Joint Statement on Surrogacy

November 10, 2022

[Brussels, 10 November 2022] Women’s and human rights organisations call on the European Commission and Parliament to include the crime of reproductive exploitation of women in all their legislative initiatives as violence against women and as trafficking in human beings.

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Forward

By reproductive exploitation, we refer to: prohibition of abortion, forced abortion, forced pregnancy, surrogacy, oocytes sales. These practices lock women into the role of reproducers for others, to the detriment of their health and human rights. Therefore, they have to be included in any instruments dealing with violence against women.

This statement focuses on surrogacy.

Surrogacy is the social practice that consists of recruiting a woman to gestate and give birth to one or more children, whether they are conceived with her own oocytes or not, in exchange for payment, and through a contract, to give the baby away, thus renouncing her parental rights, to one or more people (called commissioners, clients or buyers[i]) who wish to be designated as the parents of the new-born[ii].

Surrogacy entails the objectification of women, the commercialisation of the new-born, the trafficking of human beings, and the violation of human dignity of the woman exploited as ‘surrogate mother’ and the child, thus undermining women’s and child’s rights.

Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

In its efforts to update the notion of violence in this directive,the European Commission should go further and include reproductive violence that exclusively affects women.

Today, in Europe, the benchmark on male violence against women is the Istanbul Convention[iii]

The Istanbul Convention defines VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN as “all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercive or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”. It also recognises that violence against women constitutes “a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women”.

However, the Istanbul convention is more than 10 years old. Globalisation and new technologies have facilitated new forms of male violence, such as, for example, the cyberviolence. For this reason and given the lack of ratification by certain EU states, the European Commission has undertaken to create a new Directive that would address, in a comprehensive manner, all forms of violence against women, binding member states to preventing and eradicating them.

In order to become a truly comprehensive EU legal instrument that leaves no woman or girl behind, the violence inflicted upon women through reproductive exploitation must be included in the new Directive.

Reproductive exploitation is a fast growing global multi-million industry and a form of violence against women. To satisfy someone else’s parental wishes, women are subjected to physical, economic, medical and psychological violence which has been widely documented[iv]. Women’s reproductive capacity should only serve their own parental projects, not that of others, which is exploitative.

In surrogacy, the mothers exploited as “surrogates” relinquish all their rights throughout the process. Worldwide, the contract and/or regulation governing this practice disposes of human beings, both the mothers exploited as surrogates and the future child (making use of them depriving them of their freedoms and rights). In Europe, most countries aware of this violation of the fundamental human rights enshrined in the EU Charter, have outlawed this practice on their territory. However, these provisions are systematically undermined by the development of cross-border surrogacy.

Legitimising or facilitating this practice is tantamount to fostering the demand for the exploitation of the most vulnerable by the most well-off social classes. To satisfy their desire for a child an exemption to human rights is granted, to the detriment of women, especially those from the most economically and socially vulnerable groups.

Considering all these elements, the practices described above as reproductive violence, rooted in inequality between women and men and a manifestation of structural discrimination against women, fall within the definition of violence against women[v] of the Istanbul Convention and, as such, should be covered by the directive.

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic, and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions on the EU anti-trafficking strategy (2021-2025).

Trafficking in human beings invents new methods every day. Alongside trafficking for prostitution and child trafficking, trafficking for reproductive purposes is growing faster and faster.

The United Nations Palermo Protocol uses three criteria for trafficking to occur[vi]:

The activity (recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of persons);
The means (threat, use of force, deception, coercion, abuse of power, position of vulnerability, giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent );
The purpose (exploitation of victims).

These criteria have been adopted by the European Union in its 2011 EU Anti-Trafficking Directive in its definition of trafficking. The victim’s consent to the intended exploitation is irrelevant if any of the above means have been used.

Human dignity is the very basis of fundamental rights and a foundational value of the European Union (Article 2 TEU). According to Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, “human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected“. Every human being has an inviolable and intrinsic dignity, which is a universal value, and her or his body must be respected as part of the whole human person.

