Council of Europe Finds Danish Measures on Surrogacy Ensure Compliance with the ECHR

In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held in its KK and Others v. Denmark judgment that Denmark had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by its legislative measures trying to prevent commercial surrogacy arrangements (reported for the blog here).

Measures were taken by Danish institutions in response to the ECtHR ruling. In the spring of 2024, as reported in this blog (see here), several political parties in the Danish Parliament reached a political agreement aimed at safeguarding the rights of children born through surrogacy. The agreement was designed to ensure that the children concerned would have a clearer legal connection to their intended parents, particularly by removing the prior requirement for stepparent adoption. The agreement resulted in new legislation, which had effect from 1 January 2025.

Article 46 of the ECHR provides that judgments given by the ECtHR must be submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which shall supervise their execution. With reference to the action report DH-DD(2025)336 prepared by Denmark, the Committee of Ministers held, in a decision on 12 June 2025 (CM/ResDH(2025)140), that Denmark had taken all necessary measures to comply with the judgment.

Separate from the formal decision, the matter was explained and motivated in a short summary text. Here, it was stated that it was now clear that Denmark meets the obligations of the ECHR even though the new legislation entered into effect as late as earlier this year.