Introduction: origin deprivation, adoptee rights, and the need for truth recovery and redressive law reform

These six essays represent papers delivered at an international symposium on the theme of origin deprivation held last year (May 2023) at Queen’s University, Belfast. They cover such diverse yet interconnected issues as the wide-ranging, sometimes overlooked, human rights of adoptees (McCloskey), Sweden’s need to “decolonize” its stance on transnational adoptions as part of its belated move towards redress (Hübinette), the challenges facing Greece's overseas adoptees in respect of achieving meaningful law reform and having their needs addressed (Van Steen), the notion of “experiential incommensurability” and its adverse effects upon the international adoptee’s sense of belonging, which often excludes them from their origins and from their adoptive “lived reality” (Gustafsson’s qualitative study in Australia and Korea),the social and legal complexities of protecting, preserving, and potentially [re]gaining the child’s original identity via international law frameworks (Baglietto and Bordier), and the “villainous,” folkloric tropes within Northern Ireland's proposals for redress (Diver).