Italy violated rights of child born through surrogacy - ECHR

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 31 - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday found Italy guilty of violating the rights of a child born in Ukraine in 2019 through surrogacy by preventing the legal recognition of her filial relationship with her biological father and rendering her stateless.
    Specifically, it ruled that Italy was guilty of violating the child's right to family and private life.
    The case was brought to the Strasbourg court in September 2021 by the child's biological father and intended mother, both Italians, after they were repeatedly refused legal recognition of their bond with the child by Italian registry offices and courts.
    "The refusal of the national authorities to recognise her biological father and intended mother as her parents, on the one hand, and the fact that she had no nationality, on the other, has placed her in a state of great legal uncertainty," reads their appeal.
    The ECHR also ruled that the Italian authorities must pay the child 15,000 euros in moral damages and 9,536 euros for legal costs.
    Surrogacy is illegal in Italy and a bill presented by Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party is currently before parliament making it a universal crime.
    This means that it would be punishable by law even if committed abroad, but only for Italian citizens.
    In March the government drew criticism from the opposition and rights activists after it instructed city mayors to stop registering the children of same-sex couples using a procedure based on the transcription into Italian civic registers of the foreign birth certificates of children conceived via surrogacy or assisted fertility, which is only available to heterosexual couples in Italy, citing a ruling by the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court.
    Centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) Secretary Elly Schlein has said she is personally in favour of surrogacy.
    (ANSA).