A coalition of governments formally launched a political declaration at the United Nations on June 22 calling for an international moratorium on surrogacy, framing the practice as incompatible with human rights protections for women and children.
The declaration, reported by ADF International, was presented at a side event to the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council and co-hosted by Italy, Chile, Cameroon and the Holy See. It calls for a moratorium as an interim step toward a legally binding international instrument that would abolish surrogacy globally.
Italy and Chile spearheaded the initiative. The declaration describes surrogacy as involving the commodification of human life and women's reproductive capabilities, and raises concerns about the separation of children from the women who carried them.
"Surrogacy is no longer a matter confined to domestic legislation or individual choices," Italian Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella said at the launch event. "It has become a global phenomenon, increasingly shaped by international markets, cross-border arrangements, and profound inequalities within and between societies."
The document warns that women and girls in surrogacy arrangements face medical risks, coercion, exploitation and loss of agency — harms it says fall disproportionately on vulnerable populations with limited access to legal remedies. It also raises concerns about psychological, emotional and identity-related impacts on children born through surrogacy, along with risks of abandonment, trafficking and statelessness.
Felipe Kipreos Palau, Director of Human Rights at Chile's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said divergent national laws are creating regulatory gaps that shift harm across borders. "These challenges call for an enhanced international cooperation, and for conversation grounded in the best interests of the child and the dignity of every person involved," he said.
The declaration was launched shortly before UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem presented a separate report to the Human Rights Council identifying surrogate mothers as being at particular risk of violence. Alsalem expressed support for the declaration, saying the signatory states recognize that concerns over surrogacy extend beyond commercial arrangements and that fragmented national approaches are facilitating a growing cross-border market.
"This declaration shows that policy action is possible," Alsalem said.
Giorgio Mazzoli, Director of UN Advocacy at ADF International, which moderated the launch event, called the declaration "an important step forward in building the international consensus needed to confront the grave human rights violations and abuses inherent in the practice."
The move follows an October 2025 UN report in which Alsalem concluded that surrogacy is characterized by exploitation and violence against women and children, and called on the international community to work toward eradicating it through a binding international instrument.
According to ADF International, the declaration also builds on growing legislative momentum at the national level. Italy in 2024 became the first country to ban surrogacy both domestically and extraterritorially. Slovakia adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting the practice in September 2025. In January 2026, a Chilean congressional commission advanced legislation that would prohibit it there as well.
ADF International said it has been involved in surrogacy-related advocacy at the UN for several years, including organizing a civil society letter backed by more than 220 nongovernmental organizations from 40 countries calling for a coordinated international response.
