Restorative justice and overseas adoption

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.

By Park Hee-jung

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.

Some time ago, I was present at a reunion of a former adoptee with their birth family. The mother could not forget her baby for a single day after she gave him up due to experiencing devastating poverty and social prejudice. In order to forget her wrongdoing and the memory of her baby, she became a shaman. A shaman is a person who communicates with the dead because of a disturbing experience they went through in life.

I visited a shaman's house to help with interpretation, and witnessed a family’s life of agony and watched their unconscious behavior while sitting all night for one week and observing them. This woman dreamt about her son for 30 years and woke up in the middle of the night almost every night. She attempted suicide several times because of a mistake she made. Finally she became a shaman to deal with and overcome the extreme distress she experienced. The birth parents and adoptee parents both experience great difficulties.

Now we have 200,000 overseas adoptees with 400,000 parents totaling at least 600,000 people struggling with these issues. Of course, they may also have real brothers and sisters involved in these matters.

It is more urgent than ever to map out solutions for international adoptees who have become adults. I expect a resolute decision from the South Korean government that leads to the country embracing a concept of Koreans 1.5 (neither 1st nor 2nd generation). This means it is time to talk about membership in Korean society and further support for international adoptees through constant discussion of solidarity based on inclusion and friendship.

I'd like to share serious consideration of overseas adoptions with all involved countries by communicating the issues as they are, such as confusion about identity, sense of social isolation, emotional and psychological problems, and failure in social adaptation by international adoptees. This is the start of a society whereby everybody can live constructively together, as well as the way to establish peace on the basis of social inclusion and solidarity.

If the criminal justice system, which most often aims to punish perpetrators, instead takes an interest in enabling perpetrators to truly repent of their offenses and voluntarily make restitution to their victims, while allowing victims to accept restitution based on a principle of forgiveness and tolerance, a foundation for peace and respect of others in the community will be formed. As such, it is very important to prepare for a system wherein both perpetrators and victims can heal and recover. If we are working from a perspective that values life above all, and protects human rights as precious to the extent that they carry more weight than the earth itself, such an approach must be inspiring.

It is not that easy to build a society that is better and more peaceful, in which everyone can live together harmoniously. When criminals are punished, this does not mean that everything has been resolved. Often, the root causes of a crime can be found in the community or even in the life of the victim himself or herself. On this basis, victims and communities also have a responsibility to take an interest in the perpetrators of crimes. The intent must be to identify the fundamental causes of crime, and by addressing these causes, create a better society and country, by seeking an alternative, namely Restorative Justice rather than punishment to truly heal scars.

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."

Recently in Korea, as the number of international marriages increase, there have been many who urge the incorporation of the International Child Abduction Convention into legislation to maintain peace and resolve disputes among families including East Asia, and it is known that the Ministry of Justice is seriously considering this.

I believe that the transcendent model, which breaks out of the vicious circle by preventing disputes in advance, as well enabling our interest as citizens in "a society where everybody lives well together" through inclusion and solidarity, will improve our lives as citizens of the world, in concert with active changes in governmental policies.

The dream and hope of creating a "peaceful world where everybody lives well together" as well as "the best interests of the child" (human rights) "make what is not seen visible, and enables those who are not able to see, to see."

Above all things, peace should entail action. Action is required so that we can "live well together."

The writer is a strategist of the President Office of the World Federation of United Nations Associations and also an economic advisor to Timor-Leste President Taur Matan Ruak. He is the author of ``Everyday Miracle,” ``Social Freedom in South Korea,” and ``Dreaming Social Entrepreneur” in Korean. His email address is heejung1009@gmail.com.