26 December 2012

It would be a great ending of this year, when Russia’s President will outlaw American adoptions. And, extend the ban to all countries, as announced by Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov.

It takes a lot of strength and courage to do so. The ‘adoption lobby’ is powerful and knows how to play their game.

Already in April 2010, ACT sent the Russian Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov a letter of support and shared some of our experience.

Now, on Christmas 2012, we again gave our full support to ending the trade in Russian children.

28 December 2012: President Putin signed anti-U.S. adoption bill

30 May 2012

Alarming news comes from the conference currently being held in Addis Abeba. The African Child Policy Forum organised this event. The agenda seems clear: in order to stop Africa from being the new adoption hub, all African countries should ratify the Hague Covention.

Truth is, as Hans van Loon publicly said in Brussels in 2010:

The Hague Convention is often blamed that the number of countries that allows ICA is going down.
But NO: without the Hague Convention the whole South America would have closed. And then it would have been over!

So, the Hague Convention keeps intercountry adoptions alive. It creates a regulated market in children.

See here: The Perverse Effects of the Hague Convention

The only way to stop the exploitation of African families, is to stop the current system of intercountry adoption. No foreign adoption agencies scamming the continent. No foreign adoption agencies setting up social services, thereby getting direct access to children and families, while creating a social system that depends on foreign funding and adoptions.

Food for thought:

The African Child Policy Forum is a Dutch NGO, a lobby organisation, set up and funded by the Dutch NGO International Child Support (ICS). In 2010 ICS gave almost 800.000 euro to ACPF.

International Child Support, The African Child Policy Forum, SOS Children’s Villages and Wereldkinderen (Dutch adoption agency) together make up the consortium Together4change.

Together4change received last year 52 million euro from the Dutch government’s development aid fund. In order to bring about civic change in Africa.

Informal translation of the transcript of the Debate on Intercountry Adoption in Dutch Parliament – 19 April 2012 – page 32

ON THE ‘RAHUL CASE’ – the allegedly kidnapped child from India, adopted by a Dutch couple

Speaker: Secretary of State Fred Teeven

Then I turn to India. India is indeed a story apart. I remember that from the time that I was sitting at the other side of the table. Then I also spoke about India.

With the information-exchange with the Indian Central authority in India things are not very smooth. I remind the fact that the information from the Central Authority in India dates from September 2007. At that time, the Central Bureau of Investigation of India initiated an investigation. Since then we did not hear much from the Indian authorities. I am not satisfied with that, and in this I express myself carefully. I hereby inform the Committee that I have decided to invite the Indian Ambassador for a meeting at the Ministry in order to provide clarity on this issue.
LINK Transcript Parliament

This is quite a change of heart of Secretary of State Fred Teeven, as in his letter of 22 December 2011 he informed the Dutch Parliament that he had not received any news from the Indian authorities, and did not expect to receive it in future. However, if ever news would reach him, he would inform the Dutch Parliament.
LINK Letter 22 December 2011

So, now there is a pro-active approach.

ACT welcomes this approach, as ACT posesses a certified copy of the CBI investigation.  So, it exists…

Also, the Indian family whose child was allegedly kidnapped, transmitted this CBI investigation to the Dutch police in June 2011. As reported by Dutch TV Netwerk

Informal translation of transcrips of the Debate in the Dutch Parliament on intercountry adoptions, as held in The Hague on 19 April 2012. Speaker: Secretary of State for Justice Fred Teeven. Page 29

Recently a delegation of my ministry made a working visit to Uganda. The reason of this ministerial working visit was that I got some very worrying signals fro the Dutch Embassy in Kampala about the carefullness and the purity of the adoption procedures in Uganda. The preliminary results of the ministerial delgation confirm these worrying signals. This can lead to theh fact that I will decide on short term to suspend adoptions from Uganda. I will send a letter to the Parliament in which I will inform the members about the outcome of the working visit and the conclusions I draw from that. I still wait for some information from Uganda, but I do think that the Parliament should not be suprised in a couple of weeks by a letter from me, if today we speak about adoptions and difficult relations with countries. That letter will come and it is possible that I will suspend adoptions from Uganda.

So, the Parliament now knows this.

Transcript of meeting – in Dutch

See here a blog about US adoptions from Uganda

Speaking of Truth in Ugandan Adoptions:

http://www.familyhopelove.com/speaking-of-truth-in-ugandan-adoptions/

Just days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010, the Dutch government announced its intention to expedite pending adoptions from the country.

On 21 January the children were flown out of Haiti.

ACT has requested the Dutch Ministry of Justice the letter on the basis of which this expedition was undertaken.

On Sunday 17th January, the Dutch government, via the Dutch Ambassador of the Domincan Republic and the Dutch Consul in Haiti, handed a letter to the Prime Minister of Haiti asking him for permission to evacuate children by plane, arranged and paid by the government, the next day. These children were considered pipeline cases, and the Dutch government promised to complete the adoption procedure in the Netherlands. (more…)

Today ACT received copy of a letter sent by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) to the President of the Ethiopian Federal First Instance Court, dated 23/2/2011, that confirms that Ethiopia wants to prevent further unethical and illegal acts in relation to adoption.

The letter confirms the ‘rumours’ that MOWA will review 5 adoptions per day, instead of the previous 50 cases per day. (more…)