Governments from multiple countries have launched a political declaration calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy, as a step toward permanently banning a practice they say exploits women and children worldwide. Italy and Chile led the effort, presenting the declaration at a high-level event on the sidelines of the 62nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, according to the Christian legal advocacy organization ADF International that moderated the proceedings. The event was co-hosted by Italy, Chile, Cameroon and the Holy See, the Vatican’s diplomatic entity. The declaration calls for the moratorium as a steppingstone toward an internationally legally binding instrument that would abolish surrogacy globally. Signatory states warned that surrogacy commodifies human life and women’s reproductive capabilities and that children born through the practice are deliberately separated from the women who carried and gave birth to them.
Women and girls in surrogacy arrangements face medical risks, coercion, exploitation and loss of agency, the declaration states, with those harms falling disproportionately on vulnerable women and children with limited access to legal remedies, ADF International said, adding that it also raises concerns about psychological, emotional, and identity-related impacts on children, as well as legal complications around parentage, nationality, and the risk of abandonment, trafficking and exploitation. Eugenia Roccella, Italy’s minister for family, natality and equal opportunities, was quoted as saying that the practice had expanded well beyond domestic policy debates. “Surrogacy is no longer a matter confined to domestic legislation or individual choices,” she said. “It has become a global phenomenon, increasingly shaped by international markets, cross-border arrangements, and profound inequalities within and between societies.”
Felipe Kipreos Palau, director of human rights at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said differing national laws had created regulatory gaps. “Divergent national frameworks create regulatory gaps that may encourage the transfer of risks and harmful consequences across jurisdictions,” he was quoted as saying. He called for international cooperation grounded in the best interests of the child and the dignity of every person involved. Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, also expressed support for the declaration, saying the signatory states recognize that surrogacy raises “fundamental concerns relating to human dignity” and the commodification of women and children. She said fragmented national approaches would facilitate the growth of a global cross-border market that transfers harm onto women and children in more vulnerable countries.
The declaration’s launch came shortly before Alsalem presented a separate report on violence against mothers to the Human Rights Council, identifying surrogate mothers as being at particular risk of violence. Giorgio Mazzoli, ADF International’s director of U.N. advocacy, said international law already supports the position that surrogacy is incompatible with human dignity and the rights of women and children, but that rapid expansion and cross-border loopholes demand a coordinated global response. The organization said it was also among the driving forces behind a civil society letter backed by more than 220 non-governmental organizations from 40 countries that called for a coordinated international response to surrogacy. The declaration builds on a landmark report Alsalem submitted in October 2025, in which she concluded that surrogacy is “characterized by exploitation and violence against women and children, including girls” and called on the international community to work toward eradicating the practice.
The declaration follows a series of national legislative moves against the practice. In 2024, Italy became the first country to prohibit surrogacy both within and outside its borders. Slovakia adopted a constitutional amendment banning the practice in September 2025. In January 2026, the Family, Childhood and Adolescent Commission of Chile’s National Congress advanced legislation that would prohibit surrogacy. Surrogacy arrangements, in which a woman carries a pregnancy on behalf of another individual or couple, have expanded rapidly in the past two decades, driven partly by advances in in-vitro fertilization technology and by demand from same-sex couples and individuals unable to conceive. Commercial surrogacy remains legal in a small number of countries, including the United States, while many others have moved to ban or restrict the practice on ethical or public health grounds.
Source: Christian Post