Almost 90 Adoptee-led Organizations and Allies Support the Request to End Overseas Adoptions from Korea

An initiative of Adoption Truth & Transparency Worldwide Information Network and Against Child Trafficking work together to end the commodification of children.

SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, December 30, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In response to the overseas adoption market, coordinators at Korean Adoptees Worldwide pushed to finally halt overseas adoption 70 years after the war and refrain from the Hague Adoption Convention. "We thank the team at Against Child Trafficking (ACT) for their expertise. We're amazed by the support of adoptee groups from all over. We never imagined planting so many seeds when we set up AT TWIN in 2011. We want everyone to be informed and protected."

Adoptee-led and birthparent organizations from Australia, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Guatemala, India, Lebanon, Native Americans, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, UK, US, and Uganda support KoreanAdopteeWorldwide.net’s special request to the Korean government to finally stop overseas adoption 70 years after the war ended.

"We’ve been very fortunate to have the support of almost 90 adult adoptee-led organizations, mothers (of loss), and families separated in the endeavor to help protect families against a self-regulated market," The Vance Twins said.

Other human rights organizations are also invited to support the request. "We hope to protect families in the United States and overseas from a multi-billion dollar industry. The biggest challenge is to see beyond bold, beautiful and glorified advertising campaigns that claim to help 'orphans.' Throughout history, adoption agencies profited from that one word. There are already 80 supporting adoptee-led organizations, parent groups, and allies who are signatories to this special request. If you want to do the right thing and protect children from what more and more of us call the commodification of children -- a network of white-collar transnational crime -- you are not alone. It's beginning to become more and more obvious to a growing number of victims: overseas adoption is NOT child protection but violates innate, God-given, and natural rights--rights that are enshrined in human rights declarations, conventions, and constitutions," said Janine Vance, one of the researchers of "Adoption: What You Should Know."

Janine and her twin established the Adoption Truth and Transparency Worldwide Information Network (AT TWIN) in 2011 and regularly collaborate with adopted peers, including Arun Dohle, a child rights expert and Executive Director of Against Child Trafficking (ACT), who drafted the Special Request: "How is Intercountry Adoption Child Trafficking?" Excerpts from the request below:

"While national child protection services are funded by the state, intercountry adoption is organized on the basis of financial transactions; the current “fees” for a Korean child is around $60,000."

"Over 250,000 South Koreans have been sent abroad for adoption, and all of these children have had their identities changed – setting the stage for personal identity crises and ensuring that finding Korean families is extremely difficult."

Writing in AP News, Kim Tong Hyung explained that Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission decided to look into this issue “after it confirmed through records that the adoptees were sent to the West through manipulated records that falsely described them as orphans despite the existence of biological parents, or faked their identities by borrowing the details of a third person.”

What is the gist of Against Child Trafficking's stance, according to the Executive Director, Arun Dohle? It can be found in the request: "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ratified by Korea in 1991, provides all the rights required to protect children in need. It’s worth noting that no other highly developed nation allows for the adoption/sale of their children abroad. The Korean War ended over 70 years ago and Korean children should no longer be adopted/commodified.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was ratified by Korea in 1991 and provides a broad range of rights for children and the responsibility of governments to support families in need. It has been ratified by every nation except the USA and is a valuable human rights treaty that provides the legal framework for the protection of children not only within his/her respective country but by his/her very own family. Each child has their own rights, and each signatory state is obliged to protect/support that child and his/her family when faced with difficulty. If the Korean government had correctly implemented this binding international law and built up its own child protection system, there would be no need for intercountry adoption."

As Dohle pointed out and found within the request, "The following extracts from the UNCRC are worth quoting here:
Article 7
1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
ACT's note: Many of the articles in the convention point to the same principle: Governments are obliged to assist families in difficulty. This is the best way of helping a child in need as it will take place within his/her culture and family.

Article 8
1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name, and family relations, as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection with a view to re-establishing his or her identity.
Editor’s note: intercountry adoption has had a perverse effect on these rights as adoption changes the child’s identity and birth certificate. The above-described rights are thus violated, and the government of Korea has a responsibility to assist adoptees in re-establishing their original identities."

"We invite other human rights organizations, anti-trafficking NGOs, and groups that care about furthering the protection of children to learn about industry strategies and tactics to protect from further exploitation. You don't have to have been impacted by adoption. But if you have been, we invite you to join AT TWIN."

The Vance twins, also coordinators for Korean Adoptees Worldwide, have been deprived of their biological family since 1972.

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Adoption Truth & Transparency Worldwide Information Network
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An Interview with Janine Vance about the need for Adoption Truth & Transparency Worldwide Information Network