Forced adoption explained

Forced adoption is the practice of forcefully taking children from their parents and placing them for adoption.

Forced assimilation

See main article: Forced assimilation. Removing children of ethnic minorities from their families to be adopted by those of the dominant ethnic group has been used as a method of forced assimilation. "Forcibly transferring children of [a] group to another group" is genocide according to the Genocide Convention.[1] While this usually revolves around ethnicity, assimilating children of political minorities has also occurred.

Australia

See main article: Stolen generations. The Stolen Generations in Australia involved Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children,[2] [3] where over 60 years from 1910, it is estimated that as many as a third of Aboriginal children were taken from their families.

Canada

In Canada, the Canadian Indian residential school system involved First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, who often suffered severe abuse.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The Sixties Scoop is a period when Canadian child welfare agents had the authority to take indigenous children from their families for placement in foster homes so they could be adopted by white families.[9]

China

As part of the persecution of Uyghurs in China, in 2017 alone at least half a million children were forcefully separated from their families, and placed in pre-school camps with prison-style surveillance systems and 10,000 volt electric fences.[10]

Poland

See main article: Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany. In German-occupied Poland, it is estimated that 200,000 Polish children with purportedly Aryan traits were removed from their families and given to German or Austrian couples,[11] and only 25,000 returned to their families after the war.[12]

South Sudan

Among nomadic groups, particularly the Murle people, children are abducted in raids against other tribes to be raised as their own. The practice is thought to be intended to increase the tribe's numbers.[13] This includes the 2016 Gambela raid and 2017 Gambela raid.

Spain

See main article: Lost children of Francoism. Hispanic eugenics was pioneered by psychiatrist Antonio Vallejo-Nájera who proposed a link between Marxism and intellectual disability, leading to the thefts of many Spanish newborns and young children from their left-wing parents.[14]

Ukraine

See main article: Child abductions in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In April 2023, the Council of Europe voted overwhelmingly, with 87 in favor, 1 opposed, and 1 abstention, to deem the "deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to Russian Federation or to Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied" as an act of genocide.[15]

Child welfare

See also: Family preservation. Child welfare is often the rationale given for separating children from their parents. Family preservation is the perspective that it is better to help keep children at home with their families rather than in foster homes or institutions. How that should be balanced with the potential of harm to children is a matter of debate.[16]

Abusive parents

Separating children from parents is most commonly used today for parental abuse of children.

Single mothers

See also: Baby scoop era and Forced adoption of children through the Catholic Church in Belgium. From the 1950s to the 1970s in the anglosphere, babies were frequently taken away from unmarried mothers without any other reason simply because unmarried mothers were considered unsuitable parents, in what was known as the baby scoop era.[17] [18] In 2013, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard apologized for the forced adoption in Australia of babies born to unwed mothers that occurred mostly in the twentieth century.[19]

In Belgium from the end of the Second World War to the 1980s, the Catholic Church took in pregnant unmarried women and, during childbirth, some women were given general anesthetia while others had to wear a mask to prevent them from seeing their children. Some women were sterilized. About 30,000 such children were sold to adoptive parents for between 10,000 and 30,000 Belgian francs (roughly between €250 and €750) and sometimes much more.[20]

Parents in poverty

See also: Verdingkinder. In Switzerland, between the 1850s and the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children mostly from poor families, as well as single parents, were removed from their parents by the authorities, and sent to work on farms, living with new families. They were known as contract children or Verdingkinder.[21] [22] [23] [24]

Parents belonging to minorities

A 2023 report from the South Australian Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People warned of a new "stolen generation" finding Aboriginal children were increasingly being removed from their families with every other Aboriginal child in South Australia being subject to a one child protection notification in 2020-21 compared to one in 12 for non-Aboriginal children.[25]

Norwegian Child Welfare Services are accused of disproportionately removing children of immigrant parents.[26] [27]

