Resolution voted in Avignon during the GA of ICW , May 2022

(Original in French)

Recalling

• the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its optional Protocol (CEDAW / CEDEF – 1981),
• the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989),
• the resolutions of the European Parliament (2015), condemning the practice of surrogacy, which goes against human dignity, and against the dignity of women, whose body and reproductive functions are used as commodities,
• the decision of the Council of Europe (2016), to reject a report favorable to surrogacy, recommending “ethical” or “supervised”surrogacy, as opposed to “commercial” surrogacy (2016),

Considering

• that, in a rapidly expanding global market, Surrogacy instrumentalizes the woman’s body for the particular interests of individuals and the commercial interests of medical, legal and commercial sectors,
• that Surrogacy is contrary to the dignity of women and constitutes an exploitation and enslavement of women, especially of more vulnerable women,
• that the practice of Surrogacy involves for the surrogate woman, in addition to the usual risks of motherhood, multiple health risks, including risks of infections and risks due to hormonal treatments or drug use,
• that Surrogacy harms the interests of the child, who thus becomes an object of transactions between the real mother and the surrogate mother,
• that an important step towards prohibiting legalization of surrogacy has been taken with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), dated May 18, 2021, to reject the “intended parentage” for children born abroad by surrogacy; this is in fact deemed incompatible with “the child’s best interest” and contrary to the ethics of the dignity of women,

Denouncing

• the major and however highly prejudicial role of the Agencies in the choice and organization of meetings with surrogate mothers, leading to an increase of the financial and commercial exploitation of this practice,
• the position of the Hague Conference – an intergovernmental institution that works to unify the rules of Private International Law, and which, by working on the regulation of surrogacy, risks making it an “established” practice, and therefore socially acceptable, thus promoting the global trade of surrogate mothers,

Believing

• that the future of the child, in particular its physical future could be definitively compromised in a case where the mother remains anonymous,
• that even if it were ethical, Surrogacy would remain an enslavement of the female body and that the recognition of ethical Surrogacy, as opposed to “commercial” Surrogacy, could only support what exists in a certain number of countries, namely the exploitation of human beings for reproduction,

Observing

• that the “International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood” (ICASM), of which the “Conseil National des Femmes Françaises” (CNFF) is a member, is campaigning actively for the universal abolition of surrogacy,

Affirming

• that the child can neither be sold nor given as property, even if, instead of remuneration, there would be some other “compensation”,
• that Surrogacy, even ethical, will always remain a subjugation of the female body and a denial of rights, including the rightsof the child. We cannot speak about the “the right to a child,” but only about the “rights of the child.” There is no ethical surrogacy, as there is no ethical slavery.

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN CALLS ON ITS AFFILIATED NATIONAL COUNCILS:

• to support the action of International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood in all member countries, so that such an outrageous practice can no longer take place;
• to recognize the need for a Convention on the universal abolition of surrogacy, similar to that of slavery, and recommend to its Member States to engage in this direction within the United Nations.