Category: Blogpost

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 »

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 »

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 »

A chronology of the rise and fall of intercountry adoption from Congo

Today we publish the Congolese NGO Dynamique de lutte contre le trafic humain (DCTH)  about illegal adoption and trafficking of human beings, true crimes in silence. It’s in French. In short, it calls for justice for all, and an end to the silence. And for action at the level of the European Parliament and the… Read more »

Dutch Report on Intercountry Adoption – English Translation

With courtesy to ISS-SSI Geneva hereby the unofficial English translation of the Dutch report on Intercountry Adoption. This report makes a lot of waves since it basically announced the end of intercountry adoption. The Joustra Commission sees no further role for private adoption agencies. Joustra Report: (LINK) See also: International Adoptions in Europe Under Scrutiny… Read more »

Root Searches and Child Rights

Author: Arun Dohle; The original article was published by the swiss foster care and adoptive parents organisation “PACH”  https://pa-ch.ch/ in their magazine ” Netz Spezial” Nr.3 ; 2020 . Translation from German to English partially done by an adoptee. Root Searches and Child Rights The current debate about international adoptions In recent years, organizations and… Read more »

Intercountry adoption, child protection?

During a conference organised by Terre des Hommes International Federation on Children on the Move, Arun Dohle questioned the European Commission on adoptions from Serbia. The issue remains unsolved. Brussels, 15 March 2015:   Arun Dohle, Against Child Trafficking (ACT) I work for Against Child Trafficking, and we deal mainly with the issue of intercountry adoption… 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 »