Not only does surrogacy directly destroys human dignity, but it meets all three criteria for the classification of trafficking. Mothers recruited as surrogates by brokers or clients may be “transported” to the clients’ country, or to a third country to circumvent regulations, or subject to mobility within their own country. Their so-called “consent” is often based on manipulation, deception, or pressure, because of their social and economic vulnerability. The result is financial gain for the stakeholders involved (brokers, psychologists, lawyers, clinics, medical personnel, travel agencies), and the procurement of new-born human beings for the clients.

Cross-border ssurrogacy is emerging as a new form of human trafficking due to globalization, increased mobility, and the development of new digital and/or medical technologies as it has been highlighted by certain bioethics committees[vii]. As such, it should be specified and added into the revised directive on trafficking.

The Directive on violence against women that includes in its scope reproductive exploitation will contribute to better prevention of crime, improve protection of women victims and of children’s rights. It will contribute to strengthening another foundational value of the European Union, i.e. equality between women and men and the access to fundamental rights stemming from the Charter of Human Rights of the European Union. To do so, the European Union already has strong foundations as it has repeatedly condemned surrogacy:

In 2015, as an infringement of human dignity[viii];
In 2017, as a source of human rights violations, in the context of human trafficking[ix];
In 2021, its impact on the health of mothers exploited through surrogacy and the breach of equality between women and men it represents[x];
In 2021, as sexual exploitation, on the same level as sexual exploitation of women through forced marriages, prostitution and pornography[xi];
In 2022, it reiterated all its condemnations of practice of surrogacyin relation to the situation of women in the context of the war in Ukraine[xii].

We, the signatories of this joint statement, demand that the European Commission and the European Parliament systematically take surrogacy into account in their legislative work, as a reproductive violence inflicted on women, as human trafficking, and a violation of children’s rights.

First signatories

EWL – European women’s Lobby
ENoMW – European Network of Migrant Women
CAP International – International Coalition Against Prostitution
ICASM – International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood

[i] commissioning or intending parents according to the surrogacy market
[ii] http://abolition-ms.org/en/news/draft-international-convention-for-the-abolition-of-surrogacy/
[iii] https://rm.coe.int/168008482e
[iv]about the high medical risks incurred by surrogate mothers, healthy women who have no parental plans for themselves but for third parties : Gestational surrogacy: results of 10 years of experience in the Netherlands https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1472648318305212 and also see “Risk of preeclampsia in pregnancies resulting from double gamete donation and from oocyte donation alone” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30177040/
[v] Istanbul Convention. Article 3(a)
[vi] Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/protocol-prevent-suppress-and-punish-trafficking-persons
[vii]Spanish bioethics committee points out that “One reason to support the prohibition of altruistic surrogacy could lie in the inability of the law to prevent commercial surrogacy once altruistic surrogacy has been accepted” http://assets.comitedebioetica.es/files/documentacion/en/spanish_bioethics_committee_report_on_the_ethical_and_legal_aspects_of_surrogacy.pdf (page 26)
[viii] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2015-0470_FR.html
[ix] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2018-0515_FR.html
[x] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0041_FR.htm
[xi] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2021-0025_FR.html
[xii] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0206_FR.htm

