Feminist Legal Clinic

Surrogacy is comparable to prostitution and should be banned, the UN’s most senior expert on violence against women and girls has urged.

Reem Alsalem, a United Nations special rapporteur, submitted a report to the body on Friday calling for an end to the practice, calling it a “system of exploitation and violence”.

“I see a lot of similarities between the system of prostitution and the system of surrogacy,” Ms Alsalem told The Telegraph. “[Surrogacy] is clearly responsible for inflicting large-scale violence, abuse and exploitation on women and children.”

Ms Alsalem argued that there had been a “rush to normalise” surrogacy arrangements in recent years, driven by powerful lobbying groups that have created a false impression of the practice.

“There’s a very embellished view that it’s altruistic, that it’s a sign of love, that you’re doing something amazing because you’re providing an opportunity for others that don’t have the chance to become parents, but there’s very little talk about the dark side of surrogacy,” she said.

“Humans do not have a human right to have children. This argument that you have a right to form a family, and therefore you have a right to rent out a womb and then remove a child from their mother, it’s just insane how this has been allowed to happen.”

The global surrogacy market is booming. It was valued at $14.4bn in 2023 and is expected to rise to $96.6bn by 2033. However, as little as 10 per cent of the profits go to mothers who bear the physical and emotional risks of surrogacy, the report found, while intermediaries line their pockets. First-time surrogates typically earn around $50,000 (£37,000), according to Circle Surrogacy.

Mothers also often experience “immense psychological suffering that they didn’t anticipate,” she said, recalling speaking to women about “how dehumanised they felt, how invisible their own needs and well-being became, and how trapped they felt also in this surrogacy arrangement”.

At the same time, she said, surrogates are sometimes referred to as “ovens” and “gestational carriers”. “Mothers are presented as vessels that don’t matter, giving birth to children who are also commodified,” she said.

Ms Alsalem insists the only viable solution is an international ban on so-called “reproductive tourism”, where couples enlist surrogates from foreign countries with lax rules and where poverty is sometimes a key driver.

The report outlines examples of women in Cambodia reportedly being detained and forced to give birth in handcuffs, and of around 100 women in Georgia kept in confinement and having their eggs forcibly removed.

[C]ountries such as Australia, France and Spain have recently discussed relaxing their surrogacy laws, Ms Alsalem said, prompting concern about the practice being fast-tracked without proper consultation.

Source: Top UN official demands surrogacy ban

At the UN, Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, calls for the universal abolition of surrogacy: a historic turning point for women’s and children’s rights. 

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Ms. Reem Alsalem, today delivered an unprecedented call from the podium of the General Assembly for the universal abolition of surrogacy.

• “Women used as surrogates are subjected to physical, psychological, and economic violence. Their dignity and fundamental rights are violated,” she declared.

• “Children born through surrogacy are separated at birth from the only mother they have ever known. To be born through surrogacy is to begin life with rupture and loss.”

• “No society can progress by normalizing the sale of women’s bodies. This is not love, it is violence.”

• Ms. Alsalem emphasized that, “like prostitution, surrogacy exploits women for being women,” and advised States:

• “We must criminalize those who buy and profit: never the women themselves.”

• “The goal must be clear: to abolish surrogacy in all its forms.”

Source: Historic: UN Special Rapporteur calls for global abolition of surrogacy

Today, October 10, 2025, Ms. Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, officially presents her report on surrogacy to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (80th session). The report, titled “The different manifestations of violence against women and girls in the context of surrogacy” (A/80/158), recommends the eradication of surrogacy in all its forms and at all levels, including through the adoption of a legally binding international instrument that would prohibit the practice globally. In a joint statement, 215 NGOs from 40 countries, representing wide geographical and ideological diversity, express their support for the Special Rapporteur and urge all States: • to fully and unequivocally support the report presented today. • to implement the report’s recommendations, including by creating an expert study group or an intergovernmental working group tasked with examining the human rights implications of surrogacy and identifying pathways toward a coordinated international response. See the Joint Statement and the list of 215 NGOs HERE

« The Casablanca Declaration is honored to be present in New York for this historic moment. Thanks to Mrs. Alsalem’s report, the international community now has a solid foundation to reflect collectively on the protection of women and children in the context of surrogacy. »- Olivia Maurel, Spokesperson of the Casablanca Declaration « We hope that a working group of States can be established to study the report’s recommendations in depth and foster a constructive dialogue among all stakeholders. » – Bernard Garcia, Executive Director of the Casablanca Declaration

Source: 215 NGOs from 40 countries support Reem Alsalem’s report on surrogacy