20 March 2026
The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) has announced that it is suspending its project on a cross-border parentage/surrogacy framework. This follows more than 15 years of work which sought to address “limping legal parentage” of children born in international situations and the development of an international Convention for the recognition of legal parentage across Member States.
The HCCH Parentage/Surrogacy Project
The HCCH Parentage/Surrogacy Project commenced its preliminary research in 2010. In 2011, it reported that scientific developments had created challenging questions about legal parentage around the world. The emergence of DNA testing was causing ongoing issues for courts in determining the role of genetics in establishing or contesting legal parentage. This was compounded by the growing globalisation and uptake of Assisted Reproductive Technology (“ART”) by families which further complicated the international landscape. It also reported that international surrogacy had become a “booming, global business” with many challenges concerning the legal status of children born as a result of these cross-border arrangements. As such, States were grappling with issues about whether to permit the use of ART, which forms to allow and how to establish and regulate legal parentage of children born through ART and the role therein of genetics, intention and consent. It went on to report that many States had only just begun to address these issues and others had yet to start to do so, with family law typically lagging behind these developments as well as being influenced by social, cultural and political contexts. This had resulted in children’s legal parentage status increasingly becoming an issue of international concern. “Limping legal parentage” was increasingly arising when legal parentage was established in one State but not recognised in other States, or differed between States. Recognition of legal parentage is important because it is a gateway through which children derive many important rights including: the identity of those responsible for looking after them (parental responsibility), their means of financial support, inheritance or nationality.
In 2014, the Permanent Bureau (PB) of the HCCH published its report which concluded that it was desirable to further explore the feasibility of work to:
“1) Ensure legal certainty and security of legal status for children and families in international situations; and
2) Protect the rights and welfare of children, parents and other parties involved with the conception of children in international situations, in line with established global human rights standards.”
It also recognised that international surrogacy had become a matter of international interest, along with underlying legal status issues due to conflicting States’ approaches to legal parentage and nationality.
In March 2015, the Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) elected to convene an Experts’ Group to further address the feasibility of progressing work on private international law issues concerning the status of children, including legal parentage issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements. The Experts’ Group met 12 times between 2016 and 2022 and put forward a Final Report to CGAP in 2023. It proposed the establishment of a Working Group to explore the feasibility of (1) a Convention on legal parentage in general (excluding legal parentage established as a result of an international surrogacy arrangement) and (2) a Protocol on legal parentage for children born via an international surrogacy arrangement. The Working Group subsequently met five times between 2023 and 2025, composed of delegates from 25 HCCH Member States and three Observers. However, the Working Group was unable to agree a pathway forward, with a lack of consensus in key policy areas including:
▪ Different State policies and approaches to surrogacy, ART and adoption and the establishment and recognition of legal parentage in these instances.
▪ Divergent views on safeguards/standards concerning the formulation and recognition of judgments on legal parentage.
▪ Different views on extent of verification and power to refuse recognition of judgments on legal parentage (based on the principle of mutual trust between legal systems).
Suspension of HCC Parentage/Surrogacy Project
The Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) proceeded to meet from 3 to 6 March 2026 to consider the Working Group’s Final Report on the feasibility of a possible Convention on the Recognition of Judgments on Legal Parentage. In doing so, it decided to suspend the project stating “While recognising the progress made by the Working Group, CGAP decided not to advance to a Special Commission at this stage”.
The suspension of the HCCH Parentage/Surrogacy Project brings into stark focus the ongoing challenges associated with achieving international consensus about ART and the establishment and cross-border recognition of legal parentage of children born around the world, particularly in surrogacy and ART contexts. It also highlights differing views and approaches to preventing the sale, trafficking or exploitation of children, as well as safekeeping and access of information about a child’s origins (i.e. whether these should be directly linked to recognition of legal parentage judgments or relate to individual state law).
Specialist Fertility & Family Law
Given the lack of global consensus about approaches to ART and recognition of legal parentage for children and families in international situations, it is very important to navigate a range of legal issues and risks to place family building and life on a firm basis. Louisa Ghevaert Associates provides end-to-end legal strategies to effectively plan preconception, pregnancy, birth and family life, including:
- Acquisition of legal parentage following a domestic or international surrogacy arrangement.
- Acquisition of legal parentage following a known donor arrangement.
- Acquisition of legal parentage following a co-parenting arrangement.
- An application to bring or defend a Declaration of Parentage (e.g. following a direct-to-consumer DNA test or to re-register a birth certificate).
- An application to bring or defend a step parent adoption order.
- An application for an order to recognise a foreign adoption under English common law.
- Unexpected death of a loved-one and issues with posthumous storage and use of eggs, sperm and embryos in fertility treatment (e.g. due to an accident, illness).
- Care and upbringing of children following a dispute with an ex-partner, parent, donor, surrogate or family member.
- Legal issues/options following age-related fertility and loss of opportunity for conception.
- Delays in medical diagnosis and consequent treatment and associated impact on individual fertility.
- Difficulties with storage and use of frozen eggs, sperm and embryos in fertility treatment in the UK (e.g. lack of consent and expiry of storage terms).
- Issues with import of frozen gametes/embryos into the UK for fertility treatment and surrogacy (e.g. due to anonymous and commercially obtained gametes and embryos which engage UK public policy restrictions).
- Issues associated with the export of frozen gametes and embryos abroad for use in fertility treatment and surrogacy (e.g. lack of consent and storage term difficulties).
- Legal parentage disputes with an ex-partner, donor, co-parent, step-parent, surrogate.
- Legal parentage disputes with a UK fertility clinic (e.g. problems and omissions with HFEA consent forms).
