The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (CETS No. 197), adopted in 2005, defines “human trafficking” as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation” (Article 4. a.).
The practice of surrogacy consists in the recruitment of women by means of the giving of payments or other gains and of the abuse of a position of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation of their body and reproductive functions, that are used as a commodity. Surrogacy is thus a situation of human trafficking.
Ukraine ratified the Convention in 2010, where it entered into force in 2011. Yet, the practice of surrogacy in Ukraine is legal and generates large revenues for private companies.
Ms Rizzotti
To ask the Committee of Ministers:
What actions does the Committee of Ministers intend to take to ensure that Ukraine is respecting its commitments towards the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings?