Forced adoption

In Ireland, forced adoptions were widespread, particularly from the 1940s to the 1980s. Many children were removed from single mothers, often under the assumption that these women were unfit to raise their children due to the social stigma surrounding unmarried mothers. Religious institutions, particularly the Catholic Church, played a significant role in these adoptions, operating institutions like mother and baby homes. These institutions often housed women who were pregnant out of wedlock, and after childbirth, their babies were taken for adoption, frequently without the mother's consent or knowledge. Many of these adoptions were carried out in secret, and records were not kept, making it difficult for families to reunite later.

The Irish government has since acknowledged the wrongdoings of these institutions, and in 2021, the Irish Prime Minister issued an apology for the forced adoptions and the abuses committed in these homes.{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/13/irish-church-and-state-apologise-for-callous-mother-and-baby-home-institutions |title=Irish church and state apologise for callous mother and baby homes|access-date=9 January 2025 |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=live |work=The Guardian |date=13 January 2021 |last1= |first1= }} However, the trauma caused by these practices still affects many individuals today.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54693159 |title=Irish mother and baby homes: Timeline of controversy|access-date=9 January 2025 |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=live |work=BBC |date=13 January 2021 |last1= |first1= }}

The most well-known example of the forced adoptions was the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home. This institution, located in Tuam, Ireland, became infamous for the discovery of a mass grave in 2014, where the remains of 796 infants were found.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/25/a-stain-on-irelands-conscience-tuam-home-for-unmarried-mothers-gives-up-grimmest-of-buried-secrets|title=A stain on Ireland's conscience': identification to begin of 796 bodies buried at children's home|last=Carroll|first=Rory|work=The Guardian|access-date=2023-06-26|language=en}} The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home operated from 1925 to 1961, run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order. It was a home for unmarried mothers, and many of the babies born there were placed for adoption or died under questionable circumstances. The discovery of the grave sparked widespread outrage and renewed discussions about the treatment of women and children in similar institutions across Ireland during the 20th century. The home's legacy remains a significant point of reflection in the history of Ireland's treatment of vulnerable women and children.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Belgium also witnessed forced adoptions, particularly in the post-World War II era, where social norms surrounding family and legitimacy influenced the treatment of unmarried mothers. These women were often pressured into giving up their children for adoption under the notion that they were not capable of providing a suitable home. Catholic institutions were also involved in the placement of children for adoption, sometimes without the full consent or awareness of the biological parents. Like in other countries, these forced adoptions were often shrouded in secrecy, with little regard for the emotional and psychological consequences on both the birth parents and the children.

Many heavily pregnant girls were taken to France to give birth anonymously, as this was forbidden in Belgium. These girls and their children were later illegally smuggled back into Belgium, where their babies were forcibly removed. This was called Sous X practices.{{Cite book|title=Kleine Zondaars|last=Hutsebaut|first=Carine|date=2003|publisher=Houtekiet|isbn=9789052406626|language=nl}}

There were also numerous instances of abuse in Belgian mother-and-child homes, such as the notorious Tamar home in Lommel. In this institution, children were taken from their mothers against their will and given up for adoption in exchange for donations, a practice that commodified human life. Furthermore, girls were sterilized{{Cite news |url=https://www.hln.be/video/productie/nonnen-verkochten-cyrillas-baby-en-lieten-haar-steriliseren-415926 |title=Nonnen verkochten Cyrilla's baby en lieten haar steriliseren (Dutch)|access-date=14 December 2023 |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status=live |work=Het Laatste Nieuws |date=14 December 2023 |last1= |first1= }} against their will and girls were subjected to forced labor in a local carpet factory. These disturbing practices highlight the dark history of forced adoption in Belgium.

