The Commissie Binnenlandse Afstand en Adoptie (CBAA) examined the impact of giving up and adoption on parents, children and other stakeholders in the period 1956-1984. Atria was commissioned by the committee to research the personal experiences of relinquishing parents, relinquished children, foster and adoptive parents and close ones. The report was presented to the Dutch State Secretary for Legal Protection Teun Struycken on 19 June 2025.
The Commissie Binnenlandse Afstand en Adoptie (CBAA) examined the impact of giving up and adoption on parents, children and other stakeholders in the period 1956-1984. Atria was commissioned by the committee to research the personal experiences of relinquishing parents, relinquished children, foster and adoptive parents and close ones. The report was presented to the Dutch State Secretary for Legal Protection Teun Struycken on 19 June 2025.
Between 1956 and 1984, an estimated 13,000 or 14,000 unmarried pregnant girls and women in the Netherlands came under severe social pressure to give up their newborn child. This pressure came not only from their immediate environment - parents, family and social workers - but was also fuelled by then prevailing norms around decency and the fear of social or economic consequences.
Key recommendations
The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and Security and launched in late 2022 under the direction of Micha de Winter, contains a number of recommendations. The conclusions are based on three sub-studies conducted by the International Institute of Social History (IISG), Maastricht University and Atria.
Expert help and care: promote expertise of aid and care workers and those in training to do so
Support in opening lines to biological family and own history: organise assistance in searching for parentage information
Control over own family life: give parents and children as much voice as possible in decisions about their family life
Authority over own sexuality: actively encourage sex education programmes in education
Harm from shame: do not judge
Sustainable recognition: include the topic of domestic relinquishment and adoption in the Canon of the Netherlands
Deep traces
Atria examined people's personal experiences of domestic remoteness and adoption in Diepe Sporen (Deep Traces) sub-study. This focuses on the meaning these experiences had for them, both at the time and in later periods. It included oral-history interviews with:
women who relinquished a child
men from whom a child was relinquished
people who were relinquished as children and grew up with adoptive parents or in another situation
people who raised one or more relinquished children
and people who were affected in their immediate environment
