The Hague Conference has ended the international convention on surrogate motherhood
The Hague Conference has abandoned the elaboration of an international convention on the recognition of surrogate motherhood, with respect to filiation.
The Hague Conference of international private law is an inter-governmental organisation which elaborates international conventions. It currently represents 93 States, including France. The institution elaborated the 1993 Convention for international adoption.
For over 10 years and despite opposition, it has been working on surrogate motherhood – a practice which remains prohibited in many nations – with the aim of elaborating an international convention for “managing” the consequences in particular regarding filiation.
Since 2015, Alliance VITA together with other organisations combined within “No Maternity Traffic” have managed to block a resolution on the practice at the European Council. When auditioned by the Hague Conference, the collective underlined the fact that an international convention controlling the effects of surrogate motherhood assumes its acceptance in principle, whereas surrogate motherhood seriously violates the rights and dignity of women and children.
At the end of 2022, in view of the difficulties encountered with progressing toward an international agreement, the Hague Conference working group again suggested constituting a new more restricted working group, in order to better examine the political considerations and decisions concerning the scope, the content and the approach of any new agreement.
Three years on in March 2026, the Council for General Affairs and Policy of the Hague Conference declared it is abandoning its work, with the highly hypothetical intention of resuming it later.
Indeed since 2015, the practice has confronted increasing criticism. In April 2024, the European Union included surrogate motherhood under the crime of human trafficking. In September 2025, a report by the United Nations marked a turning point in the worldwide debate on surrogate motherhood. Reem el Salem, the special reporter on violence against women and girls, called for a worldwide ban on the practice irrespective of whether or not the surrogate motherhood was subject to remuneration.
Alliance VITA, which has long been committed to the abolition of surrogate motherhood, welcomes the decision by the Hague Conference to discontinue its work on surrogate motherhood, a sign of the growing opposition to a practice which represents a terrible injustice to both women and children.
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