Restorative justice and overseas adoption
Sep 06, 2012
from the op-ed by Park Hee-jung in The Korea Times:
In the 10 years I spent providing interpretation and managerial services for international adoptees on a volunteer basis, I witnessed the pain of many international adoptees. Today, I am still providing consultation to adoptees raised in the U.S., and I served as the manager in some facilities in which adoptees stay in Korea to learn the Korean language and culture.
I listened to many different stories while acting as an interpreter during the reunions of families who previously gave up their children for adoption. Approximately 200,000 international adoptees from Korea are scattered throughout the world, and there are currently close to 300 international adoptees staying in Korea to learn the Korean language and culture in order to discover a sense of identity. I have had a range of experiences while providing this voluntary interpretation service.
....I am very interested in overseas adoption and restorative justice based on tolerance, forgiveness, and repentance. First of all, I would like to research how to apply restorative justice to overseas adoption. I strongly believe that the three parties in restorative justice such as victims, criminals, and community are similar to birth families, adoptive families, and adoptees in the adoption structure. Therefore, I believe this research allows me to contribute more to family law, and hopefully one day to help others to improve the adoption structure.
In addition, participating in the Moot Court Competition on the rights of children, I realized that a peaceful approach is needed in relation to children's rights and international law. Along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) emerged as international law, having 191 member countries agree to its basic purpose of “maximizing the interests of the child."
Based on the spirit of the CRC, the International Child Abduction Convention was created to prevent disputes between countries and contribute to the proliferation of peace between countries as well as to the human rights of the child, emphasizing "the best interests of the child."
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