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"입양기관 '아동 세탁' 근절해야"
국회 입양특례법 개정 공청회
(연합뉴스)
기사 입력시간 : 2009-11-10 오전 9:20:53
입양 아동의 친부모 정보를 없애기 위한 이른바 '아동 세탁'을 근절하는 등 입양 관리·감독을 강화해야 한다는 지적이 제기됐다.
국회 보건복지가족위원회 최영희 의원(민주당)이 10일 의원회관에서 개최한 '입양촉진 및 절차에 관한 특례법 개정을 위한 공청회'에 참가한 입양인들은 "입양기관이 아동 신상서류를 조작하는 등 '아동세탁(child laundering)'이 벌어지고 있다"고 폭로했다.
이날 발제자로 참석한 해외 입양인 제인 정 트렌카(Jane Jeong Trenka)씨는 "해외 입양인들 중 상당수는 입양 당시 이미 호적이 있는데도 입양기관이 고아호적을 새로 만들어 양부모에게 보냈다는 사실을 확인했다"며 "이 과정에서 아동의 신상정보가 사라져 입양인 중 가족을 상봉하는 비율이 2.7%에 불과하다"고 지적했다.

A fight to change adoption law
By Shannon Heit
The Korea Herald 2009.11.13
Leveraging the help of a group of lawyers and a Korean unwed mothers organization, a group of expats in Seoul are driving a movement to create a major shift in how the country deals with adoptions.
With the support of Democratic Party Representative Choi Young-hee, this coalition presented its bill to revise the current Special Act Relating to Adoption Promotion and Procedure law at a National Assembly public hearing on Nov. 10.
The coalition has been working together for over a year to draw up a proposal for a new adoption law. Involved are three adoption-related groups - Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoptee Community of Korea (TRACK), Adoptee Solidarity Korea, KoRoot - an unwed mothers group, Miss Mama Mia, and the Gonggam Public Interest Lawyers Group.
What initially began last year as a request to the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission for a probe into cases of allegedly inaccurate or falsified adoption records has expanded into a movement that could change the course of Koreas adoption program.

A generation fights to reform adoption laws
By Limb Jae-un
The JoongAng Daily 2009.11.11
Six Korean adoptees filed an appeal with the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission last year to request a probe into irregularities in their adoption documents and possible illegal procedures at local adoption agencies.
Now, they’re involved in a full-fledged battle to reform adoption laws and procedures, and they’re getting help from some heavyweights.
Adoptee rights and community groups as well as unwed mothers, the public interest law firm Gong-Gam and Democratic Party Representative Choi Young-hee have joined forces with the adoptees in an effort to convince lawmakers to revise the Special Law Relating to the Promotion and Procedure of Adoption.
The National Assembly has now taken up the issue and is exploring changes through a series of hearings.

South Koreans Struggle With Race
By CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times
November 1, 2009
SEOUL — On the evening of July 10, Bonogit Hussain, a 29-year-old Indian man, and Hahn Ji-seon, a female Korean friend, were riding a bus near Seoul when a man in the back began hurling racial and sexist slurs at them.
The situation would be a familiar one to many Korean women who have dated or even — as in Ms. Hahn’s case — simply traveled in the company of a foreign man.
What was different this time, however, was that, once it was reported in the South Korean media, prosecutors sprang into action, charging the man they have identified only as a 31-year-old Mr. Park with contempt, the first time such charges had been applied to an alleged racist offense. Spurred by the case, which is pending in court, rival political parties in Parliament have begun drafting legislation that for the first time would provide a detailed definition of discrimination by race and ethnicity and impose criminal penalties.

Korea continues to deny overseas adoptees access
By Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Jane Jeong Trenka
The Korea Times 07-17-2009 15:45
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family opened a central adoption information service center Wednesday to provide post-adoption services to adoptees searching for their birth families. However, there's one significant problem that the ministry has ignored: adoptee access.
This center is meant to fulfill the requirement of a ``central authority'' by the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Click on the central authority's new Web site (www.kcare.or.kr) featuring images of adoptees for whom their birth families are searching and you'll find it is completely in the Korean language. Can an overseas adoptee whose first language is either English or French read or use this?
Since 1953, South Korea has sent over 160,000 Korean children abroad to 14 Western countries. It is the oldest and largest adoption program in the world, despite South Korea's economic miracle.
Reunion with birth families is a primary reason for adoptees to return to South Korea. From 1995-2005, the ministry reported that 78,000 adoptees came to South Korea to search for their families. Yet only 2.7 percent were reunited. What accounts for this low success rate?

The Korea Times
10.30.2009
By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
The government plans to permit dual citizenship to Koreans who have acquired another nationality, as well as foreigners who have married a Korean or lived here for five years, a senior Justice Ministry official said.
Korea has scrapped its original plan to offer dual citizenship only to Korean adoptees and foreigners with outstanding talents, said Cha Gyu-geun, head of the ministry's Nationality and Refugee Division.
The ministry has nearly completed the new bill which would overhaul the Naturalization Law, Cha said.

www.cbs.co.kr
2009.10.23
사람에서 희망찾기' 절절 인터뷰③ - '뿌리의 집' 김도현 목사
"처음에 나는 이 일이 매우 낯설고 잘 모르는 일일 뿐더러, 왠지 어두운 그림자가 드리워
진 세상 같아 선뜻 발을 들여놓기가 싫었습니다"
20년 가까이 입양인 곁에서 그들과 함께 호흡하며, 이들 각각의 '존재찾기의 여정'이 그저 막막하고 외롭지 않도록 도와온 김도현 목사에게, 왜 현재의 삶을 택했나 물었을 때 돌아온 예상 밖의 답이었다.
테마가 있는 뉴스

www.abc.net
Broadcast: 15/09/2009
Reporter: Andrew Georghegan
Since Angelina Jolie adopted her daughter Zahara in 2005, the number of Americans adopting Ethiopian children has quadrupled.
A pop-media obsession with celebrities adopting children in Africa has resulted in a queue of adopting foreigners dealing with opportunistic adoption agents in operating in a regulatory vaccuum. In Ethiopia - and beyond - its creating a heartbreaking mess.
International adoptions may seem like an ideal solution to the dreadful deprivation among the young in Ethiopia and the often impossible circumstances confronting parents trying to feed and raise their children.
The reality though, is far from ideal.

The New York Times International Edition
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: October 7, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea —
Photo:
Four years ago, when she found that she was pregnant by her former boyfriend, Choi Hyong-sook considered abortion. But after she saw the little blip of her baby’s heartbeat on ultrasound images, she could not go through with it.
Jean Chung for the International Herald Tribune

Debut of a Korean-American Adoptee Director at the Pusan International Film Festival
Tammy Chu, Director
Resilience
Sunday, October 11 (1 PM) and Thursday, October 15 (4 PM)
(Seoul, Yonhap News) Korean-American adoptee Tammy Chu will premiere her latest film on international adoption at the Pusan International Film Festival later this week.
With a running time of 75 minutes, Resilience will screen first on Sunday, October 11 at 1 PM at the Haeundae Megabox Theater 3. The second screening will be on Thursday, October 15 at 4 PM at the same location. The film offers a unique perspective on the issues related to international adoption.
Born in Seoul, Chu and her twin sister were adopted to America at the age of 8. When she was 21, she met her birth mother in Korea. This was an experience that ultimately contributed to the shaping of the film, which she began in earnest in 2001. The film has received generous support from the KoRoot Guesthouse for Adoptees in Korea.