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Corruption in International Adoptions 

NEW! Adoption experts respond to "The Baby Business." The Schuster Institute asked a number of experts, practitioners, and advocates in international adoption to respond to “The Baby Business,” Democracy Journal, Summer 2010. The article reports on an in-depth investigation and analysis of how to improve U.S. policies, statutes, and regulations in order to prevent corrupt practices in international corruption. These experts’ responses are now available on the Schuster Institute website. Read>

NEW! “The Baby Business,” Democracy Journal, Summer 2010. For decades, international adoption has been a Wild West, all but free of meaningful law, regulation, or oversight. What U.S. law, policy, and regulatory changes would help save adopting Americans from unwittingly paying unscrupulous middlemen to buy, coerce, or kidnap children away from their families? "The Baby Business" tries to answer those questions.

"Preventing adoption disasters," The Boston Globe Op-Ed, April 17, 2010.

"The Seamier Side of International Adoption," NYTimes.com opinion blog, May 10, 2010.

"The Orphan Trade: A look at families affected by corrupt international adoptions," a photo essay that presents the stories and struggles of families affected by fraudulent international adoption, Slate.com, May 8, 2009.

"The Adoption Underworld," a full-page collaboration between The Washington Post and the Schuster Institute, January 11, 2009.Includes "The orphan manufacturing chain," which graphically illustrates the steps by which international adoption money can be exchanged for children; and"Out of Cambodia," which recounts how a Cambodian child named Songkea was abducted for U.S. adoption, and reunited with her family five years later.

"The problem with saving the world's 'orphans'" The Boston Globe Op-Ed, December 11, 2008.

Documentation, research, and analysis: Corruption in International Adoptions. In-depth information about serious irregularities in international adoptions worldwide, including an interactive map of countries where serious adoption corruption has been reported.

USUN/UNODC/Schuster Institute panel
about human trafficking

Wednesday, June 16, 1:15 p.m. - 2:45 pm.
ECOSOC Chamber, UN Headquarters, NYC

The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University is proud to present, in concert with The United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC):

"Hidden in Plain Sight: The news media's role in exposing human trafficking," a panel discussion about how the news media have helped expose and explain modern slavery--and how to do better. Learn more>

New from Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner

"Modern-Day Slavery on Washington's Embassy Row?" TIME, June 14, 2010.

On June 14, the State Department released its report on human trafficking, which appears to have ignored a new Congressional mandate to identify specific cases of countries whose diplomats allegedly harbored slaves—even though it indicates such cases exist.

Concerns raised about illegal sex trade

On Sunday, June 6, ESPN presented in-depth reporting into allegations of a rise in human trafficking resulting from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which kicks-off Friday, June 11, in South Africa.

Schuster Institute Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner and photographer/author Melanie Hamman were interviewed by ESPN in the third of three on-line videos: Human Trafficking.

• OTL: Human Trafficking and the World Cup
• OTL: Jasmine’s Story
• OTL Talkback: Human Trafficking 

New from Senior Fellow Jan Goodwin:

"Broken Promises: Seeking Political Asylum in America," Ladies Home Journal, April 2010.

"Every year, people like Isatu Jalloh escape torture and persecution, then find their way to the United States seeking refuge and freedom... [Even though she was] an applicant for political asylum..., Isatu entered a Kafkaesque nightmare" upon her arrival, and was imprisoned, despite her being innocent of committing a criminal offense. Read>

"The VA Health-Care System's Dishonorable Conduct," Good Housekeeping, March 2010.

"Talk to [some female veterans,] and you will hear details of a Veterans Affairs health-care system astonishingly out of touch with the grim experiences many of today's troops face--and then have to deal with at home." Read>

Haiti's Children in the Spotlight

• "Fools Rush In," E. Benjamin Skinner, guest blogger on The American Interest for Walter Russell Mead, who is a Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, Feb. 23, 2010.
• The New York Times "Room for Debate": "Haiti's Children and the Adoption Question," with commentary by E.J. Graff and other prominent experts in the field, Feb. 1, 2010.
• PRI's The World interviews Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner on the subject of "Haiti's Child Slaves," Feb. 1, 2010.
• New Updated HAITI webpage with Resource Guide
• Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner, describes his mission to Haiti to help Bill Nathan, former child slave who now dedicates his life to needy Haitian children.
  • Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life, TIME Magazine, Jan. 20, 2010.
  • TIME's video: "Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life," Jan. 20, 2010.
  • Extreme Measures to Save Extraordinary Man, ABC WORLD NEWS, Jan. 17, 2010.
• Senior Fellow E. Benjamin Skinner's recent book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press, 2008) includes a chapter about his experience in Haiti and the tragic phenomenon there of child domestic slavery (also known as restavek). 