Feminist and human rights organisations signatories

1000 OPPORTUNITIES/ 1000 MÖJLIGHETER – SWEDEN
44 VILAINES FILLES – FRANCE
ABOLICIONISTAS HUESCA – SPAIN
ADAVAS – LEÓN – SPAIN
AMICALE DU NID – FRANCE
ANTI PORNOGRAPHY AND PROSTITUTION RESEARCH GROUP – JAPAN
ANYDES – SPAIN
ARCILESBICA ITALIA – ITALY
ASOCIACIÓN DE PROFESIONALES DE LOS CENTROS DE INFORMACIÓN A LAS MUJERES – SPAIN
ASOCIACIÓN FEMINISTA LEONESA “FLORA TRISTÁN” – SPAIN
ASOCIACIÓN MUJERES JURISTAS DE LA PROVINCIA DE JAÉN – SPAIN
ASOCIACIÓN MUJERES PARA LA SALUD – SPAIN
ASSEMBLÉE DES FEMMES – FRANCE
ASSOCIATION BAGDAM ESPACE LESBIEN – FRANCE
ASSOCIAZIONE DORAD – ITALY
ASSOCIAZIONE IROKO ONLUS – ITALY
ASTERIA AGRUPACIÓN FEMINISTA – MEXICO
AUTONOMOUS WOMEN’S CENTER – SERBIA
AWSA-BE – ARAB WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION – BELGIUM – BELGIUM
BEBEBIENVENU ASSOCIATION – ROMANIA
BULGARIAN PLATFORM EWL – BULGARIA
CAMINOS PARA CONVIVIR SC – MEXICO
CAMT – MEXICO
CAP INTERNATIONAL SPAIN – SPAIN
CENTER AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND EXPLOITATION, LITHUANIA – LITHUANIA
CENTRE ÉVOLUTIF LILITH (CEL) – FRANCE
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL AND GENDER RESEARCH “NEW LIFE” – UKRAINE
CENTRE FOR WOMEN WAR VICTIMS – ROSA – CROATIA
CHIENNES DE GARDE – FRANCE
CNFF ET CIF – FRANCE
COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN – USA
COLECTIVO DE MUJERES CONTRA LA VIOLENCIA DE GÉNERO – MEXICO
COLETIVA SOCIEDADE MATRIARCAL – BRAZIL
COLLECTIF FÉMINICIDES PAR COMPAGNONS OU EX – FRANCE
COLLECTIF LIBERTAIRE ANTI-SEXISTE – FRANCE
COLLECTIF POUR LE RESPECT DE LA PERSONNE CORP – FRANCE
COMISION PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN DE MALOS TRATOS A MUJERES – SPAIN
CONSEIL NATIONAL DES FEMMES FRANÇAISES CNFF – FRANCE
CONSEIL NATIONAL DES FEMMES FRANÇAISES CNFF-ICW – ICW – FRANCE
CONSELL NACIONAL DONES D’ESPANYA CNDE – SPAIN
CONSULTORÍA EN GÉNERO, PERIODISMO Y COMUNICACIÓN – MEXICO
CQFD LESBIENNES FEMINISTES – FRANCE
DEMOCRACY DEVELOPMENT CENTER – UKRAINE
DOFEMCO – SPAIN
ECVF ÉLU·ES CONTRE LES VIOLENCES FAITES AUX FEMMES – FRANCE
EHULEAK – SPAIN
ELEANOR M. & OSCAR M. CARLSON ENDOWED CHAIR IN WOMEN’S STUDIES, EMERITA, UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND – USA
EMISSION FEMMES LIBRES SUR RADIO LIBERTAIRE 89.4 – FRANCE
EN CLAU DE DONA – SPAIN
ENCORE FÉMINISTES ! – FRANCE
END DEMAND SWITZERLAND – SWITZERLAND
EUROMED FEMINIST INITIATIVE – FRANCE
EUROPEAN CENTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN – BELGIUM
FEDERACIÓN DE MUJERES PROGRESISTAS – SPAIN
FEDERACIÓN MEXICANA DE UNIVERSITARIAS – MEXICO
FEDERACIÓN MUJERES JÓVENES – SPAIN
FEMINISTAS SOCIALISTAS. – SPAIN
FEMICANAS: EL AQUELARRE. – COLOMBIA
FEMINISTAS AL CONGRESO – SPAIN
FEMMES DU MONDE ET RÉCIPROQUEMENT – FRANCE
FEMMES ICI ET AILLEURS – FRANCE
