United Nations human rights experts have criticized South Korea for its inadequate response to historical human rights violations associated with decades of overseas adoptions. Concerns have been raised about stalled investigations and insufficient access to remedies for affected adoptees. This critique follows South Korea’s response to a joint communication from UN Special Procedures mandate holders, which scrutinized claims of intercountry adoptions carried out through falsified records, a lack of parental consent, and insufficient state oversight, leading to widespread rights violations.
According to a report, the UN experts argue that South Korea’s response fails to clarify how adoptees will receive effective remedies or how the state plans to ensure rights to truth, reparations, and memorialization. Despite South Korea’s recent ratification of the Hague Adoption Convention, the UN emphasized that this treaty does not absolve the country from addressing historical violations.
Information cited by the UN reveals that adoption authority during crucial periods was delegated to private agencies with limited government supervision. Such agencies allegedly altered or fabricated children’s identities and family histories to expedite overseas placements. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), tasked with investigating these practices, had its inquiry suspended in April 2025 amid internal disputes, leaving 311 out of 367 cases unresolved. Multiple adoptees have been recognized by the TRC as victims of state failure, and the UN has warned that the continued suspension of investigations could breach international human rights obligations. Calls for structural reforms are accompanied by demands for accountability and reparations for past harms.
Government officials, including First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Seuran, have acknowledged the need for reform and highlighted the transition of the adoption system into a public framework as an opportunity to reassess intercountry adoption’s role. However, human rights lawyer Choi Jung Kyu critiqued the government’s response, noting that the proposed draft legislation lacks a clear definition of reparations.
Between 1955 and 1999, South Korea facilitated the overseas adoption of approximately 140,000 to 200,000 children. During the 1970s and 1980s, military-era governments viewed intercountry adoption as a strategy to reduce welfare expenditures and manage children from marginalized backgrounds. Private agencies, driven by quotas, benefited financially from placements.
The South Korean government now aims to end foreign adoptions by 2029 and transition to a fully public domestic adoption framework. It approved foreign adoptions of only 24 children in 2025, a significant decrease from the 1980s when annual figures exceeded 6,000. A new Truth and Reconciliation Commission is planned for February 2026 to review unresolved cases, and legislative amendments under consideration could remove statutes of limitation for related damage claims and establish standardized compensation mechanisms.
The UN stresses that addressing the scale and duration of the adoption program is essential for South Korea to fulfill its international human rights obligations. Further discussions and reforms remain critical as the nation grapples with the legacy of its adoption policies.