The group behind the Casablanca Declaration submitted its contribution to the report on human trafficking and on gender, peace, and security in order to bring to the attention of the Special Rapporteur on human trafficking the disastrous consequences for women involved in surrogacy (GPA). The Casablanca Declaration emphasized that surrogacy constitutes human trafficking, as women are used as surrogate mothers. The woman’s body is treated as a commodity that can be rented under a contract.
The contribution demonstrate that surrogacy corresponds to the definition of:
– Human trafficking according to the Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime aimed at preventing, suppressing, and punishing trafficking in persons, especially women and children,
– Slavery as defined by the Slavery Convention of Geneva on September 25th, 1926.
Furthermore, the revised version of the European Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating human trafficking considers surrogacy as a form of human trafficking.
Through various examples, notably Olivia Maurel’s testimony, spokesperson for the Casablanca Declaration and herself born via surrogacy, as well as those of surrogate mothers, the contribution underlines that there is no proper regulation of the practice. It asserts that the only solution to prevent these unjust situations created by surrogacy is to achieve the universal abolition of surrogacy.
The text of the contribution from the Casablanca Declaration to the UN report on human trafficking.