In April 2010, the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the Hague Conference (the "Council") invited the Permanent Bureau to provide a brief preliminary note on the topic to the Council of 2011.
Further, in relation specifically to international surrogacy arrangements, the Council, "acknowledged the complex issues of private international law and child protection arising from the growth in cross-border surrogacy arrangements".
It also noted that the impact of international surrogacy cases on the operation of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (the "1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention") would be placed on the draft agenda of the upcoming Special Commission on the practical operation of that Convention (17 to 25 June 2010).
The Council further agreed that private international law questions relating to international surrogacy arrangements should be kept under review by the Permanent Bureau.
At the 2010 Special Commission meeting on the practical operation of the 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention, the interplay between international surrogacy cases and the Convention was discussed (see the "Intercountry Adoption Homepage" of this website, under "Special Commissions" for all the documentation relating to this meeting).
It was concluded that the number of international surrogacy arrangements was increasing rapidly and concern was expressed over the uncertainty surrounding the status of children born as a result.
Further, the meeting concluded that the use of the 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention in cases of international surrogacy was inappropriate and the Hague Conference should carry out further study of the legal, especially private international law, issues surrounding international surrogacy.
In 2001, during the informal consultations which took place regarding the future work programme of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the topic of the "private international law issues surrounding the status of children and, in particular, the recognition of parent–child relationships" ("filiation") was suggested as a possible future area of work for the Hague Conference.
Observations concerning the Strategy of the Hague Conference – Observations made by other international organisations and observations made in a personal capacity in response to the Secretary General’s letter of 30/31 July 2001 (Prel. Doc. No 20 for the attention of the Nineteenth Session)