Press release
On 13 November, the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy (ICASM) is organising a rally in front of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) to oppose its work to regulate cross-border surrogate motherhood.
From 13 November 2023, the HCCH will set up a working group with the task of drafting a convention to enable cross-border recognition of surrogacy contracts. In other words, to regulate surrogacy.
In so doing, the HCCH aims exclusively to satisfy the commissioning persons and the globalised market that makes huge profits from the reproductive exploitation of women on which surrogacy is based. This practice is tantamount to the sale of children and trafficking in human beings (UN definitions). At no point are human rights taken into consideration. Nor women’s rights, because surrogacy represents an accumulation of violence against women, and has never been a demand for gender equality. Nor the rights of children, flouted by the transformation of the child into the object of a contract.
We denounce the opacity of this anti-democratic approach, which consists of seeking to impose international regulation of a practice that is contrary to human dignity.
The feminist and women’s and children’s rights associations of ICASM, together with the 8000 signatories of the petitions issued by ICASM, call on the member states of the HCCH not to sacrifice human dignity for the sake of the market, and to have the courage to abolish the sale of children, falsely called surrogacy.
Press contact :
Marie-Josèphe Devillers +33 612 96 85 27
Ana Deram +33 671 72 89 74