Facing the Past

28/04/2026

Yesterday, 27 April 2026, the Flemish government decided to end intercountry adoption. New legislation, which is expected to come into force by mid 2027, will terminate all ongoing adoption procedures, except those for which a matching proposal has already been received.

In this latest blog post, Atamhi Cawayu traces the long and bumpy path toward this decision, describing the crucial role of adoptee voices and a broader political shift in how intercountry adoption is understood.

Read the full blog post here:

On the 4th of March, the Flemish Parliament reached a political consensus during a plenary session discussing a proposed resolution to phase out transnational adoption. Caroline Gennez, current Flemish Minister of Welfare and Poverty Reduction, Culture and Equal Opportunities, called it “a histori...

26/04/2026

What do the struggles for justice in the Srebrenica genocide, abuse in the Catholic Church, and intercountry adoption have in common?

Last week, the conference ‘How to Repair Historical Injustice?’ took place at the University of Humanistic Studies, marking the conclusion of the NWO-funded VICI project Dialogics of Justice (DoJ). Over the course of two and a half days, scholars, legal practitioners, and individuals affected by historical injustice came together to reflect on a wide range of cases and ongoing struggles for justice.

In her latest blog post, Elvira Loibl reflects on the parallels between these cases and considers what the field of intercountry adoption can learn from other struggles for justice.

Read the full blog post here:

Last week, I attended the conference ‘How to Repair Historical Injustice?’, which marked the conclusion of the NWO-funded VICI project ‘Dialogics of Justice’, led by Nicole Immler. This five-year interdisciplinary research project based at the University of Humanistic Studies, has examined t...

10/04/2026

This week, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam delivered its long-awaited judgment in the case of Dilani Butink, rejecting her claims and bringing to an end a legal dispute that had lasted seven years. The case has come to symbolise a broader struggle for justice in intercountry adoption and, for many, the judgment is a profound disappointment.

In her blog post, Elvira Loibl argues that this outcome is not only the result of judicial reasoning (open as it is to critique), but also reveals deeper structural limitations of tort law in addressing harms that are systemic, historically embedded, and difficult to prove. From strict evidentiary burdens to the focus on individual fault and past standards, tort law struggles to capture the complex realities intercountry adoptees face.

As more individuals turn to litigation in the absence of meaningful dialogue, we must ask: is the law offering justice or merely exposing its limits?

On 7 April, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam delivered its long-awaited judgment in the case of Dilani Butink, a Dutch adoptee from Sri Lanka, who brought proceedings against the Dutch State and the adoption agency for their role in her adoption in 1992. She has been unable to trace her biological p...

12/03/2026

📢 New blog post on our Facing the Past website!

Check out the latest blog post by Irene Salvo Agoglia, discussing the recent developments in Chile regarding illegal intercountry adoptions.

For years, families and adoptees have worked tirelessly to bring the issue of illegal intercountry adoptions onto Chile’s political agenda. A significant milestone was reached on 18 February 2026, when Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights presented the Report of Recommendations of the Interinstitutional Roundtable on Forced or Irregular Adoptions. The report brings together nearly two years of collaborative work and proposes legislative, administrative, and coordination measures aimed at advancing policies related to truth, justice, and the right to identity.

In this blog post, Irene traces the key legislative, judicial, and institutional milestones in Chile - from the moment these practices gained public attention in 2014 to the outcomes of this interinstitutional process - placing the current policy moment within a broader trajectory of recognition, accountability, and reform.

🔗 Read the full blog post here:

Forced and irregular adoptions constitute one of the most serious and largely unacknowledged human rights violations in Chile’s recent history. For decades, thousands of children were separated from their birth families through practices that included the falsification of documents, fraudulent bir...

09/03/2026

Interesting development in Flanders! Will it also abolish intercountry adoptions?

Er komt in Vlaanderen wellicht een einde aan de interlandelijke adopties. Meerderheidspartijen N-VA en CD&V spreken zich uit voor een uitfasering en ook volgens minister van Welzijn Caroline Gennez is het tijd om het debat over een stopzetting te voeren omdat er nooit “100 procent zekerheid” is ...

06/02/2026

📘 Country-by-country information on ICA-related developments is now live on our website

Over the past decade, intercountry adoption has come under increased scrutiny in both receiving and sending countries. Investigations and official inquiries have revealed widespread systemic abuses, irregular practices, and serious human rights violations. What was once widely presented as a humanitarian solution is now increasingly recognised as a system that, in many cases, separated children from their families and communities and stripped adoptees of their identity and family ties.

Facing the Past gathered publicly available information on national inquiries, government responses, policy reforms, and legal proceedings to offer a country-by-country overview of how past intercountry adoption practices are being examined today. We keep a close eye on developments across countries and update this living resource regularly as new inquiries, policy changes, and legal actions emerge.

The country-by-country information on ICA-related developments can found at the link below:

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03/12/2025

Today, 3 December, the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam will hear the case of Dilani Butink, a Dutch adoptee from Sri Lanka who in 2019 initiated legal proceedings against the Dutch state and the adoption agency involved in her 1992 adoption. She argues that both failed to investigate the legality of her adoption at a time when widespread fraud in Sri Lanka was already known, leaving her with lifelong uncertainty about her identity and origins.

In 2022, the Court of Appeals in The Hague upheld her claim, finding that the Dutch state and the adoption agency had acted unlawfully towards Dilani Butink: the agency by failing to gather more detailed information about the circumstances of her adoption despite clear signs of irregularities, and the state by failing to exercise more stringent oversight of that agency. In a landmark ruling—the first of its kind—the Court ordered both the state and the adoption agency to pay damages.

However, in 2024 the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeals’ judgment and referred the case back to the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam, which must now deliver a new decision. Earlier this year, Elvira Loibl published an article analysing this case and explaining the Supreme Court’s reasoning in detail. You can check it out here:

27/10/2025

Last week, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) adopted a key resolution on illegal intercountry adoption. The message is unmistakable: prevention is not enough — reparations must follow. States face a clear duty to open archives, restore identities and deliver justice.

Impact The IPU facilitates parliamentary diplomacy and empowers parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development around the world. Read more

20/10/2025

On 9 April 2025, the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region issued a landmark ruling in "Maria Concebida Marques and others versus the Union and Minas Gerais State", recognising illegal intercountry adoptions from the 1980s as enforced disappearances and awarding compensation to the victims. 💰

⚖️ This ruling marks a major step in recognising state liability for illegal or abusive intercountry adoptions.

👉 The full blog post written by Vivian S. Vieira Pinto is available here:

On 9 April 2025, the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region issued a landmark ruling in Maria Concebida Marques and others versus the Union and Minas Gerais State (Lawsuit 1000920-39.2017.4.01.3801/MG), recognising illegal intercountry adoptions from the 1980s as enforced disappearances and awardi...