The Belgian government has since acknowledged these injustices, but many individuals affected by forced adoptions continue to seek closure and reunification with their birth families.{{Cite book|title=Zusters zonder liefde|last=Stevens|first=Jan|date=2024|publisher=Manteau|isbn=9789022341315|language=nl}}

In the United Kingdom, forced adoption was particularly prevalent from the 1950s to the 1970s, especially among working-class families and unmarried mothers. These adoptions were often facilitated through a combination of social services and adoption agencies, with children being removed from their homes under the guise of protection or due to perceived neglect. Many of the children were placed in private homes, frequently without the consent or full understanding of the biological parents.

The system was often coercive, with authorities threatening to label mothers as unfit or irresponsible parents, or even to have them institutionalized if they refused to relinquish their children for adoption. The psychological and emotional toll on the parents, who were sometimes manipulated into signing adoption papers, was immense. This practice continued until significant reforms were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s.

{{Main|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.{{cite web |title=Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide |website=www.ohchr.org |publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |access-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413091325/https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide |archive-date=13 April 2022 |date=9 December 1948 |url-status=live}} While this usually revolves around ethnicity, assimilating children of political minorities has also occurred.

{{Main|Stolen generations}}

The Stolen Generations in Australia involved Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children,{{cite web|url=http://www.australianstogether.org.au/stories/detail/the-stolen-generations|title=The Stolen Generations|work=Australians Together|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119075600/http://www.australianstogether.org.au/stories/detail/the-stolen-generations|archive-date=19 November 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6937222.stm|title=The agony of Australia's Stolen Generation|date=9 August 2007|work=BBC News|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071204120919/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6937222.stm|archive-date=4 December 2007}} where over 60 years from 1910, it is estimated that as many as a third of Aboriginal children were taken from their families.

In Canada, the Canadian Indian residential school system involved First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, who often suffered severe abuse.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33099511|title=The schools that had cemeteries instead of playgrounds|author=Griffiths, Sian|journal=BBC News|date=13 June 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019155547/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33099511|archive-date=19 October 2015}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33011821|work=BBC News|title=Survivor of Canada's residential schools talks about abuse|date=5 June 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018153926/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33011821|archive-date=18 October 2015}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/06/canada-dark-of-history-residential-schools|title=Canada confronts its dark history of abuse in residential schools|date=6 June 2015|author=Paquin, Mali Ilse|journal=The Guardian|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121130552/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/06/canada-dark-of-history-residential-schools|archive-date=21 January 2017}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33001425|title=Survivors of Canada's 'cultural genocide' still healing|author=Luxen, Micah|journal=BBC News|date=4 June 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725181119/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33001425|archive-date=25 July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7447811.stm|title=Canada apology for native schools|date=11 June 2008|work=BBC News|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118130805/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7447811.stm|archive-date=18 November 2015}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Dart|first=Christopher|title=The Sixties Scoop Explained|work=CBC Docs POV|publisher=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/the-sixties-scoop-explained|access-date=24 October 2023|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511222939/https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/the-sixties-scoop-explained|url-status=live}}

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.{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48825090 |title=China separating Muslim children from families |access-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705043103/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48825090 |archive-date=5 July 2019 |url-status=live |work=BBC News |date=4 July 2019 |last1=Sudworth |first1=John }}

{{Main|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,"[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/edf71f50-c208-11de-be3a-00144feab49a.html Searching for missing relatives in Poland]". Financial Times. 30 October 2009. and only 25,000 returned to their families after the war.Gitta Sereny, [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/children.html "Stolen Children"], rpt. in Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise). Accessed 15 September 2008.

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-ethiopia-massacre-20160420-story.html|title=Why hundreds of people are dying over cattle in East Africa|work=Los Angeles Times|date=21 April 2016 |access-date=23 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122100141/http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-ethiopia-massacre-20160420-story.html|archive-date=22 November 2016|url-status=live}} This includes the 2016 Gambela raid and 2017 Gambela raid.

