO in Humla that works
closely with Humli families to bring back their lost children confirm the
same.



Dal Bahadur Phadera, known to anti-trafficking
organisations in Kathmandu as ‘DB’, is known to exert considerable fear and
influence among civilians in Humla. He is a martial arts practitioner, say some
and “someone who follows you around if you come in his way” others.  But the man
and his notoriety are an open secret among Humlis, child rights officers and
administrators in government and non-government bodies, who take his name easily
when discussed with about child trafficking. A child rights officer of the
District Child Welfare Board claims Phadera to “not have stopped trafficking
entirely” whereas an officer at the Central Child Welfare Board acknowledges his
reputation as a trafficker.



But aside from these sources,
Phadera’s history in trafficking has been previously reported in Saroj
Adhikari’s article ‘Bal Balika ko Rahasmaya Osaar Pasaar’ in the July 2006 issue
of Nepal magazine. Adhikari reports the stark discrepancy between the number of
children registered in a dozen schools in the Valley where Phadera claims to
have enrolled them, and the number actually present. “Details given by Dal
Phadera state 32 minors to have been enrolled in Pushpanjali Boarding School in
Taukhel, but the school’s teacher Sharada Lamichhane of the Accounts Department
claims 14 of them to be absent,” he writes.



Additional proof of
Phadera’s engagement in trafficking children comes from a group of children
rescued by the non-profit organisation Next Generation Nepal. Currently staying
at their children’s home in Balkot, 16-year-old Sravan Puri (name changed) gives
a heart-rending testimony of leaving home for Kathmandu when he was eight, being
taken in custody by Dal Phadera, and eventually forced to beg in the streets.
Similar testimonies have come from Sravan’s friends who now in their late teens,
were all victims of Phadera’s guile. “DB used to bring volunteers to the
orphanage in Mathatirtha, but he would take away all the goodies and stationary
items they would bring for us,” he shares of his days in the Mathatirtha
orphanage run under Phadera’s organisation Himali Anath Bal Bikas Kendra (Himali
Orphan Child Development Centre).  Both the orphanage and the organisation
closed down in the year 2006 after the orphanage was discovered to have been run
illegally.



Put into custody for three days by the Nepal Police in
the same year, Phadera was released by the sheer weight of his political
influence, reports Adhikari, now with the Kantipur Daily. Current attempts to
contact the Humla police via telephone to inquire on following up with this case
were unsuccessful, whereas the Kathmandu police were not ready with a comment at
the time of publication.



In conversation with the Post, Phadera
claimed of not taking any money from parents in Humla. “I do not know who Dhiren
is, besides, when members of the UCPN (Maoist) party kidnapped me on charges of
several complaints of trafficking, it was done with political motives and for
character assassination,” he added, regarding an accusation by members of UCPN
(Maoist) of Humla in the year 2006-7. Interestingly, in a statement denying
charges from the UCPN (Maoist), Phadera quotes the name of a certain ‘Chakkra
Shahi’ as a trafficker, who is also named by a villager in the documentary Paper
Orphans produced by the Swiss humanitarian organisation Terre Des Hommes, to
have carried out similar activities of deceiving Humli parents and taking
children away.



The Human Trafficking and Transportation Control
Act (2007) and Regulation (2008)— as mentioned in the 2011 Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) report issued by the US Government in June this year—subjects
persons guilty of trafficking to 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment. Phadera has not
been subject to any such punishment.



This issue of families being
deceived by traffickers in the Karnali region has been addressed for the first
time in the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. The report also addresses
the impunity enjoyed by politically-connected perpetrators and the negative
effect it has had in the number of trafficking cases filed with the police. But
slow justice and a long wait before reunification remains the reality of most
families, who in their circumstances have unwittingly lost their
children.



Dhan Maya, Saraswati and Krishna wait for what
assistance can come from their local NGO and the DCWB in response to their
letter of appeal. Says the NGO officer who has been contacted by the CCWB for
coordination: “We have asked for institutional and strategic help in our letter
in response to the CCWB, but we have yet to send it.”


Posted on:
2011-07-21 02:58












‘Win a baby’! Fertility charity launches new IVF lottery

‘Win a baby’! Fertility charity launches new IVF lottery

Britain’s first IVF lottery is set to launch later this month giving players the chance to win a baby, but critics have branded the contest as ‘exploitative’.

The controversial lottery, which has now been granted a licence by the Gambling Commission, will see players spending £20 on each ticket.

