Fifth meeting of the Experts’ Group on Parentage / Surrogacy

From 29 January to 1 February 2019, the Experts’ Group on Parentage / Surrogacy met for the fifth time in The Hague. The meeting was attended by 21 Experts from different States, three observers and members of the Permanent Bureau. 

The mandate of the Group is “to explore the feasibility of advancing work (…) on the private international law issues surrounding the status of children, including issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements”. In keeping with the request of the 2018 meeting of the Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP), the Group met for the fourth time in September 2018 to discuss issues surrounding legal parentage generally, followed by the fifth meeting to discuss issues surrounding legal parentage of children born following an international surrogacy arrangement (ISA) specifically.  

Following these meetings, the Group agreed that it would be feasible to develop both: 

  • a general private international law instrument on the recognition of foreign judicial decisions on legal parentage; and 
  • a separate protocol on the recognition of foreign judicial decisions on legal parentage arising from ISAs. 

The Experts’ Group will recommend to the 2019 CGAP meeting that work continue with a view to preparing proposals for inclusion in future instruments relating to the recognition of judicial decisions.  

The report of the fifth meeting is available here.