Parents with criminal records

In the United Kingdom, former judge Alan Goldsack called for the UK Government to forcibly remove children from 'criminal families' at birth and to place them for adoption. His remarks have been criticized and he has been accused of "criminalising babies".[28]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . www.ohchr.org . . 24 October 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220413091325/https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide . 13 April 2022 . 9 December 1948 . live.
  2. Web site: The Stolen Generations. Australians Together. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151119075600/http://www.australianstogether.org.au/stories/detail/the-stolen-generations. 19 November 2015.
  3. Web site: The agony of Australia's Stolen Generation. 9 August 2007. BBC News. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20071204120919/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6937222.stm. 4 December 2007.
  4. News: The schools that had cemeteries instead of playgrounds. Griffiths, Sian. BBC News. 13 June 2015. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151019155547/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33099511. 19 October 2015.
  5. Web site: Survivor of Canada's residential schools talks about abuse. BBC News. 5 June 2015. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151018153926/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33011821. 18 October 2015.
  6. News: Canada confronts its dark history of abuse in residential schools. 6 June 2015. Paquin, Mali Ilse. The Guardian. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170121130552/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/06/canada-dark-of-history-residential-schools. 21 January 2017.
  7. News: Survivors of Canada's 'cultural genocide' still healing. Luxen, Micah. BBC News. 4 June 2015. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160725181119/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33001425. 25 July 2016.
  8. Web site: Canada apology for native schools. 11 June 2008. BBC News. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151118130805/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7447811.stm. 18 November 2015.
  9. Web site: Dart. Christopher. The Sixties Scoop Explained. CBC Docs POV. CBC. 24 October 2023. 11 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210511222939/https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/the-sixties-scoop-explained. live.
  10. News: China separating Muslim children from families . 5 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190705043103/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48825090 . 5 July 2019 . live . BBC News . 4 July 2019 . Sudworth . John .
  11. "Searching for missing relatives in Poland". Financial Times. 30 October 2009.
  12. [Gitta Sereny]
  13. Web site: Why hundreds of people are dying over cattle in East Africa. Los Angeles Times. 21 April 2016 . 23 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161122100141/http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-ethiopia-massacre-20160420-story.html. 22 November 2016. live.
  14. Book: Morcillo, Aurora G.. The Seduction of Modern Spain: The Female Body and the Francoist Body Politic. 2010. Bucknell University Press. 9780838757536. en.
  15. Web site: Taylor . Harry . Henley . Jon . Sullivan . Helen . Council of Europe says Russian-forced deportation of children from Ukraine is 'genocide' . www.theguardian.com . The Guardian . 24 October 2023 . 27 April 2023.
  16. News: MP claims 1,000 children 'wrongly' adopted every year. BBC News. 13 December 2011.
  17. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/20/we-were-human-beings-uk-families-seek-apology-over-historic-forced-adoptions ‘We were human beings’: UK families seek apology over historic forced adoptions
  18. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/27/uk-forced-adoption-state-sanctioned-abuse-unmarried-mothers The UK's forced adoption scandal was state-sanctioned abuse
  19. Web site: Calligeros . Marissa . 2010-12-23 . 'Your son is gone. He's with his adoptive parents' . 2024-06-07 . The Sydney Morning Herald . en.
  20. News: Catholic Church put up 30,000 children for adoption without mothers' consent. Brussels Times. 14 December 2023.
  21. Web site: Historian reveals tragedy of Swiss child trade. 29 February 2004. Swissinfo.ch. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151118163629/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/historian-reveals-tragedy-of-swiss-child-trade/3791220. 18 November 2015.
  22. News: Switzerland's shame: The children used as cheap farm labour. BBC News. 28 June 2016. 29 October 2014. Puri. Kavita. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160720143159/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29765623. 20 July 2016.
  23. News: Swiss grapple with history of forced child labor. Jordans, Frank. Boston.com. 24 November 2011. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20151118145003/http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/11/24/swiss_grapple_with_history_of_forced_child_labor/. 18 November 2015.
  24. News: Swiss 'contract children' speak out. BBC News. 19 January 2012. Foulkes, Imogen. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160113081307/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16620597. 13 January 2016.
  25. News: Australian Aboriginal child separation at ‘devastating rates’: Commissioner. 5 October 2023. Al Jazeera.
  26. Web site: Forced Adoption Case Against Norway Hits European Rights Court. 27 January 2021. courthousenews.
  27. News: Norway's hidden scandal. BBC News. 2 March 2023. 3 August 2018. Whewell. Tim.
  28. News: Adams. Stephen . Alan Goldsack QC wants children removed from criminals at birth . live. https://web.archive.org/web/20130825224806/http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/alan-goldsack-qc-wants-children-removed-from-criminals-at-birth/story-fnet08ui-1226650765692. 25 August 2013 . News.com.au . 2013-05-27.

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