FEMMES POUR LE DIRE, FEMMES POUR AGIR – FRANCE
FEMU – MEXICO
FEMU, A.C. – MEXICO
FEVIMI – FEDERACIÓN PARA LA ERRADICACIÓN DE LA VIOLENCIA EN LAS MUJERES Y NIÑAS – SPAIN
FINRRAGE – AUSTRALIA
FONDATION SCELLES – FRANCE
FÓRUM DE POLÍTICA FEMINISTA DE MÁLAGA – SPAIN
FORUM FEMMES JOURNALISTES DE LA MÉDITERRANÉE – EUROPE
FORUM FEMMES MÉDITERRANÉE – FRANCE
FORUM POLÍTICA 8 – SPAIN
FRENCH COORDINATION FOR THE EUROPEAN WOMEN LOBBY (LA CLEF) – FRANCE
FRENTE FEMINISTA NACIONAL – MEXICO
FRENTE NACIONAL FEMINISTA ABOLICIONISTA – MEXICO
FRONT ABOLICIONISTA DEL PAÍS VALENCIÁ – SPAIN
FRONT FÉMINISTE – FRANCE
FUERZA DEMOCRÁTICA DE GUERRERO – MEXICO
GAMS FEDERATION – FRANCE
GES ASOCIACIÓN CIVIL – ARGENTINA
GREEK LEAGUE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS – GREECE
GROUPE EUROPE DES FEDERALISTES EUROPÉENS – BELGIUM
HEURA LILA – SPAIN
HUNGARIAN WOMEN’S LOBBY – HUNGARY
INITIATIVE FÉMINISTE EUROMED – FRANCE
IRUÑA ARANCIBIA CRISTÓBAL – SPAIN
ISALA ASBL – BELGIUM
ITALIAN COORDINATION OF THE EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LOBBY – ITALY
JAPAN COALITION AGAINST SURROGACY PRACTICES – JAPAN
JUSTICE FOR WOMEN – UK
KASANDRXS-FEMINISTAS ABOLICIONISTAS- – ARGENTINA
KLAIPEDA SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT CENTRE – LITHUANIA
LA RÉVOLUTION SERA FÉMINISTE- EMISSION RADIO GALERE MARSEILLE – FRANCE
LA REVUELTA SUBVERSIVA – URUGUAY
LABORATORIO FEMINISTA DE DERECHOS DIGITALES – MEXICO
LAS DEL AQUELARRE FEMINISTA – MEXICO
LE MONDE SELON LES FEMMES ASBL – BELGIUM
LIBRES MARIANNES – FRANCE
LIGUE DU DROIT INTERNATIONAL DES FEMMES – FRANCE
LOBBY EUROPEO DE MUJERES EN ESPAÑA- LEM ESPAÑA – SPAIN
LUZ ULTRAVIOLETA – SPAIN
MAISON DES FEMMES DE PARIS – FRANCE
MALEN ETXEA, MUJERES INMIGRANTES – SPAIN
MALVA – SPAIN
MARCHE MONDIALE DES FEMMES FRANCE – FRANCE
MARIZ / GLOBAL WOMAN PEACE ACTIONS – BRAZIL
MARTA CENTRE – LATVIA
MATERFEM MATERNIDADES FEMINISTAS GALEGAS – SPAIN
MEDITERRANEAN INSTITUTE OF GENDER STUDIES – CYPRUS
MÉMOIRE TRAUMATIQUE ET VICTIMOLOGIE – FRANCE
MIGRANT WOMEN HUNGARY ASSOCIATION.(SHE4SHE) – HUNGARY
MILLENNIA2025 WOMEN AND INNOVATION FOUNDATION – BELGIUM
MORADA RADICAL – MEXICO
MOUVEMENT DU NID – FRANCE
MUJERES ABOLICIONISTAS CANARAS – SPAIN
MUJERES POR LA ABOLICIÓN – SPAIN
MUSEO DE LA MUJER (CABA) – ARGENTINA
NACIÓN MUJERES – SPAIN
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN OF UKRAINE – UKRAINE
NETWORK OF EAST-WEST WOMEN, NEWW-POLAND – POLAND
NGO “RURAL WOMEN OF UKRAINE” – UKRAINE
NGO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES – UKRAINE
NGO KYIV SCHOOL OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES – UKRAINE
NKARI FUNDACJA IM. KAZIMIERZA ŁYSZCZYNSKIEGO – POLAND
NORDIC MODEL NOW! – UK
NOUSTOUTES70 – FRANCE
NUEVA ALIANZA PUEBLA – MEXICO
OBJECT UK – UK
OBSERVATORIO DE VIOLENCIA SOCIAL Y DE GENERO EN EL ESTADO DE CHIAPAS – MEXICO
