Written declaration No. 522 | Doc. 12934 | 04 July 2012

Surrogate motherhood

Signatories: Mr Luca VOLONTÈ, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Pedro AGRAMUNT, Spain, EPP/CD ; Ms Oksana BILOZIR, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Jean-Marie BOCKEL, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Desislav CHUKOLOV, Bulgaria, NR ; Mr Georges COLOMBIER, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Alain COUSIN, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Renato FARINA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Valeriu GHILETCHI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Paolo GRIMOLDI, Italy, EDG ; Ms Arlette GROSSKOST, France, EPP/CD ; Ms Olha HERASYM'YUK, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Anvar MAKHMUTOV, Russian Federation, EDG ; Mr Gennaro MALGIERI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Christine MARIN, France, EPP/CD ; Mr Frano MATUŠIĆ, Croatia, EPP/CD ; Mr Gebhard NEGELE, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD ; Mr Pasquale NESSA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Ms Liliana PALIHOVICI, Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD ; Ms Elsa PAPADIMITRIOU, Greece, EPP/CD ; Mr Giacomo SANTINI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Giacomo STUCCHI, Italy, EDG ; Mr Latchezar TOSHEV, Bulgaria, EPP/CD ; Mr Egidijus VAREIKIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD ; Mr Luigi VITALI, Italy, EPP/CD

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

Considering that the practice of surrogate motherhood implies a contract on the unborn child and the exploitation of a woman’s womb, and that it voluntarily dissociates motherhood and manipulates filiation;

Considering :

• the Charter of the United Nations;
• the Preamble and Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR);
• the Preamble of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR);
• the Convention against Torture (Article 16);
• the International Criminal Court Statute (Article 7);
• the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (Article 6);
• the Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Article 3) and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (Article 4);
• the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention) (Article 21);
• the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (Article 3);
• the CRC Optional Protocol on the sale of children (Article 2a);
• the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention 182) (Article 3);
• the Convention on Intercountry Adoption (Articles 4 and 32) ;
• the European Convention on the Adoption of Children (Revised) (Articles 5 and 17);
• Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1443 (2000) on International Adoption: Respecting Children’s Rights,

The undersigned members of the Parliamentary Assembly affirm that surrogate motherhood is incompatible with the dignity of the women and children concerned and is a violation of their fundamental rights.