Thousands of Paraguayan children—roughly 5,000 infants and young children by some estimates—were adopted to the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s. These adoptions were facilitated by our respective state and federal governments, alongside for-profit, private adoption agencies.

This system was driven by demand and exploitation, severing adoptees from their first family, culture, and identity. These practices violated adoptees' rights as codified in The Hague Adoption Convention (HAC) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Reports over the years have confirmed that in many cases, serious human rights abuses occurred, including but not limited to:

• The removal of children from their biological parents and placement for adoption without valid, informed, or willing consent.
• Forced adoptions, including the abduction, sale, or traffic of children to international families abroad.
• Financial and/or moral coercion of birth mothers , including bribery and entrapment into surrendering their children.
• Medical and reproductive coercion, including forced surrogacy and fetal abduction, carried out by doctors and other medical professionals.
• Human trafficking of children across international borders facilitated by transnational criminal networks or smuggling rings.
• Falsified and/or erased birth records, court documents, and travel documents issued by the state and/or private entities or individuals to make adoptions appear legitimate.
• Switched identities of children and/or birth mothers, including the use of “substitute mothers” to conceal or cover up irregular or illegal adoption practices.
• Government and institutional failures to protect children and families, including lack of adequate legal frameworks and oversight around adoptions, creating opportunities for exploitation.
  (Sources cited below)

Thousands of families trusted the Paraguayan Government and international adoption agencies to act in their best interests. Today, many adoptees and their families have discovered that this was not the case. 

International Paraguayan adoptions halted due to irregularities and corruption in the mid 1990s, with new adoption laws ultimately stopping all international adoptions that did not comply with The Hague Adoption Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Despite documented evidence of wrongdoing and widespread public outrage, many of these accusations did not result in convictions. For many adoptees and families, the lack of accountability remains one of the central unresolved questions surrounding this period.

An additional point of contention lies in the fact that intercountry adoptees are still largely denied access to their identities, including adoption records, birth records, medical records, and information on their biological families, which have been sealed or classified by the government for decades.

Right now, the emotional and financial burden is falling solely on adoptees and their families to do the investigative work to reconnect with their origins, with the help of private investigators and social workers, genetic testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry, and, increasingly, social media such as Facebook. 

The exception to this is the recent cooperation from the Oficina Técnica de Apoyo a la Justicia de la Niñez y La Adolecencia (OTANA) in September 2026 to release newly discovered adoption documents to the Museum of Justice for archiving. However, many adoptees feel that this is too little, too late, as these vital records have been hidden from us for over thirty years.

This ties into an additional problem for adoptees—lack of access to documentation. The UNCRC guarantees the right to an identity, including original birth certificates, medical records, identity cards, and citizenship papers. 

This fundamental human right has frequently been denied to Paraguayan adoptees, often due to extenuating factors such as fraud or falsification of original documents, the modification of birth records—including names of both the adopted child and the parent(s)—and the complicated and expensive process of renewing citizenship documents from abroad.

Every adoptee has the right to know and preserve their name, family history, and citizenship, if they so desire. And every child who was separated from their family deserves to know the truth about the circumstances of their adoption.

Paraguay must act promptly to ensure that every child who was adopted abroad regain access to their origins and identity.

 

The Petition:

We, the Organization of Paraguayan Adoptees, are calling on the Paraguayan government to do the following:

1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate historic state corruption, coercion, and systemic human rights abuses related to overseas adoption of Paraguayan children to the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East in the 1980s-1990s. The goal of this fact-finding body would be to: 
   -establish a permanent record of rights violations;
   -acknowledge and repair past harms;
   -restore victims' dignity;
   -foster civic trust;
   -preserve historical memory; 
   -signal a commitment to non-repetition.
2. Independent Investigation: Upon the establishment of this commission, we ask for a full and independent investigation into the networks of judges, lawyers, doctors, social workers, orphanages, foster families, notaries, and other individuals or entities involved in illicit and illegal practices around adoption.
   The primary goal of this investigation is reconciliation not retribution. We are not pursuing legal action, but rather asking for transparency and accountability.
3. Preservation of Adoption Records: Following this investigation, we request the release of all records, files, and notes from the individuals named in the aforementioned reports, as well as any other known individuals and entities that worked with adoptees and their biological and adoptive families between the years 1984-1997, to the Museum of Justice and Memory to be archived, digitized, and documented along with testimonials from survivors and other reports, articles, and evidences found from this era. This will serve as a permanent record of the human rights abuses that occurred. The goal of this endeavor would be to preserve historical memory, restore dignity to survivors, and ensure non-repetition.
4. Access to Adoption Records: We ask that any and all records found be available upon request by any adoptee seeking their origins. We also request that these records be available online so adoptees have access to their identity documents without having to travel to Paraguay, which is a financial hardship for many adoptees. 
5. Access to Government Databases: Additionally, we ask that the Paraguayan government update privacy laws to grant adoptees access to other vital government databases, including immigration records, residency records, birth and death registries, in order to locate missing family members and facilitate family reunifications. 
6. Adoptee Assistance: We request that the government provide records navigation support to assist adoptees to access, interpret, and navigate records and connect with families across borders.
7. National DNA Database: We also ask that the Paraguayan government create a Missing Persons Database in the form of a DNA Bank that compares genetic samples between missing or relinquished children and biological families to significantly improve reunion opportunities.
8. Family Reunification Campaign: We request that the government launch a family reunification outreach campaign in Paraguay—especially in rural areas—to inform birth families of their options to participate in DNA matching and reduce the stigma of having relinquished their children.
9. Citizenship and Identification Services: We also ask that Paraguayan embassies and consulates abroad work to help international adoptees renew citizenship documents, including passports and cédulas. In particular, we request assistance from the embassy in the United States, which is located far from where many adoptees currently live, to virtually assist and expedite this renewal process. This will help lighten the burden on adoptees, for many of whom interstate travel would pose a financial hardship.
10. Financial Assistance: Finally, we request the financial support of the state, including but not limited to the absorption of costs associated with family search, genetic testing, family reunification, birthright travel, and other expenses related to reconnection with adoptees’ history and origins.

