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.
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The Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 (“the Act”) introduced new offences, gave police and prosecutors additional powers to tackle traffickers, raised the maximum penalty for trafficking to life imprisonment, and placed supp...Read More
Venture capitalists shape the future of technology, and with it the future of our economies, politics, societies and fundamentally, our human rights. They decide which new technologies and technology companies will receive early-stage funding. This,...Read More
There is no procedure for the identification of victims of human trafficking which is independent of the criminal investigation. GRETA urges the Czech authorities to disconnect the identification of victims of human trafficking from the initiation o...Read More
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