The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejected an ambiguous recommendation
Strasbourg, 11 October 2016
There is no room for ambiguity on the practice of surrogacy. Today the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), during a plenary sitting, rejected a draft recommendation on surrogacy presented by the Belgian Senator Dr. Petra De Sutter (Socialist Group).
“A very ambiguous text, vague on how to really protect children’s rights and how to fight surrogacy, has been rejected today: the attempts made to legitimize that practice failed at every stage of this long procedure”, said Antoine Renard, President of FAFCE. This is the end of a complex procedure started two years ago.
FAFCE, as an organisation with a participatory status to the Council of Europe, welcomes this rejection which confirms that the voices of citizens and NGOs can be heard. Antoine Renard stresses that “This is the result of a joint-effort of many Members of the Assembly and of the voices of several organisations which drew the public attention towards this report which otherwise could have been approved, silently paving the way to all forms of surrogacy”.
A public debate could finally take place and many members had the possibility to affirm that children’s rights cannot be separated by the dignity of women and other persons involved in the practice of surrogacy. The voting results are now published online and everyone will be able to see how their representatives in Strasbourg voted on this important topic.
To see the voting results online, click here