ONGD AFRICANDO – SPAIN
OSEZ LE FÉMINISME ! – FRANCE
OSEZ LE FEMINISME 17 – FRANCE
PARTI COMMUNISTE FRANÇAIS – COMMISSION FEMINISTE – FRANCE
PARTIDO FEMINISTA DE ESPAÑA – SPAIN
PARTIDO FEMINISTA DE ESPAÑA EN CANARIAS – SPAIN
PARTIDO FEMINISTAS AL CONGRESO (FAC) – SPAIN
PATENT ASSOCIATION – HUNGARY
PECOLA PRODUCTIONS – BELGIUM
PERSONS AGAINST NON-STATE TORTURE – CANADA
PORTUGUESE PLATFORM FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS – PORTUGAL
POUR LES DROITS DES FEMMES DU QUÉBEC – PDF QUÉBEC – CANADA
RADICAILÍN – IRELAND
RAJFIRE – FRANCE
REBELLES DU GENRE – FRANCE
RECAV, RED ESTATAL CONTRA EL ALQUILER DE VIENTRES – SPAIN
RED PARA EL AVANCE POLÍTICO DE LAS MUJERES GUERRERENSES – MEXICO
REDE DE JOVENS PARA A IGUALDADE DE OPORTUNIDADE ENTRE MULHERES E HOMENS – PORTUGAL
REGARDS DE FEMMES – FRANCE
REGIONAL COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND GIRLS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (CATWLAC) – MEXICO
REMUE MÉNINGES FÉMINISTE, RADIO LIBERTAIRE 89,4 – FRANCE
RÉSEAU FÉMINISTE “RUPTURES” – FRANCE
RÉUSSIR L’ÉGALITÉ FEMMES HOMMES – FRANCE
SAFE SCHOOLS ALLIANCE – UK
SE NON ORA QUANDO LIBERE – ITALY
SECULARISM IS A WOMEN’S ISSUE – SIAWI.ORG – INTERNATIONAL
SISTERS – FÜR DEN AUSSTIEG AUS DER PROSTITUTION! V. – GERMANY
SOCIETATEA DE ANALIZE FEMINISTE ANA, BUCURESTI, ROUMANIE – ROMANIA
SOCIETY KLJUC – CENTRE FOR FIGHT AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS – SLOVENIA
SOLIDARITE-FAMILLES – FRANCE
SORTIR DU SILENCE – FRANCE
STOP SURROGACY NOW UK – UK
STOP VIENTRES DE ALQUILER – SPAIN
STOPPT LEIHMUTTERSCHAFT – AUSTRIA
SWEDISH WOMEN’S LOBBY – SWEDEN
TERTULIA FEMINISTA LES COMADRES – SPAIN
UAM – SPAIN
UDI DI NAPOLI – ITALY
UKRAINIAN ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN WOMEN’S HISTORY – UKRAINE
UKRAINIAN WOMEN IN GREECE – GREECE
UNDEBTED WORLD – GREECE
UNION EUROPÉENNE DES FEMMES – FRANCE
UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID (members of) – SPAIN
UNIVERSIDAD DE CONCEPCIÓN (members of) – CHILE
UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA (members of) – SPAIN
UNIZON – SWEDEN
VADMC – FRANCE
VILLE DE CLERMONT-FERRAND (CM) – FRANCE
WOMEN WORLDWIDE ADVANCING FREEDOM & EQUALITY (WAAFE) – UK
WOMEN@THEWELL – UK
WOMEN’S BALTIC PEACEBUILDING INITIATIVE – SWEDEN
WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION VUKOVAR – CROATIA
WOMEN’S DECLARATION ARGENTINA – ARGENTINA
WOMEN’S DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL – FRANCE – FRANCE
WOMEN’S DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL – INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN’S DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL SPAIN – SPAIN
WOMEN’S NETWORK OF CROATIA – CROATIA
YAOTLYAOCIHUATL AMEYAL AC – MEXICO
ZÉROMACHO- DES HOMMES CONTRE LE SYSTÈME PROSTITUEUR – FRANCE