At its Human Rights meeting from 10 to 12 June, the Committee ended its supervision of the execution of the case of K.K. and Others v. Denmark, concerning the disproportionate interference with the right to respect for private life of two children, born in Ukraine in December 2013 through a commercial surrogacy agreement, due to the refusal of the authorities (ultimately confirmed by the Supreme Court in November 2020) to allow their adoption by their intended mother (violation of Article 8).
On 1 January 2025 amendments to the Children Act (børneloven) came into force. According to the new legislation, it is possible to apply for establishment of parenthood for intended parents in Denmark based on a foreign surrogacy agreement. In order to establish parenthood, a number of conditions must be met. For instance, the surrogate mother, at the time of concluding the surrogacy agreement, must have been residing abroad for at least the past six months.
While the administrative application of rules on stepchild adoption in the Adoption Act had been adjusted already subsequent to the Court’s judgment, legislative amendments to those rules came into force on 1 January 2025. Those amendments remove the absolute ban on allowing stepchild adoption for intended parents in cases of children born through foreign commercial surrogacy agreements.
The shortcomings found by the Court have been addressed, given that there are now two routes available in Denmark (stepchild adoption or establishment of parenthood for (an) intended parent(s) under the amended legislation) to establish the same legal parent-child relationship as that of children and parents with a biological link. Despite the short period of time that has elapsed since the legislative amendments came into force, it is already clear from the administrative practice that children in situations similar to those of the applicants are benefitting from the legislative measures taken, thereby preventing potential new violations under Article 8 of the Convention from occurring.
