A/HRC/34/55 often based on partial assessments by social workers and amounted to forced or illegal adoptions.29 38. Large-scale illegal adoptions have also taken place in the context of conflicts or authoritarian regimes and their aftermath. 30 During the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, for example, the authorities abducted hundreds of children from parents considered to be opponents of the regime. 31 In most cases, arbitrarily detained pregnant women had their children removed once they had given birth; in other cases, children were arrested along with their parents and then separated from them. All the parents were forcibly disappeared or murdered by the regime. The babies were registered as the biological children of families close to or linked with the regime or of the individuals who had abducted them, and in some cases were given up for adoption. The falsification of documents was widely used to officialize such illegal acts and illicit practices. 32 39. The above-mentioned motivations for carrying out illegal adoptions often overlapped, as was notably the case in Spain throughout the Franco regime and during the first decades of democracy. Indeed, the practice of illegally adopting children for ideological and religious reasons soon morphed into a profit-driven criminal activity. Thousands of newborn babies were reportedly abducted from their parents by criminal networks involved in large-scale illegal adoptions. Medical personnel and clergy members actively participated in the abduction of children. Newborn babies were abducted from hospitals and subsequently told that their parents had died. The children were then given to other parents following the falsification of documents and, in certain cases, payments. 33 Recent cases of large-scale illegal domestic adoptions 40. Illegal domestic adoptions continue to occur in countries with weak child protection systems, in much the same way as they used to, in other words with the involvement of criminal networks and the participation of State officials and targeting vulnerable populations such as families in economic hardship. In China, there have been several cases of criminal networks abducting, trafficking and selling babies for the purpose of illegal adoption. Moreover, there have been reports of family planning officials being involved in improperly inducing consent from parents in order to sell the children or transfer them for domestic or international adoption or forced labour.34 41. In several countries, private and independent adoptions occur legally, in parallel to State adoptions.35 Because of their private nature and the absence of monitoring, private adoption procedures are quicker than public ones and are thus often favoured by prospective parents. Improper financial transactions have become inherent to private and independent adoptions and have resulted in the development of an adoption market. 42. There have also been mounting concerns in several countries regarding the practice of child protection services using the placement of children in alternative care, which may 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 10 See www.narf.org/nill/documents/icwa/federal/lh/hear080477/hear080477.pdf. For Guatemala, see www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/guatemala-memoriasilencio/guatemala-memoria-del-silencio.pdf and www.odhag.org.gt/html/Default.htm. See https://www.abuelas.org.ar/caso/buscar?tipo=2. See www.cels.org.ar/blogs/2012/Plan%20sistem%C3%A1tico.pdf. See www.senado.es/legis10/publicaciones/pdf/senado/ds/DS_C_10_178.PDF and www.poderjudicial.es/search/doAction?action=contentpdf&databasematch=AN&reference=3420935 &links=&optimize=20081127&publicinterface=true. CRC/C/CHN/CO/3-4. For Greece, see Katerina Nanou, “The social acceptance of illegal practices in the Greek domestic adoption system”, Adoption and Fostering Journal, vol. 35, No. 3 (2011), pp. 60-67; and, for Poland, see http://brpd.gov.pl/aktualnosci/adopcja-ze-wskazaniem-uregulowana.