
-
Guinea ex-dictator freed from jail after 2009 massacre pardon: junta
-
Martinez punishment 'out of Flick's hands' as Barca focus on title
-
Hundreds of thousands join Istanbul protest rally
-
Australian sprinting prodigy Gout Gout upstaged in 200m
-
'We need aid': rescuers in quake-hit Myanmar city plead for help
-
Are women allowed their own dreams, wonders Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
-
Deadly earthquake forces Thai patients into sports hall
-
'Everyone was screaming': quake shocks Thailand tourists
-
Rallies grow in South Korea as court weighs president's fate
-
Scientists explain why Myanmar quake was so deadly
-
Turkey opposition calls mass rally in Istanbul
-
French chefs quake as Michelin prepares new guide
-
Mike Leigh on the 'hard truths' of film, happiness and World War III
-
Lights out: Bali guards protect island's day of silence
-
UK gallery to return Nazi-looted painting to heirs of Jewish collector
-
UK dreams of US trade deal before Trump tariffs
-
'Blink of an eye': survivor tells of Bangkok skyscraper collapse horror
-
The hand of GOAT, Mensik wins with Messi touch
-
Partial solar eclipse to cross swathe of Northern Hemisphere
-
Tunisian startup turns olive waste into clean energy
-
Guinea ex-dictator sentenced for 2009 massacre pardoned: junta
-
Chapman ton lifts New Zealand to 344-9 in first Pakistan ODI
-
Myanmar quake: what we know
-
Vu fires 64 to seize lead at LPGA Ford Championship
-
Resurgent Liu wins women's figure skating world title
-
Rescuers dig for survivors after huge quake hits Myanmar, Thailand
-
South Korea firefighters deploy helicopters as wildfires reignite
-
'Defiant' Canada autoworkers vow to fight tariff layoffs
-
Performance, museums, history: Trump's cultural power grab
-
Russian-born 12-ranked Kasatkina says to play for Australia tennis
-
Wallabies back Jorgensen suffers serious ankle injury
-
UN rights chief demands end to 'horrific suffering' in Ukraine
-
Djokovic oozing confidence ahead of century bid
-
US regulators to investigate Disney diversity efforts
-
Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform
-
'Jail or death': migrants expelled by Trump fear for their fate
-
Leverkusen beat Bochum to stay hot on Bayern's heels
-
Dorival Junior sacked as Brazil coach after Argentina humiliation
-
Djokovic cruises past Dimitrov into Miami Open final
-
No.1 Scheffler ties Houston Open record with 62 to grab lead
-
Trump auto tariffs strike at heart of North American trade
-
Vance says Denmark has 'under invested' in Greenland
-
Green light for Winter Olympics bobsleigh slope
-
Musk's DOGE team emerges from the shadows
-
Film stars blast Academy for 'failing to defend' Palestinian filmmaker
-
Record fine for UK university renews free speech row
-
Grizzlies fire head coach Jenkins: team
-
Table-topping Bengaluru thrash Chennai by 50 runs in IPL
-
Israel warns of attacks 'everywhere' in Lebanon after rocket fire
-
Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in drinking water

S. Korea govt responsible for international adoption fraud: inquiry
A South Korean official enquiry said Wednesday the government was responsible for abuse in international adoptions of local children, including record fabrication and inadequate consent, and recommended an official state apology.
"It was determined that the state neglected its duty ... resulting in the violation of the human rights of adoptees protected by the constitution and international agreements during the process of sending a lot of children abroad," South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in a statement.
The country -- now Asia's fourth biggest economy and a global culture powerhouse -- remains one of the biggest ever exporters of babies in the world, having sent more than 140,000 children overseas between 1955 and 1999.
International adoption began after the Korean War as a way to remove mixed-race children, born to local mothers and American GI fathers, from a country that emphasised ethnic homogeneity.
It became big business in the 1970s to 1980s, bringing international adoption agencies millions of dollars as the country overcame post-war poverty and faced rapid and aggressive economic development.
More recently, the main driver has been babies born to unmarried women, who still face ostracism in a patriarchal society, and according to academics, are often forced to give up their children.
In a landmark announcement, the country's truth commission concluded after a two-year and seven-month investigation that human rights violations occurred in international adoptions of South Korean children, including "fraudulent orphan registrations, identity tampering, and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents".
It also said "numerous cases were identified where proper legal consent procedures" for South Korean birth parents were "not followed".
The commission also said the South Korean government failed to regulate adoption fees, allowing agencies to set them through "internal agreements", effectively turning it into a profit-driven industry.
And despite regulations requiring verification of adoptive parents' eligibility, an overwhelming majority -- 99 percent -- of intercountry adoption approvals in 1984 alone were granted on the same day or the following day, the commission said, citing its investigation.
"These violations should never have occurred," the commission's chairperson Park Sun-young told reporters.
"This is a shameful part of our history," she added.
- 'Eternal uncertainty' -
For years, Korean adoptees have advocated for their rights, many reporting that their birth mothers were forced to give up their children, leading to the fabrication of records to make them legally adoptable.
Some South Korean birth parents and adoptees even claimed that their children were kidnapped -- by agents who sought out unattended children in poor neighbourhoods -- or that authorities directed lost children towards adoption without trying to reunite them with their families, in some cases intentionally changing the child's identity.
Some adoptees -- such as Adam Crapser -- were deported to South Korea as adults because their American parents never secured their US citizenship.
The commission confirmed human rights violations in only 56 out of 367 complaints, saying there was an overwhelming amount of data to try to verify, and said it would "make efforts" to review the remaining cases before its investigation expires on May 26.
Some adoptees were dissatisfied with this outcome, urging the commission to fully recognise violations in all 367 cases.
"Without the truth, our lives rests upon guesses, estimations and creative narratives," Boonyoung Han, a Danish Korean adoptee, said in a statement.
"We are victims to state violence but without a trace! Literally. Destruction and withholding of our documents must not leave us open to eternal uncertainty."
Hanna Johansson, a Korean adoptee in Sweden, said she considers the commission's announcement a "victory" for her adoptee community regardless.
"I also hope that more and more South Korean (birth) parents who lost their child without their consent will come forward and demand justice," she told AFP.
A.Motta--PC