On Tuesday, June 21, 2016, the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development decided to suspend its consideration on a second controversial draft report on surrogacy presented by the Belgian Senator, Petra De Sutter, pending the conclusions of the Committee on Rules of Procedure.
The meeting of Wednesday, June 22 which was supposed to study and possibly adopt the new report and a draft resolution was canceled.
According to No Maternity Traffic, this suspension is an evidence of the lack of transparency of the procedure that the group has repeatedly denounced, on a report describing surrogacy as an acceptable practice in relation to human rights. It is regrettable that a continuous opacity surrounds the proceedings of the meetings. Even as our petition was accepted by the Bureau and sent to the Social Affairs Committee to be taken into account, we are not officially informed of the content of the new report that Ms. De Sutter has attempted to present at the meeting of Tuesday, June 21.
The mandate of the rapporteur shall end in principle on October 3, 2016 and No Maternity Traffic hopes it will not be extended, given the rejection of the first report, her conflict of interest and the maneuvers of procedures that took place in the committee.
No Maternity Traffic will remain attentive to the decision of the Committee on Rules of Procedure which is to vote on certain procedural irregularities, in particular the question of whether a committee can freely dismiss the rapporteur.
No Maternity Traffic remains determined and committed to ensure that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemns and rejects all forms of surrogacy as contrary to human rights and human dignity.