{{Main|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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OllkigpBDsIC|title=The Seduction of Modern Spain: The Female Body and the Francoist Body Politic|last=Morcillo|first=Aurora G.|date=2010|publisher=Bucknell University Press|isbn=9780838757536|language=en}}

{{Main|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.{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Harry |last2=Henley |first2=Jon |last3=Sullivan |first3=Helen |title=Council of Europe says Russian-forced deportation of children from Ukraine is 'genocide' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/27/russia-ukraine-war-live-russia-pounds-bakhmut-us-and-eu-welcome-chinas-call-with-zelenskiy |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=24 October 2023 |date=27 April 2023}}

{{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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-16157124|title=MP claims 1,000 children 'wrongly' adopted every year|author=|journal=BBC News|date=13 December 2011}}

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

{{See also|Baby scoop era|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.[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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320134552/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/20/we-were-human-beings-uk-families-seek-apology-over-historic-forced-adoptions |date=20 March 2022 }} The Guardian[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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320135223/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/27/uk-forced-adoption-state-sanctioned-abuse-unmarried-mothers |date=20 March 2022 }} 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.{{Cite web |last=Calligeros |first=Marissa |date=2010-12-23 |title='Your son is gone. He's with his adoptive parents' |url=https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/your-son-is-gone-hes-with-his-adoptive-parents-20101222-1958a.html |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.brusselstimes.com/838673/catholic-church-put-up-30000-children-for-adoption-without-mothers-consent|title=Catholic Church put up 30,000 children for adoption without mothers' consent|journal=Brussels Times|date=14 December 2023}}

{{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.{{cite web|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/historian-reveals-tragedy-of-swiss-child-trade/3791220|title=Historian reveals tragedy of Swiss child trade|date=29 February 2004|website=Swissinfo.ch|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118163629/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/historian-reveals-tragedy-of-swiss-child-trade/3791220|archive-date=18 November 2015}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29765623|title=Switzerland's shame: The children used as cheap farm labour|journal=BBC News|access-date=28 June 2016|date=29 October 2014|last=Puri|first=Kavita|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720143159/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29765623|archive-date=20 July 2016}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/11/24/swiss_grapple_with_history_of_forced_child_labor/|title=Swiss grapple with history of forced child labor|author=Jordans, Frank|website=Boston.com|date=24 November 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=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/|archive-date=18 November 2015}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16620597|title=Swiss 'contract children' speak out|journal=BBC News|date=19 January 2012|author=Foulkes, Imogen|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113081307/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16620597|archive-date=13 January 2016}}

In South Korea, during the military dictatorship, the government pursued a "social purification" program that forced thousands of people off the streets into government-funded, privately run welfare centres. If they gave birth, the children were taken away to be adopted.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/sep/10/south-korea-finds-mothers-were-forced-to-give-up-babies-for-adoption-abroad |title=South Korea finds mothers were forced to give up babies for adoption abroad|date=10 September 2024|first1=Hannah|last1=Cho|first2=Asta|last2=Kongsted|journal=The Guardian}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/5/australian-aboriginal-child-separation-at-devastating-rates-commissioner|title=Australian Aboriginal child separation at ‘devastating rates’: Commissioner|date=5 October 2023|journal=Al Jazeera}}

Norwegian Child Welfare Services are accused of disproportionately removing children of immigrant parents.{{cite web|url=https://www.courthousenews.com/forced-adoption-case-against-norway-hits-european-rights-court/|title=Forced Adoption Case Against Norway Hits European Rights Court|date=27 January 2021|website=courthousenews}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/norways_hidden_scandal|title=Norway's hidden scandal|journal=BBC News|access-date=2 March 2023|date=3 August 2018|last=Whewell|first=Tim}}

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".{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Stephen |url=https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/alan-goldsack-qc-wants-children-removed-from-criminals-at-birth/news-story/1a1679bf63d44c5bade446ffbe2d4e62|url-status=live|archive-url=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|archive-date=25 August 2013 |title=Alan Goldsack QC wants children removed from criminals at birth |publisher=News.com.au |date=2013-05-27}}

• Adoption fraud
• Human trafficking
• International adoption
• International child abduction
• Interracial adoption
• Transculturation

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Category:Child custody

Category:Genocide