Narratives of commercial gestational surrogacy (CGS) as ‘baby-selling’ often conflate or interchange the transfer of children born via surrogacy with trafficking in children or the sale of children, two sometimes overlapping but nonetheless distinct offenses. Moreover, anti-trafficking laws have been used to police cross border CGS. But when do CGS arrangements fall within the category of legitimate ‘reproductive tourism’ and when do they amount to child trafficking? In this paper I critically explore intersections between human trafficking laws and CGS, vis-à-vis the child, charting the relevant trafficking laws in the context of international surrogacy, and analysing whether trafficking laws are an appropriate mechanism through which to regulate CGS. I conclude that while child trafficking might occur via surrogacy, CGS in itself is not child trafficking under international law.
Nearly seven years after the Modern Slavery Act was passed, organised crime networks behind modern slavery are continuing to act with impunity costing the UK billions of pounds. In It Still Happens Here, our report published in 2020, we estimated th...Read More
The purpose of this position paper is to inform the development of an effective labour market enforcement strategy for tackling sexual harassment in the context of low-paid and insecure work. It seeks to nuance the discussion around se...Read More
Findings from a series of learning papers previously developed by USAID Asia CTIP in 20211, showed that openly communicating, sharing and learning among CSOs and donors is key to ensuring that iterative programming takes place. This is vital to ensu...Read More
This Occasional Paper highlights the importance of addressing the demand that fosters trafficking for sexual exploitation, in particular the exploitation of the prostitution of others. In doing so, it puts a spotlight on the role of demand in encour...Read More
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