- Italy and Chile issued a declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy.
- The declaration and supporting speakers argued surrogacy commodifies children and women and framed the practice as a form of exploitation.
- At the EU Human Rights Council debate in Geneva, some states pushed for stricter standards, while others like Ireland, Canada and Mexico argued the opposite.
Italy and Chile launched a declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy on Monday.
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The declaration argued that surrogacy commodifies human life and puts women at risk of coercion and exploitation.
Shortly before the European Union’s Human Rights Council discussed a new report on violence against women and girls, ADF International moderated an event where Italy, Chile, Cameroon and the Holy See issued their declaration.
In 2024, Italy made it illegal for Italian couples to pay for surrogacy abroad, following the country’s initial ban of the practice in 2004. Meanwhile, Chile has pending legislation to prohibit and criminalize all forms of surrogacy.
Other countries, including Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Finland and Norway, have made surrogacy illegal.
At the Alliance Defending Freedom-moderated event, Eugenia Roccella, the Italian minister for family, natality and equal opportunity, described surrogacy as a global issue, which is “increasingly shaped by international markets, cross-border arrangements and profound inequalities within and between societies.”
We must preserve female-specific and mother-specific language and provide legal, social and economic protections for mothers
— Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem
Felipe Kipreos Palau, Chile’s director of human rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added, “The growing globalization of surrogacy arrangements, particularly commercial and cross-border practices, has generated complex legal, ethical and human rights questions.”
U.N. council asked to classify surrogacy as human trafficking
Debate surrounding surrogacy continued later at the EU’s official Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday.
Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem asked the council to adopt a definition of the word mother, which is directly tied to female reproduction.
“We must preserve female-specific and mother-specific language and provide legal, social and economic protections for mothers,” she said.
Meanwhile, Olivia Sarton, the legal director of Juristes Pour L’enfance, asked the council to classify all cases of surrogacy as human trafficking.
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“Regardless of the legal framing chosen by the contracting parties, surrogacy always constitutes trafficking of the child, who is the subject of contract to which they are not a party, even though they will bear the consequences for their entire life,” Sarton said.
She continued, “The child is treated as an object of property rights, since the parties agree on ordering the child and then hand them over once they become a ‘finished product.’”
Sarton said surrogacy not only constitutes the commodification of children but of mothers as well. “Surrogacy is also always an exploitation of women, who are viewed as ‘body-resources’ to produce a child and hand them over to the commissioning party,” she said, adding that a surrogate mother’s consent “can in no way legitimize a relationship based on structural exploitation.”
Several minutes later, a spokeswoman for the France-based organization La Manif Pour Tous added, “Surrogacy is contrary to international commitments and fundamental text of the United Nations.”
“Whatever form (surrogacy) takes, it is always based on one single principle: the use of a woman to obtain a child from her for the benefit of third parties,” she said.
“We demand you recognize reproductive exploitation, especially surrogacy in all of its forms as a form of trafficking and draw the necessary consequences,” a Manif Pour Tous spokeswoman concluded.
Ireland and others push back on the criticisms of surrogacy
On behalf of 26 EU member states, Ireland pushed back against the requests for more rigid guidelines globally around surrogacy.
In Ireland, noncommercial surrogacy has been legal since 2024.
Ireland’s representative argued that regulations on surrogacy would “eras(e) diverse realities” and “reinforce gender stereotypes that contribute to discrimination and violence.”
She continued, “We underscore that pregnancy and parenthood must never be grounds for discrimination.”
A representative from Canada said her country was concerned about Alsalem’s proposed definition of a mother. “Laws and policies must be consistent with international human rights standards including equality, nondiscrimination and inclusivity,” she said.
Mexico’s representative similarly criticized Alsalem’s definition. She asked Alsalem, “How does your report contribute to recognizing the specific experiences of some women about motherhood without reinforcing gender stereotypes? And how does it include women of sexual diversity?”
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