The contest will be open to anyone, including single people, homosexuals and elderly players.

Unacceptable

Each month a winner will receive £25,000 worth of tailor-made fertility treatments. They may even be offered donor eggs or a surrogate mother.

The contentious lottery is going to be run by To Hatch, a charity which offers fertility advice to couples seeking IVF.

But Josephine Quintavalle, from the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, warned that “turning the process of reproduction into a buy-your-ticket lottery, is absolutely unacceptable and quite possibly breaks European Law on the commercialisation of human tissue.

“By all accounts, this lottery offers not just a chance to have IVF treatment but also promises access to surrogate wombs, spare embryos, egg and sperm donors.

Exploitative

“It is in this area where an immediate investigation should be demanded. It is surely not legal to pay £20 to have access to another woman’s womb?”

Dr Gillian Lockwood, director of Midland Fertility Service, said: “This sounds like a rather exploitative way of drawing attention to their website.”

She added: “People should be spending their £20 on good nutrition if they are having problems conceiving, not a ticket for this lottery.”

Inappropriate

And a statement from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said that it was “strongly of the view that using IVF as a ‘prize’ in a lottery is wrong and entirely inappropriate”.

If the lottery proves popular it could take place once a fortnight

However Camille Strachan, the founder of To Hatch, said: “We will offer struggling couples a completely tailor-made service. We hope the To Hatch Lottery can ease the burden on the NHS and reduce stress slightly on some of those who are struggling.”

Earlier this year an Oxford University ethicist argued that human embryos should be screened for their potential intelligence and only the smartest allowed to live.

Government to appoint adoption tsar

Government to appoint adoption tsar

 

Monday, 4 July 2011

Martin Narey is to be the Government's adoption tsar

Martin Narey is to be the Government's adoption tsar

The Government is to appoint its first adoption tsar to try to cut the number of children stuck in the care system waiting to find a family.

Martin Narey, the former head of the Prison Service and chief executive of children's charity Barnardo's, is set to be the first Ministerial Adviser on Adoption, reported The Times.

He is expected to be asked to make recommendations on how the process of adoption can be improved and to ensure that social workers take a positive approach to adoption as an option for children in care.

Only 3,200 children were adopted from care last year, and the average time between a child being removed from its natural parents and being adopted has increased to two years and seven months, said The Times, which has been campaigning for a change in attitudes to adoption.

The new adviser will report to Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was himself adopted as a young child.

The Department for Education said that no appointment had yet been



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/government-to-appoint-adoption-tsar-16019147.html#ixzz1RAsR4uRA

Bhasin's Preet Mandir entry: Inquiry ordered

Bhasin's Preet Mandir entry: Inquiry ordered

By: Kaumudi Gurjar    
 
 
 
 
 
 

Women and Child Development Department takes note of court order violation by orphanage's former managing trustee, asks District Women and Child Officer to submit report on incident

After a MiD DAY sting operation exposed the violation of a court order by Preet Mandir's former managing trustee J S Bhasin, the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department yesterday took serious note of the matter and ordered an inquiry. Bhasin was found inside the adoption home's office in spite of a special CBI court having granted him bail on the condition that he keep off the premises. MiD DAY carried the report yesterday (What are you doing in Preet Mandir, Mr Bhasin) with photographic evidence of Bhasin's presence in the adoption home's office.


The MiD DAY report yesterday on the sting operation that found J S 
Bhasin flipping through office files in the Preet madir office in East Street, 
Camp

Ordering an inquiry into this matter, the WCD directed the District Women and Child Officer to submit a report on it. MiD DAY spoke to H B Rathod, Deputy Commissioner of WCD, who said, "We have taken serious note of the fact that former managing trustee was present in the adoption home's office on Wednesday despite the fact that the special CBI court has restrained him from interfering and entering the Preet Mandir premises."

Rathod said the inquiry into this violation would be conducted by the District Women and Child Officer. "We have asked for a report to be submitted on this," Rathod said. CBI Public Prosecutor Advocate Vivek Saxena said, "The matter will be brought to the notice of our senior officers and to the investigation officer who is handling this case and the course of action will be decided by them." Anjali Pawar, director, Sakhee, who had filed the criminal writ petition in the Bombay High Court in 2007 demanding an investigation into illegal adoption practices at Preet Mandir, said, "This is very shocking.

It is a violation of the court order and we will approach the special CBI court on this matter. We are concerned about the future of the children at Preet Mandir and fear that Bhasin might have tried to manipulate the documents related to children at the orphanage.