We recognize that implementing these initiatives may require time, resources, and government coordination. While we do not expect immediate implementation, we respectfully ask that each proposal be carefully reviewed and considered. 

Even gradual progress would represent a meaningful step toward helping Paraguayan adoptees reclaim their identities, reconnect with their roots, and strengthen their ties to their country of birth.

 

Why Your Support is Crucial:

The voices of adoptees alone are not enough to bring about the change we need and our voices to be heard. We need you—our friends and family—along with other non-adoptees who believe in human rights and justice.

By signing this petition and sharing it with your network, you are not only standing up for the rights of Paraguayan adoptees but also sending a strong message to the Paraguayan government that we will not remain silent. 

Share, Sign, and Stand for Justice:

• Sign this petition to demand justice for Paraguayan adoptees.
• Share it with your friends, family, and networks.
• Stand with us as we seek truth, justice, and healing for those affected by Paraguay’s role in these human rights violations.

Together, we can ensure that the mistakes of the past are recognized, and the voices of those who have been hurt are finally heard.

Thank you. Gracias. Aguije.

Signed, 

The Organization of Paraguayan Adoptees (OPA)

 

Sources:

• Adopción en el Paraguay - Compendio de publicaciones 1994-1998” by Rita Hevia from Global Infancia/ UNICEF: https://globalinfancia.org.py/uploads/files/Adopci%C3%B3n%20en%20el%20Paraguay-Global%20Infancia.pdf
• “Adopción Internacional o Tráfico de Niños – Paraguay” by Rosa María Ortiz from the Centro de Documentación y Estudios (CDE): https://www.cde.org.py/wp-content/uploads/1994/10/Adopci%c3%b3n-Internacional-o-tr%c3%a1fico-de-ni%c3%b1os1.pdf
• La Adopción: un Acto de Amor y de Derechos by Rosa María Ortiz from Global Infancia: https://globalinfancia.org.py/uploads/files/Libro%20La%20Adopci%C3%B3n%20es%20un%20acto%20de%20amor.pdf
• “THE BABY TRAIL: A special report. Adoptions in Paraguay: Mothers Cry Theft” by Diana Jean Schemo from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/19/world/the-baby-trail-a-special-report-adoptions-in-paraguay-mothers-cry-theft.html
• “The ‘Enabling Violation’ of International Adoption” by Drucilla Cornell from the New York Times:  https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/the-dilemmas-of-international-adoption/?_r=0
• “Adoption Frenzy” by the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1995/11/05/adoption-frenzy/
• “Paraguay Acts To Halt Illegal Baby Trafficking” by John Neagle from Notisur: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/notisur/3469
• The Baby Pipeline” by David Schaffer from St. Paul Pioneer Press: https://trafficking692.rssing.com/chan-38409717/latest.php
• “Paraguay: Italian Couple Arrested for Trafficking of Babies” by Jaeran from AGI: https://harlows-monkey.com/2007/10/06/agi-news-paragu/
• “Report Points to 30 years of International Adoption Mishandling in France.” by Morgane LeCam from Le Monde: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/02/10/report-points-to-30-years-of-international-adoption-mishandling-in-france_6015214_4.html
• “Paraguay’s Lost Children #1: The International Adoptions In The Stroessner Era” by Sol Orrabalis from the Asunción Times: https://asunciontimes.com/culture/paraguayan-history/paraguays-lost-children-1-international-adoptions-in-the-stroessner-era/
•  “The Baby Trade” - Documentary produced by BBC: https://vimeo.com/1037895233