Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc. and their membership support the mothers of this nation in their decades long quest to achieve justice. We are aligned in their rightful request that all state jurisdictions remove the statute of limitations which prevent adopted adults and their mothers from accessing redress and compensatory mechanisms.
Numerous Australian state and federal formal apologies, along with parliamentary inquiries, have acknowledged the illegal removal of newborns from their mothers during the forced adoption era. Adopted children now adults were denied their birthright to remain with their mother. Adoptees were and still are subject to Draconian adoption legislation that breaches our human and civil rights as children and adults.
According to ARA President, Peter Capomolla Moore:
“Many mothers took decades to comprehend or have still not come to comprehend what was done to them, the intergenerational loss of a child, grandchildren & great grandchildren, their child now adult who lost families, the intergenerational losses of their children and their children’s children forever.”
“Many Adoptees also take decades to realise the consequences of adoption on their lives, their identity and that of their children, etc. How many 18 year olds could possibly be informed enough of the ongoing effects of adoption on their lives to mount a successful legal challenge within three years?”
“Many other adoptees still do not know of their adoptive status, hidden by the archaic adoption acts designed to maintain secrecy. Commercial Home DNA test kits are now unraveling many of these hidden secrets.
“Some like myself who did not know for 59 years, 5 years later I’m still processing its effects.”
“Governments of Australia have a duty of care to inform all adopted people of their adoptive status in a supportive and controlled environment: not via DNA, not from a disgruntled sibling or cousin, not from an ex-partner as a final act to inflict the last blow as they walk out the door. The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, which Australia ratified in 1990, clearly states this obligation at Articles 7 and 8.”
Adoption has caused the permanent life long rupture of hundreds of thousands of mother/newborn relationships, burdening generations of adopted Australians with the irreparable loss of intergenerational family connection. With the cascade of traumatic pre-verbal events, many adoptees failed to achieve the vital attachment milestones which form the foundation to one’s humanity and emotional wellbeing. The impact of this disenfranchised grief, loss, complex trauma, and the loss of identity and culture affects the victim-survivors throughout their lives, impacting upon health, mental wellbeing and relationships.
Adopted people are over-represented in suicide, suicide attempts, alcoholism, substance abuse, homelessness, and incarceration.
Compensation and redress mechanisms are essential in providing survivors with validation and a sense of acknowledgement for the harms that were wrongfully inflicted on them.
By removing the statute of limitations, adoption survivors will finally be afforded the right to claim compensation for the harms inflicted by governments and former adoptive institutions. The opportunity for mothers and adopted adults to participate in truth telling before a court will provide an alignment with other survivor groups who have recently benefited from the removal of the statute of limitations.
Contact information:
For further information, please contact Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc at [email protected] or phone contact for media: 0416 146 294
6 Replies to “Call to remove the Statute of Limitations on Adoption Crimes”
Everything I have just read is true and absolutely correct.
The statute of limitations MUST be removed as a matter of urgency for adoptees, their parents and the whole families on BOTH sides.
Come on government, acknowledgement and saying sorry is NOT ENOUGH & how many decades did that take???
Now provide that duty of care as a leader in the free world, a leader in democracy.
Yours sincerely,
Kim Winning
Decades of trauma on behalf of the mothers and children (now adults) should be reason enough for this to happen now.
Enough, we’ve had enough.
Imagine being a child (and right through your adult life) thinking no one will ever love you because the very woman that carried you for 9 months, discarded you like garbage…. Only to find out in your later years, that in fact she (birth mother) herself had been mourning your loss throughout her life after being told you had died at birth.
How can there possibly be a statue of limitation on life trauma when most only find out the truth in their later years?
A ‘sorry’ that holds no true empathy is hardly enough to help thousands of people affected by this despicable act of forced adoption heal.
Step father adoptions when the natural mother marries need to be addressed in cases of abuse & trauma. The alienation still occurs. No one to go to, no one will get involved & help. Where is the duty of care, I belong nowhere
not all crimunally abducted newborn babies were adopted ..many died in foster care where all abducted babies were placed before legal adoption process …swapped over with married womans still born baby or unfit for adoption and placed into institutional care …the mother renained legal guardian stripped of all her legal rights .. truth has been exposed mothers also suffered barbaric brutal medical sexual crimes during pregnancy ..usec as lab rats ..it was genocide. BUT funded adoption group now state FORCING RELINQUISHMENT no no no another way to conceal crimes against humanity ..thank you adpptee rights for acjnowledging mothers and their abducted newborn babies ..both now adults …many mothers have also suicided ..nany homeless .. thank you it means alot to mothers to see adoptee rights to acknowledge mothers … together we should stand …not divided … mother and her son daughter will always be connected through invisible cord that runs from a mother,s heart of uncondional love to her abducted son or daughter ..thank you
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