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STORY: UN / SURROGACY GENDER VIOLENCE
TRT: 04:45
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, UNHQ
10 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
3. Wide shot, speakers, journalists, press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“The consequences of surrogacy are so grave and harmful and result in large scale violations of the human rights of surrogate mothers and their children that surrogacy as a practice as an industry must be abolished.”
5. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“The violence that surrogate mothers and girls are experiencing in surrogate arrangements takes many forms. I speak about economic violence, psychological violence, physical and reproductive and in fact, in many situations, surrogate mothers experience life threatening situations, they are trapped in situations of slavery and are also subjected to practices that can amount to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.”
7. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“Often the concept of consent is weaponized in order to justify the surrogacy industry saying that it is these women and girls that consent fully and voluntarily to engage in surrogacy, and that we have to also respect the bodily autonomy and the decisions of these women and girls. However, as I also say in the report, consent is invalid when it is used to justify exploitation, abuse and violence.”
9. Med shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“Not to mention that many of these women are actually not aware of the harm that they're about to experience before entering into surrogacy arrangements, don't even necessarily understand the contracts and the details of it, and there is a wide imbalance and asymmetry of power between these women and the surrogacy agencies and the commissioning parents.”
11. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“The commodification of the reproductive functions of surrogate mothers is also deeply dehumanizing. In fact, even the terminology that we use, describing them as ‘ovens,’ despite describing them as ‘gestators,’ describing them as ‘wombs to rent’, points to this also deep-seated sexism and dehumanization that facilitates the surrogacy industry.”
13. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“There are hardly any background checks on commissioning parents. These background checks typically are typically nonexistent or minimal, because what matters is the buying powers of the commissioning parents.”
15. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“Regulation and legalization have not proven to reduce demand. They have not proven to safeguard surrogate mothers and children against abuse and exploitation. On the contrary, from the little evidence we have of countries which regularize some forms of surrogacy, it actually leads to increased demands. It leads to also an increased commodification and harmful stereotypes about women and girls about their reproductive functions, and therefore it also increases the risks of further abuse and exploitations.”
17. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“First of all, we must end the demand for surrogacy. And to end the demand, we must criminalize the purchase of children through surrogacy. So that means commissioning parents. It means also anyone who profits from the surrogacy industry, which is the clinics, which is the intermediaries. And we must also, therefore prohibit advertisements that encourage and groom women and girls to become surrogate mothers or to sell even their eggs.”
19. Wide shot, speakers, journalists
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls:
“So, these women are victims. They should not be criminalized for engaging in surrogacy, they must be treated as victims.”
21. Wide shot, journalists
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said, “Surrogacy as a practice as an industry must be abolished.”
Today (10 Oct) Reem Alsalem briefed journalists on her report about the ‘different manifestations of violence against women and girls in the context of surrogacy, focusing on the drivers of the practice and on the human rights implications for the females involved.’
She said, “The consequences of surrogacy are so grave and harmful and result in large scale violations of the human rights of surrogate mothers and their children that surrogacy as a practice as an industry must be abolished.”
She continued, “The violence that surrogate mothers and girls are experiencing in surrogate arrangements takes many forms. I speak about economic violence, psychological violence, physical and reproductive and in fact, in many situations, surrogate mothers experience life threatening situations, they are trapped in situations of slavery and are also subjected to practices that can amount to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.”
She noted, “Often the concept of consent is weaponized in order to justify the surrogacy industry saying that it is these women and girls that consent fully and voluntarily to engage in surrogacy, and that we have to also respect the bodily autonomy and the decisions of these women and girls. However, as I also say in the report, consent is invalid when it is used to justify exploitation, abuse and violence.”
She added, “Not to mention that many of these women are actually not aware of the harm that they're about to experience before entering into surrogacy arrangements, don't even necessarily understand the contracts and the details of it, and there is a wide imbalance and asymmetry of power between these women and the surrogacy agencies and the commissioning parents.”
She also said, “The commodification of the reproductive functions of surrogate mothers is also deeply dehumanizing. In fact, even the terminology that we use, describing them as ‘ovens,’ despite describing them as ‘gestators,’ describing them as ‘wombs to rent’, points to this also deep-seated sexism and dehumanization that facilitates the surrogacy industry.”
She stated, “There are hardly any background checks on commissioning parents. These background checks typically are typically nonexistent or minimal, because what matters is the buying powers of the commissioning parents.”
She reported, “Regulation and legalization have not proven to reduce demand. They have not proven to safeguard surrogate mothers and children against abuse and exploitation. On the contrary, from the little evidence we have of countries which regularize some forms of surrogacy, it actually leads to increased demands. It leads to also an increased commodification and harmful stereotypes about women and girls about their reproductive functions, and therefore it also increases the risks of further abuse and exploitations.”
She highlighted, “First of all, we must end the demand for surrogacy. And to end the demand, we must criminalize the purchase of children through surrogacy. So that means commissioning parents. It means also anyone who profits from the surrogacy industry, which is the clinics, which is the intermediaries. And we must also, therefore prohibit advertisements that encourage and groom women and girls to become surrogate mothers or to sell even their eggs.”
She stressed, “These women are victims. They should not be criminalized for engaging in surrogacy, they must be treated as victims.”
***
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
