About
Aitheantas - Adoptee Identity Rights is an advocacy group with an Adoptee led focus, formed in 2018 to advocate for reform and equality for Irish Adoptees.
Aitheantas’ core policy is People before Paper putting adoptee welfare at the forefront of
legislation and supports.
Aitheantas research charts the social harm and intergenerational aspect of forced and coercive adoption through the closed adoption process in Ireland.
What we do
Aitheantas campaigns for open access for Adoptees to Health, Heritage and History information and the acknowledgement of Identity Rights.
The Adoptee Voices Report outlines the findings of three different surveys that examined: the effects of closed adoption on adoptees; records and DNA testing in the process of family tracing; and adoptees’ opinions and views on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes.
Our #RepealTheSeal campaign saw historic levels of public support for survivors to access their own information.
The Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters let survivors down. It had a limited remit which only included specific homes and County Homes, not everybody affected by these past wrongs.
We need to do better by survivors, adoptees and birth parents.
What we have achieved
There’s power in numbers.