Forced Adoption as a Crime Against Humanity: Why the ICC Must Act.

Forcible transfer of children is a recognized crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It has been prosecuted in cases of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and government-led child trafficking operations. And yet, one of the largest and longest-standing examples of forced child separation – the global adoption industry – remains largely unchallenged.

For decades, governments, religious institutions, and adoption agencies have systematically removed children from their families under the guise of humanitarianism. Adoption is a system of coercion, deception, and institutional power. Adoption has never been an act of care; it is a mechanism of human trafficking – one that profits from identity erasure, sealed records, and legal reclassification of human beings.

It is time for forced adoption to be recognized for what it is: a crime against humanity that must be investigated at the highest level of international law.

What Makes Forced Adoption a Crime Against Humanity?

Under Article 7 of the Rome Statute, crimes against humanity include:

• “Forcible transfer of children of one group to another.”
• “Persecution against an identifiable group.”
• “Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law.”

Forced adoption fits all three of these categories when:

1. Mothers are coerced, drugged, or institutionalized to obtain infants for adoption, as seen in the Magdalene Laundries, maternity homes, and psychiatric hospitals where women were forcibly separated from their babies.
2. Children are trafficked internationally, placed into new families without proper consent, and given false identities, as seen in illegal international adoptions from Guatemala, Ethiopia, China, and Haiti.
3. Adoption systems erase a child’s identity, seal records, and fabricate legal documents, severing their connection to their origins – a direct violation of the child’s right to identity under international human rights law.

The ICC has already investigated similar cases, such as Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children (2022-present) and Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1976–1983), in which infants were stolen from political dissidents and placed into new families with falsified birth records.

So why does forced adoption – on a global scale – remain unchallenged?

The Problem: Adoption as a “Good” Crime

Unlike outright child trafficking, forced adoption operates under the illusion of morality. The adoption industry frames itself as a solution to crisis – poverty, single motherhood, displacement – while hiding the coercion, deception, and profiteering beneath the surface.

Governments launder human rights violations through adoption, recasting state-sponsored family separation as a humanitarian act. This is why:

• Governments that forcibly remove children from Indigenous, poor, or unmarried mothers justify it as “rescuing” them from hardship.
• Religious institutions that profit from adoption agencies frame it as a charitable mission.
• Adoption agencies that exploit disaster-struck or war-torn nations claim they are “helping orphans,” even when many of these children have living families.

The narrative of adoption as a moral good has allowed systemic human trafficking to go unchecked for generations.

Historical and Ongoing Cases of Forced Adoption

Forced adoption is not an isolated crime – it is a recurring pattern of state-controlled family separation. Some of the largest documented cases include:

The Stolen Generations (Australia, 1900s – 1970s)

• Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families and placed into white households to “assimilate” them.
• Many were told their parents had abandoned them, severing their cultural and familial ties.
• The Australian government has since apologized, but no international legal accountability has ever been pursued.

Forced Adoption (Australia, 1900s–1970s)

• Approximately 250,000 white children were forcibly removed from their families in Australia under state policies designed to place them in institutions or adoptive families deemed more “suitable.”
• Many were taken from single mothers, working-class families, or those deemed socially unfit, with authorities often fabricating reasons for removal.
• Unwed mothers were placed in institutions, drugged, and forced to give up their children.
• These children were frequently told they had been abandoned, severing their connection to their biological families and erasing their origins.
• It was common for the mother to be told their child had died shortly after birth.
• The Australian government formally apologized in 2013 for forced adoption practices, but no international legal accountability has been pursued for the systemic trauma caused, yet 0 of 20 senate enquiry recommendations are yet to be implemented, and Royal Commissions have been publicly denied.

The Magdalene Laundries & Mother and Baby Homes (Ireland, 1920s – 1990s)

• Unwed mothers were placed in institutions, drugged, and forced to give up their children.
• Babies were illegally sold to families in the U.S., often with falsified birth certificates.
• Mass graves of infants have been discovered at these institutions, proving the extent of cruelty involved.

Argentina’s Dirty War (1976 – 1983)

• Hundreds of infants were stolen from political prisoners and placed with new families.
• Birth records were falsified, erasing their biological identities.
• The ICC has recognized these acts as crimes against humanity, prosecuting military officials involved.

