A unanimous Social Affairs Committee in the Danish Parliament wants the government to examine removing statute of limitations deadlines in cases where children were failed by public authorities, a change that could reopen compensation claims from internationally adopted people.
The committee, Socialudvalget, has set out the demand in a formal report, DR reports. All parties on the committee agree that the government must look at the deadlines in several types of cases involving failures by the authorities toward children.
Under current rules, the limitation periods in the Danish Forældelsesloven can block people who only discover much later that they were failed as children. In practice, they lose the right to file a compensation claim or to have the violation formally recognized.
According to DR, the Ministry of Justice and other relevant ministries must complete the review by spring 2027 at the latest. They are to examine whether an existing exception in the limitation law, covering children and young people under 18, can be widened.
Why limitation deadlines have stopped adoption cases
Several internationally adopted people have brought cases against the Danish state in recent years, arguing that the authorities breached their human rights. Several of those cases were rejected on the grounds that they were time barred, DR reports.
The committee decision follows the wider adoption scandal, which raised questions about state responsibility. The criticism concerns cases where children were adopted out without their biological parents’ consent, and cases where adoption papers were systematically falsified.
International adoptions to Denmark were handled over the years by private, state accredited adoption agencies that operated under state supervision. Klaus Josefsen, an external lecturer in administrative law who has followed the field for years, told DR that removing the deadline would be a major tool. Per Josefsen, it would remove the risk that adoptees’ claims against the Danish state fall on the limitation deadline because of inadequate official supervision.
Victoria Velasquez, social affairs spokesperson for Enhedslisten, said she was moved by the agreement, according to DR. She described it as a cross party commitment to strengthening legal protection for children and young people who were failed by the authorities. Asked why nothing had happened earlier, she pointed to the people who came forward and told their stories.
What the review could mean for internationally adopted people in Denmark
Forældelsesloven is the Danish law that sets how long after an event a claim can be made. For most claims the clock starts when the harm occurs, which is why people who learn decades later about irregularities in their adoption can find the door already closed. The exception the ministries are being asked to widen currently applies to children and young people under 18.
Nothing has changed yet. DR states plainly that this is not a change in the law, but a decision that the government must investigate the possibility of changing the rules. When the review is finished, the government must call the Social Affairs Committee back for new discussions, so the outcome and any legislation remain unknown.
The review also covers record keeping. Per DR, the ministries must examine how private residential care institutions and other private actors can be obliged to preserve documents, so that affected people get better access to their own history. For adoptees, those files are often the only evidence of how a placement was arranged.
All adoption from abroad to Denmark remains halted indefinitely after heavy criticism of DIA, Denmark’s only adoption agency, which has since closed. An independent investigation into parts of the area is underway, DR reports. Josefsen noted that today’s politicians and authorities are not responsible for what happened many years ago, but said there is a responsibility to give those affected a chance of redress.
