From: Chamila Seppenwoolde
\nDate: 2018-05-01 19:34 GMT+02:00
\nSubject: Open Letter
\nTo: jean-claude.juncker@ec.europa.eu
\nCc: frans.timmermans@ec.europa.eu, guenther.oettinger@ec.europa.eu<\/p>\n
Dear President of the European Commission Jean- Claude Juncker,<\/p>\n
United Adoptees International (UAI) represents the interests of adoptees. Our work is entirely based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.<\/p>\n
Please find attached a letter signed by us and our international network which spells out our position that intercountry adoptions should be stopped, the past investigated, and damages paid.<\/p>\n
We write to you about the peculiar situation of Roelie Post. Since many years we are following what is happening at European level in general, and with Roelie Post in particular.<\/p>\n
Our organisation got connected to Roelie in 2007, when she published her book Romania for Export Only, the untold story of the Romanian \u2018orphans\u2019 (see below review).<\/p>\n
This was the start of an intense debate on intercountry adoptions. Roelie was asked in 2008 by the Dutch Ministry of Justice\u2019s Research Department to contribute to their publication \u201cAdoption under Fire\u201d. Her article \u201cThe Perverse Effects of the Hague Convention\u201d was an eye-opener.<\/p>\n
Our organisation was represented, thanks to Roelie, at the European Parliament meeting in Brussels in 2008 (Adoptions in Europe: at what cost?). We were also present at the Strasbourg meeting (Challenges in Adoption Procedures) in 2009, where we were utterly shocked by the way the European Commission\u2019s representatives pushed for intercountry adoption as a child protection measure. Even stating that the Hague Adoption Convention was the EU\u2019s legal basis. It is not, as we discovered later.<\/p>\n
Since then we have witnessed many scandals related to intercountry adoptions \u2013 passed and present: Bulgaria, Poland, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Colombia, Ethiopia, Congo \u2026<\/p>\n
We honestly cannot understand how the European Union can fund organisations that promote and implement the Hague Adoption Convention, which is not their legal basis and in breach with the UN Convention on the Rights of the child.<\/p>\n
We have watched the video where Arun Dohle, who co-founded Against Child Trafficking with Roelie, blew the whistle on Roelie\u2019s situation. This was during the Whistleblower Conference in 2014 organised by the Greens, where Arun addressed Julian Assange and Sarah Harris (lawyer of Edward Snowdon). We also watched the video of Roelie\u2019s presentation during the whistleblower conference in Serbia in November 2016.<\/p>\n
On 1 March this year, our Chairperson was present as observer during Roelie\u2019s phonecall with the Director General of DG NEAR \u2013 about her appeal against her staff report. A surreal experience. Totally inappropriate enthusiastic behaviour, but not open to any discussion. He would think about it, about an amicable solution. Like the one that his team proposed to Roelie previously: paid leave until retirement. We understand he never came back to her. No amicable solution.<\/p>\n
We now read on Twitter that instead disciplinary measures are being prepared against her.<\/p>\n
We urge you to stop these proceedings immediately, and to give Roelie Post the gratitude and honour that she deserves.<\/p>\n
Looking forward to your reply,<\/p>\n
Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n
Chamila Seppenwoolde,<\/p>\n
Chairman UAI<\/p>\n
============================================================================================================================<\/p>\n
Hilbrand Westra, United Adoptees International:<\/p>\n
12 April 2007<\/p>\n
Roelie Post publishes a remarkable book. A book about export of Romanian
\nchildren for adoption. A book, that when one reads the first chapters,
\noverwhelms you if the issue is new. Unfortunate for the undersigned it is
\nnot. I even wished that a similar empirical and personal book had been
\nwritten by the sort of researcher as Roelie Post at the time in Korea and
\nnow in China.<\/p>\n
Roelie Post dares to describe a taboo-issue at a level that can compare with
\nthe works of Noreena Hertz and the movie Constant Gardener. Unfortunately
\nsuch reporting in general does not receive a lot of media attention, because
\nof its political sensitivity. If you read the book, you find out why. A nest
\nof scorpions of big (business) interests interwoven with political and
\nsocial actors, and the large demand for adoptable children, creates indeed a
\nmarket functioning that until now was systematically denied. As a result the
\ndiscussion remained in the margins of society.<\/p>\n
The introduction of the book about a mini-breakfast conference of her
\nchildren concerning this issue illustrates in my opinion that we have gone
\nfar beyond the real and primary question, which still is: what is the
\ninterest of the (adoptive) child?<\/p>\n
================================<\/p>\n
Roelie Post brengt een opmerkelijk boek uit. Een boek over export van Roemeense kinderen in kader van adoptie. Een boek, dat als je de eerste hoofdstukken leest, je overdondert als de materie nieuw is. Helaas is dat voor ondergetekende niet zo. Ik zou zelfs wensen, dat een dergelijk emperisch en persoonlijk boek geschreven zou zijn door een type onderzoekster als Roelie Post destijds in Korea en nu in China.<\/p>\n
Roelie Post durft een taboe-onderwerp neer te zetten met een gehalte die te vergelijken valt met het werk als die van Noreena Hertz en de film Constant Gardener. Helaas krijgen dergelijke berichten in de media over het algemeen geen aandacht wegens de politieke gevoeligheid. Als je het boek leest, kom je er eigenlijk achter waarom. Een wespennest van grote (zakelijke) belangen verweven met politieke en maatschappelijke instanties en de grote vraag van adoptiekinderen cre\u00ebert wel degelijk een marktwerking die tot nu toe nog steeds stelselmatig ontkend wordt. Waardoor het een discussie blijft in de marge van de samenleving.<\/p>\n
De inleiding van het boek over een mini-ontbijtconferentie van haar kinderen omtrent het vraagstuk illustreert in mijn mening dat we ver voorbij het werkelijke en primaire vraagstuk zijn gegaan en die is nog steeds; Wat is in het belang van het (adoptie)kind ?<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.roeliepost.com\/2007\/04\/hilbrand-westra-united-adoptees-intern…<\/p>\n
Met vriendelijke groet | Kind regards | Cordialement | Mit freundlichen Gr\u00fcssen | Cordialemente | Con cordial saludo | ? ???? ???????<\/p>\n
Chamila Seppenwoolde | ?????
\nChairman<\/p>\n
Phone number | +31647022023
\nEmailadress | uai.ccseppenwoolde@gmail.com<\/p>\n
www.facebook.com\/UnitedAdopteesInternational<\/p>\n
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