Teen Sexual Harassment in the Workplace 

A shocking report—teenagers are in more danger from sexual predators at their after-school, weekend, and summer jobs than through the Internet.

• "E.J. Graff shines a light on the dark side of teen summer jobs," BrandeisNOW spotlight for Wednesday, July 15, 2009
• "Summer Jobs Often Lead to Harassment," ABC's WCVB-TV Channel 5 Boston's investigative reporter Rhondella Richardson's interview with E.J. Graff (broadcast July 10, 11pm)
• "Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?" PBS Now/Schuster Institute, February 20, 2009 
• Sexual Harassment of Teens at Work, a resource site about the problem of sexual harassment as it relates to teens; and soon to come, a sampling of cases that have been brought to court
• "Where are working teens being harassed... and suing for it?" interactive map 
• “Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?” E.J. Graff in Good Housekeeping, June 2007

In both the NOW broadcast and the Good Housekeeping article, abused teenagers share their own stories, offering insight into the lives of more than 200,000 teens who are sexually assaulted on the job each year, and hundreds of thousands of others who are sexually coerced, groped, grabbed, and cornered in ways for which they are entirely unprepared. We track their legal journeys to justice, and examine how the issue impacts teenagers across the country—many of whom don’t know how to report workplace abuse, or even how to recognize when their bosses cross the line.

Events

"Hidden in plain sight: The news media's role in exposing human trafficking," panel discussion presented by the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, the United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Wednesday, June 16
UN Headquarters, NYC

Selected Institute Work

• "The Baby Business," Democracy Journal, June 15, 2010
• "Modern-Day Slavery on Washington's Embassy Row?" Time, June 14, 2010
• "Broken Promises: Seeking Political Asylum in America,"  Ladies Home Journal, April 2010
• "The VA Health-Care System's Dishonorable Conduct," Good Housekeeping, March 2010
• “The New Slave Trade,” Time, January 18, 2010
• “Pakistan’s Forgotten Plight: Modern-Day Slavery,” Time, October 27, 2009
• “The Fight to End Global Slavery,” World Policy Journal, Summer 2009
• "The Adoption Underworld," Sunday Washington Post Outlook section, January 11, 2009
• "The Lie We Love," Foreign Policy magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008
• "Do Women Count?," Brandeis University Magazine, Spring 2008
• "Watchdog Reporting: Exploring Its Myth," Nieman Reports, Spring 2008
• "First Things First," The Boston Sunday Globe, June 24, 2007
• "Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?," Good Housekeeping, June 2007
• "A Practical Present for Mom," The Boston Sunday Globe, May 13, 2007
• "The Mommy War Machine," Sunday Washington Post, April 29, 2007
• "The Opt-Out Myth," Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2007
• "Striking Back," The Boston Globe, September 3, 2006
• "Till Hardships Do All of Us Part," The Boston Globe, July 25, 2006
• "Boeing Parts and Rules Bent, Whistle-Blowers Say," The Washington Post, April 17, 2006

• More>

In Related News

ADOPTION

• China restricts foreign adoptions as demand grows at home
• Russia-U.S. adoption agreement to come into effect by year end
• An open letter to Madonna: Thank you, Mother to Mother

More adoption news> 

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

• USA: Human trafficking victim speaks out
• UK: Seven arrests in people trafficking operation
• U.S. launches Blue Campaign to fight human trafficking

WOMEN VETERANS' HEALTH

• Military Sexual Trauma: A Little-Known Veteran Issue
• Landmark Bill Bolsters Care for Female Veterans

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• Male deputy awarded $350K in sexual harassment suit
• Dona Ana County settles sexual harassment lawsuit for $150,000
• Sex complaints increasing in Navy ranks
• Sexual Harassment Claims by Men Growing but Not Equal  

More sexual harassment headlines>

INNOCENCE PROJECT

• DNA-cleared man free after three decades
• John Kamara: 'What's helped me has been a stable relationship and the kids'
• DNA and justice
• 250 Exonerated, Too Many Wrongfully Convicted
• The First 250 DNA Exonerations: Transforming the Criminal Justice System
• Making Up for Lost Time: What the Wrongfully Convicted Endure, and How to Provide Fair Compensation

HOMELESSNESS

• Hunger, family homelessness on rise in U.S. cities
• Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities (PDF)
• 4th Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (PDF 5.78Mb)

MOTHERS OPT-OUT MYTH

• The Choice Myth
• Most Stay-at-Home Moms Start That Way, Study Finds
• Stay-At-Home Moms