Danish Korean adoptee fights for right to know origin
By Antonia Giordano
An overseas Korean adoptee from Denmark has filed a lawsuit for information disclosure against the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC) in order to receive information on her biological family. With the help of the Adoptees' Right to Know Legal Representatives (LAAR) and the Danish Korean Truth Finding Group (DKRG), a press conference was held for the plaintiff, who is currently in Denmark, at the Seoul Administrative Court in southern Seoul's Seocho District on July 12, before the initial court date.
The NCRC was originally established as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare to ensure that policies and actions were aligned to protect children's welfare. This agency is responsible for adoption and post-adoption services for international and domestic adoptees. One of its key roles is to advocate for and ensure adoptees' right to know their self-identifying information, including about their birth family.
According to the lawsuit and the LAAR, an adoptee advocacy group, the plaintiff originally filed a request for the information in 2021 with Korea Social Service, the agency that handled her adoption. However, the only information the organization gave was the surname "Lee" and that the birth father had passed away. The information gave no help in resolving Lee's identity; there are over 7.3 million Lees in Korea, accounting for 14.7 percent of the entire population.
In 2022, Lee again filed a request for the information including birth family — this time, however, with the NCRC. Lee was dismayed to receive the same information as her previous search. The NCRC cannot go beyond certain privacy laws, and birth parents can refuse to disclose information.
A special act that was established in 2012, Article 36 of the Special Adoption Act of Korea, contains a provision that states that if the biological parents are deceased, the adoption agency must disclose information upon the request of the adoptee regardless of the consent of the biological parents. Although Lee had made requests twice and the birth father was known to be deceased, the NCRC still refused to share the information with her.
According to the lawsuit, Lee is seeking to overturn the refusal to disclose the information, which she says must be shared under the Special Adoption Act of Korea.
This could be a landmark case that can help strengthen the enforcement of these laws and help guarantee adoptees' "right to know." The NCRC will be expected to provide information as to why it was decided to not disclose the information to the plaintiff.
There isn't anything especially unusual about this case or the various other adoptee cases seeking such information. However, only in the past few years have these cases been effective in bringing to light the issue of transparency in international adoption. Adoptees are seeking information not just to understand their circumstances, but also there have been many instances where families have wanted to be reunited, information has been falsified, abuse has been reported in the adopted families' homes and other missteps that adoptees have discovered in their records or in trying to obtain the information they so desperately seek.
The next court hearing is on Sept. 12, and it is expected the trial will take a long time to reach a verdict.
Even if the plaintiff is successful, it will still be an uphill battle for many adoptees. Currently, adoptees have the possibility of accessing information only in extreme cases of health or if a deceased birth parent has passed away. However, the current law does not extend these abilities to other adoptees.
There have been hundreds of adoption cases that have been suspected or discovered to contain misinformation and even fabrications in the paperwork. So adoptees are seeking not just to know their roots but also whether the information presented to them is verifiably true.
"This lawsuit is not just about an angry adoptee who can't find their 'mom and dad.' It's a fundamental question about the adoptees' right to know their identity. It's not Korean adoptees wanting to be treated special but treated as Koreans," Peter Moller, a member of the DKRG who spoke on behalf of the plaintiff at the press conference, told The Korea Times. "Adoptions from Korea have proven to be very problematic. There are examples of many serious human rights violations, child theft, adoptions without consent and document forgeries. I hope that one day it will be possible for all of Korea's 250,000 adoptees to access their true information."
Peter Moller, a member of the Danish Korean Truth Finding Group (DKRG), speaks during a press conference at the Seoul Administrative Court, July 12. Courtesy of Antonia Giordano
Representatives from the Korean Unwed Mothers Families Association (KUMFA), KoRoot and domestic Korean adoptee groups also showed their support by speaking at the press conference as well as attending the court hearing.
The issues mentioned by the plaintiff have also been reported in other countries where international adoption was prevalent, and children from countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Chile have reported that international adoptions have had similar legal issues, altered information and nonconsent.
The NCRC said it "would be monitoring the progress of the lawsuit as it is still ongoing.” Although it did not explain why it withheld information about Lee's deceased father, it added that it will “review and improve the system based on the results of the final court judgment.”
Antonia Giordano is a freelance photographer and writer based in Seoul. An adoptee, Antonia deeply understands and connects with the issues surrounding adoption and post-adoption. Recently, she opened the photography studio Vesna Seoul. Visit vesnaseoul.com and follow @antonia_creative_services on Instagram.
Korea Times intern Kim Hyo-jae contributed reporting to this article.