Russia’s Abduction of Ukrainian Children (2022 – Present)

• The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Russian officials for illegally transferring Ukrainian children to Russian families.
• The case is being prosecuted as a war crime.

If these cases are worthy of international criminal investigation, why are millions of forced adoptions around the world ignored?

The Next Step: Why the ICC Must Act

Forced adoption is not just an issue of ethics or historical injustice – it is an ongoing, systemic violation of human rights that continues today.

The ICC has the power to investigate and prosecute state-sanctioned family separations, coerced adoptions, and identity erasure. It must:

1. Recognise forced adoption as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.
2. Investigate past and present cases of government-sanctioned adoption trafficking.
3. Hold governments and adoption agencies accountable for violating international law.

There is no difference between:

• The babies stolen from Irish mothers and sold to wealthy American families.
• The Indigenous children taken from their communities to be “civilized.”
• The children of forced Adoption in Australia.
• - The Ukrainian children abducted and forcibly reclassified as Russian citizens.

Family separation is a crime, no matter how it is justified.

It is time to end the illusion of adoption as an untouchable moral good and expose it for what it has too often been – a tool of power, control, and profit at the expense of the most vulnerable.

Forced adoption is not just a tragedy. It is a crime against humanity. And the ICC must investigate.

Forced Adoption Is Not History

It’s the Future Unless We Stop It

The world’s political climate is shifting. Extremist ideologies, state control over reproduction, and attacks on bodily autonomy are escalating across nations. And with it, forced adoption is not just a crime of the past – it is a blueprint for the future.

If it hasn’t already returned, it will.

The mechanisms of family separation, coercion, and child reassignment have always been present, but they are now poised to expand under authoritarian governments, forced birth policies, and the resurgence of adoption as a state-sanctioned solution to reproductive control. The same structures that enabled forced adoption in the past – religious institutions, governments, adoption industries – are being empowered again, repackaging family separation as a moral good while erasing the suffering it inflicts.

Unless we expose forced adoption for what it is – a crime against humanity and a tool of biopolitical control – we will see it weaponized against the most vulnerable, just as we have before.

The Resurgence of Forced Adoption in a Post-Roe World

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 was not just about abortion – it was about state control over reproduction. The same forces that fought to criminalize abortion have long been involved in promoting adoption as the only acceptable “solution” for unplanned pregnancies.

In states where abortion is now banned or severely restricted, adoption rates are expected to rise. But adoption in this context is not about choice – it is about coercion. A person who is forced to give birth is not freely choosing adoption. They are being funnelled into a system that profits from reproductive control.

• Crisis pregnancy centres, many of which are religiously affiliated, manipulate and pressure pregnant people into surrendering their children.
• Adoption agencies profit from adoption fees, turning infants into commodities.
• The foster care system prioritizes adoption over reunification, severing families instead of supporting them.

We have seen this before: when the state takes control of reproduction, adoption is used as a tool of social engineering.

Forced Adoption Has Always Been a Political Weapon

Adoption has never been an apolitical act. It has always been a mechanism of power designed to reshape populations, erase identities, and control who is allowed to raise children. It is no coincidence that some of the most notorious cases of forced adoption have targeted Indigenous, poor, unmarried, and marginalized communities.

Why the ICC Must Investigate – Before It’s Too Late

Forced adoption is a crime against humanity. But unlike other crimes – genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing – it hides under the veil of humanitarianism. This is why it has been allowed to continue for so long.

Why are millions of adoptees whose identities were erased, whose families were broken apart, whose adoptions were forced by coercion and systemic violence still waiting for justice?

We must push for:

• The ICC to formally investigate forced adoption as a crime against humanity.
• Adoption it self be abolished worldwide.
• Legal reparations for survivors of forced adoption.
• A global recognition that family separation, when coerced, is state-sponsored child trafficking.

The Time to Act Is Now

Forced adoption is not history. It is a living crime, an ongoing reality, and a future that will be repeated if we do not name it, expose it, and dismantle it.

With reproductive rights under attack, with authoritarian governments rising, with adoption industries ready to capitalize on crisis – we are already on the edge of a new era of forced adoption.

The world cannot afford to look away.