Forced adoption

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Forced adoption is the practice of forcefully taking children from their parents and placing them for adoption. Examples include forced adoption in the United Kingdom

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]

Australia

The Stolen Generations in Australia involved Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.[2][3]

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]

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.[11]

Child welfare

Single mothers

From the 1950's to the 1970's in the United Kingdom, babies were frequently taken away from unmarried mothers without any other reason simply because unmarried mothers were considered unsuitable parents.[12][13] 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.[14]

Parents in poverty

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.[15][16][17][18]

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".[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide". www.ohchr.org. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 9 December 1948. Archived from the original on 13 April 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  2. ^ "The Stolen Generations". Australians Together. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015.
  3. ^ "The agony of Australia's Stolen Generation". BBC News. 9 August 2007. Archived from the original on 4 December 2007.
  4. ^ Griffiths, Sian (13 June 2015). "The schools that had cemeteries instead of playgrounds". BBC News. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015.
  5. ^ "Survivor of Canada's residential schools talks about abuse". BBC News. 5 June 2015. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ Paquin, Mali Ilse (6 June 2015). "Canada confronts its dark history of abuse in residential schools". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 January 2017.
  7. ^ Luxen, Micah (4 June 2015). "Survivors of Canada's 'cultural genocide' still healing". BBC News. Archived from the original on 25 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Canada apology for native schools". BBC News. 11 June 2008. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015.
  9. ^ Dart, Christopher. "The Sixties Scoop Explained". CBC Docs POV. CBC. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  10. ^ Sudworth, John (4 July 2019). "China separating Muslim children from families". BBC News. Archived from the original on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  11. ^ Taylor, Harry; Henley, Jon; Sullivan, Helen (27 April 2023). "Council of Europe says Russian-forced deportation of children from Ukraine is 'genocide'". www.theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  12. ^ ‘We were human beings’: UK families seek apology over historic forced adoptions Archived 20 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian
  13. ^ The UK’s forced adoption scandal was state-sanctioned abuse Archived 20 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald 24 December 2010, 6am. https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/your-son-is-gone-hes-with-his-adoptive-parents-20101222-1958a.html
  15. ^ "Historian reveals tragedy of Swiss child trade". Swissinfo.ch. 29 February 2004. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015.
  16. ^ Puri, Kavita (29 October 2014). "Switzerland's shame: The children used as cheap farm labour". BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 July 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  17. ^ Jordans, Frank (24 November 2011). "Swiss grapple with history of forced child labor". Boston.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015.
  18. ^ Foulkes, Imogen (19 January 2012). "Swiss 'contract children' speak out". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016.
  19. ^ Adams, Stephen (2013-05-27). "Alan Goldsack QC wants children removed from criminals at birth". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 25 August 2013.