THE RIGHT TO ORIGINS a workshop organized in partnership with the Legal Agenda, on the 20th of November, with the participation of Cedars Children International, check the link below: 

The workshop and performance constituted a platform to put the cause of children without parental care through placement into institutional care or through illegal inter-country adoption on the public agenda by calling for a road –map towards a civil law to govern separation and hence resorting to alternative care as per the International Guidelines on Children without Parental Care. Stakeholders, mainly persons who were placed into alternative care where they were subject to abuse and persons who were adopted internationally voiced out their right to origins and to proper access to information …

The two events coincided with the visit of a delegation of 6 persons from Children of the Cedars International which is a group established in the Netherlands to gather persons who were adopted from Lebanon, two persons who were adopted to France and one person who was adopted to Switzerland. The two events were highly received by the Media with very high coverage in addition to participation in prime time talk-shows. With the limited available financial resources, the focus of our work for 2015 will be on two components:

1. Enhancing our communication campaign to increase awareness on the right to origins through highlighting the need for prevention from separation, showing evidence of negative implications of forced separation through illegal adoption  or through placement into institutional care, suggest alternative measures and forms of care. In this context, a TV 35 seconds spot will be produced and broadcasted, media interviews will be undertaken, round table discussions will be organized.
2. Drafting two laws in partnership with the Legal Agenda as the following:

• The Right to Know for those separated from their origins through illegal adoption.
• A civil law to govern separation and placement into alternative forms of care (adoption would be considered as one form of care) in addition to qualitative guideline in conformity with the International Guidelines on Children without Parental Care.