New development, the issue of surrogacy was widely discussed on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. For us, this is truly a medical violence inflicted on women, not to treat them because they are in good health, but for the purpose of reproductive exploitation.
We are also extremely pleased with the contact that has been established, thanks to the initiatives of Berta O. Garcia, our vice-president, between ICASM and Latin American feminist organisations. This has resulted in a common manifesto against reproductive exploitation (see below).
To counter the attempts of the Hague Conference to regulate GPA, we launched an international appeal protesting against their approach (see below).
ICASM also presents its observations to the ECHR (European Court for Human Rights) whenever it is called upon to rule on a case of surrogacy (2 in 2020).
Videos available. Surrogacy = violence against women
Below are the webinars presented on the occasion of the International Day on Violence against Women or during the abolitionist days organised in Spain and Argentina. It should be noted that our Spanish friends, very wisely, have brought together under the same expression the issue of prostitution and surrogate motherhood: sexual and reproductive exploitation.
Cliquez sur les images pour accéder aux vidéos.
Action against The Hague Conferenc
Surrogacy is based on a combination of violence against women (medical, obstetric, social, economic and symbolic). This violence is known and recognised in the contracts, and surrogate mothers are paid to undergo it.
To counter this initiative, ICASM, with the support of the Swedish Women’s Lobby, has launched an appeal to stop this approach. To date, from 55 countries, more than 2000 individual signatories and 250 feminist and/or human rights organisations claim that it is imperative to :
- Put an end to the mandate of the group of experts and to the “parentage/surrogacy project” of the Hague Conference.
- Work towards the abolition of the exploitation of women for reproductive purposes and all forms of trafficking and trade in children.
- Implement the draft International Convention for the Abolition of Surrogacy that was proposed by the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy (ICASAM) and sent to the HCCH.
Latin American Manifesto against Reproductive Exploitation
Nearly 100 feminist organisations from all over Latin America (South, Central and Caribbean), associated with ICAMS, launch the FIRST LATIN AMERICAN MANIFESTO AGAINST REPRODUCTIVE EXPLOITATION (Surrogacy) in response to attempts to open up surrogacy in Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico.
It is still possible to support this initiative by signing the Manifesto. HERE
Draft international convention for the abolition of surrogacy
The purposes of this Convention are:
- to reaffirm the principle that the human body cannot be the subject of conventions or contracts and that the law can in no way violate the limits and respect of the human person,
- to recognise that the exploitation of women’s reproductive capacity, including through surrogacy, whether commercial or described as altruistic, is intrinsically a form of violence against women, and as such an infringement of the fundamental rights of human beings,
- to recognise that surrogacy is always contrary to the interests of the child, which are not to be bought and sold or given away at the whim of adults and, as far as possible, to have access to his or her origins, to know the mother who gave birth to him or her and to be brought up by her,
- to prevent and prohibit surrogacy,
- to pursue and eliminate actions to implement, promote, encourage, enable, or facilitate this practice.
The full text of the Convention is available HERE