Category: Adoption Lobby Alert

Open letter to the UN Committees

Amsterdam, 21 September 2023 To (via email): • The Committee on the Rights of the Child; • The Committee on Enforced Disappearances; • The Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence; • The Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children including child prostitution, child pornography and… Read more »

Reaction to France Inter’s reporting on so-called lucrative profit-making search business

Yesterdays French reporting on the so-called lucrative profit-making search business calls for some clarification from our side. Against ChildTrafficking (ACT) is a registered non-profit organisation in the Netherlands. Adoptee Rights Council (ARC) is a registered non-profit organisation in India. Therefore we are per definition not for profit. Together ACT and ARC run a professional office… Read more »

Reply from the Ministry of Justice

ACT had decided to support the idea of an independent Expertisecentrum. We still believe that something like this is needed. Therefore we participated in the meetings regarding the design process as far as practically possible as digital attendence was often not allowed. We insisted that organisations which assist adoptees get sufficent funding to assist with… Read more »

Whistleblower testifies in Krichbaum trial

It was an intense interrogation: a former EU official who describes herself as a whistleblower sat on the witness stand in the Pforzheim district court for four hours. In the appeal process, a 50-year-old defendant from the Enzkreis district is accused of defamation. As the PZ reported, she is said to have described the Pforzheim… Read more »

The adoption lobby, stupid!

Interview with Nigel Cantwell For decades the adoption lobby denied that the Hague Adoption Convention and the Guidelines for Alternative Care were tools of the adoption industrial complex. Both bring in ‘permanency’, which is adoption. This ‘permanency’ was not included in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US and France had… Read more »

How the EU failed the Ukrainian children

Guest Blog, by Roelie Post From 1999 till 2006 the European Commission supported Romania to reform its child protection. Old-style children’s homes were wrongly labeled ‘orphanages’ by the adoption industry, creating family-type homes, foster care – and finally – stop the export of children for intercountry adoption. After a long international dispute between the EU… Read more »

International Social Service and the Hague Permanent Buro (Part 4)

Corruption has many shapes and the higher one gets, the more blatant and at the same time subtle it becomes. No one would really accept if tobacco companies make public health policies. In the area of child adoption, however, society accepts this. Let´s have a closer look. Players: Organisations: 1) International Social Service (ISS) =… Read more »

The EU #UnitedforSorina

We are following since a few weeks the public outcry in Romania: United for Sorina. It is dramatic. An 8-year-old girl removed by Police forces from her foster family because she was adopted by a Romanian family living in the US. They paid 30.000 dollars to the American adoption agency. The girl is still in… Read more »

Global Alliance for Children: closure of operations

Remember ACT’s Adoption Lobby Alert from 2015 “Adoption Lobby Alert: RIP CHIFF, Hello Global Alliance for Children!“? Well, here’s an update. This morning we received the below mail, informing us of the closure of operations. This comes as quite a surprise, since Kathleen Strottman , Executive Director , Global Alliance for Children was recently still going… Read more »

Adoption Lobby Alert: Belgium/Uganda

Belgian newspapers are reporting how the Belgian consulate in Uganda are holding Belgians hostage in Uganda. This because, according to the Flemish Central Authority, exit visas have been refused despite court orders. Now that would be terrible… But is this so? And if so, is there a reason? So ACT did some digging. First of all,… Read more »