Adoptiegesprek - De Balie

The Dutch adoption system has exploded. Earlier this year, the hard-hitting report by the Joustra Committee revealed that the Dutch government had known about abuses in adoptions since the 1960s – from child trafficking to child theft. An acute stop to intercountry adoption followed. A group of adoptive parents, and parties such as the Interlandelijke Adoptees Foundation, oppose the adoption ban and find the report too one-sided: after all, many adoptees in the Netherlands are doing very well, aren't they?

In De Balie, program maker and adoptee Parwin Mirrahimy talks with adoptees and experts: how should the Dutch adoption system proceed?

A pressing task that awaits the new cabinet is to adopt a definitive position on intercountry adoption. Is this possible again in the future? And if so, under what conditions? This evening we are anticipating this by talking to a number of adoptees from different parts of the world. We talk to them about their journey and about their experiences with the Dutch adoption policy. Together with experts, they discuss the pros and cons of the current adoption system.

Adoption brings positive change in many lives. But adoption in its current form too often leads to abuses. What needs to change in the adoption system in the future? And what should we keep?

speakers

Lisa-Marie Komp is a lawyer. She advises and litigates in cases in which liability for human rights violations is central. For example, she litigates against the government in (among other things) the cases of Trudy Scheele-Gertsen, who gave up her son against her will in the 1960s, and Dilani Butink, who was adopted from Sri Lanka in the early 1990s. On October 22, 2020, she obtained her doctorate at the VU University Amsterdam in the field of state liability for extraterritorial human rights violations.

José Montoya is an actor and an 'import-Amsterdammer', adopted from Colombia. After years of playing in the professional circuit, he graduated in 2010 as a teaching maker from the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU). He has played with Maas, BonteHond, Likeminds, Het Toneel Speelt and with Urban Myth in the performance Martin Luther King , which won a Golden Cricket for best youth performance of 2019. José is currently working on a new solo performance To be or never been , about adoption issues. . The performance will be shown in Theater Bellevue in June 2021.

Eline Farideh Koning was adopted from Iran. In 2013, she began a search for her biological family. It brought about a lot in her native country: after a year, two Iranian filmmakers started a crowdfunding project to help her with her search – and the documentation of it. The final documentary on this investigation, Finding Farideh , was released in 2018 and is named after the name she was given at the orphanage in Iran. In addition, Eline writes blogs about her search on findfarideh.com and she set up Iranian Adoptees Worldwide, a closed group in which Iranian adoptees from all over the world find each other.

Eun Mi Postma was born in South Korea and was adopted at the age of six by a Dutch couple. Eun-mi is trained as a lawyer and journalist. Years after her adoption, she returned to her native country through her work. First as a correspondent for the Dutch media, later as director of the Nuffic-NESO office, which deals with internationalization in higher education. In 2013, Eun-mi returned to the Netherlands with her family. Eun-mi currently works as Director of Academic Services at Nyenrode Business University.

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