The French Protestant Evangelical Committee for Human Dignity (CPDH) recently submitted two reports on surrogacy and minors' access to pornography, to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“In these two new submissions, we ask France to condemn the French sponsors of surrogacy with the penalties provided for by the law, and to work for the international abolition of those practices”, stated the CPDH.

“Lack of political will to protect children and respect their rights”

The process of France's periodic review of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child began in June 2020, with the submission by civil society organisations of reports about France's compliance with its commitments.

Then, the CPDH already submitted a report on surrogacy and participated in another one denouncing the bioethics bill.

The French State was supposed to answer these questions in October 2021 but did not send its own report until July 2022, which, according to the CPDH,“demonstrates, to say the least, a lack of political will to protect children and respect their rights in France”.

The French government will be questioned again by the UN Committee and associations in February 2023 in Geneva, so that the evangelicals “expect answers on these serious breaches of children's rights”.

Surrogacy and human trafficking

The report on surrogacy draws attention to the fact that sponsors have brought Ukrainian surrogate mothers to France to give birth “in complete violation of French law”.

“Those facts are constitutive of many offences and are similar to human trafficking”, denounces the CPDH.

They also call on the French justice system to “prosecute and sentence the perpetrators of of those offences, as well as all actors and intermediaries promoting surrogacy, such as foreign companies, lawyers, reproductive tourism agencies, media and public figures”.

Minors’ access to pornography

The report on minors’ access to pornography was submitted along with the partner associations, Alliance VITA and Juristes pour l'enfance.

It warns that “two thirds of children under 15 have been exposed to pornography, and every month, almost a third of boys under 15 visit a pornographic website”.

The CPDH also recalled that “the national plan to combat the prostitution of minors published on 15 November 2021 emphasised the connections between early exposure to pornography and the prostitution of minors, especially young girls”.

“We call on the French state to enforce the law on effective age verification for access to pornographic sites and to block them in case of non-compliance, extending those warnings to social media and Internet providers”, points out the report.

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