On May 26, 2016 the Presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) declared that the No Maternity Traffic petition was found admissible. It will thus be transmitted to the Committee on Social Affairs to be included as part of the report on “Human Rights and ethical issues related to surrogacy”.
On March 10th, this petition with 107,957 signatures was submitted to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. This petition demands a total and universal ban on surrogacy, which is a serious violation of women and children’s rights.
The petition is scheduled to be evaluated on June 2, 2016 in Paris, by the Committee on Social Affairs, whereas the studies conducted on the report on “Human Rights and ethical issues related to surrogacy” are highly controversial. Indeed, the draft report presented to the Committee by the rapporteur and Belgian Senator, Petra de Sutter was rejected this past March 15th. The recommendation of this text was to define regulations for surrogacy, in other words it was a “Yes” to surrogacy. Yet, it was decided to go on with the studies and to present a new report, without changing the rapporteur.
Alliance VITA is still actively involved in the collective initiative “No Maternity Traffic” in order for European citizens, who are concerned about women and children’s rights, to have their voices heard and be taken into consideration.
