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.
In April 2021, the Government of Ghana (GOG) launched its Ten-Year Action Plan on the Eradication of Child Labor, Forced Labor, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery in Africa (2020-2030): African Union Agenda 2063 – Sustainable Development Goal (S...Read More
The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More
There is no systematic use of child labour in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan and significant measures to end forced labour are being implemented. The annual cotton harvest in Uzbekistan is a unique large-scale effort. In 2017, an estimated 2.6 mil...Read More
The expansion of the social audit industry exemplifies the neoliberal culture of private and voluntary codes of conduct in combination with the privatization of inspections.Over-reliance on...Read More
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