Professor Aguiling-Pangalangan lectures on the “Unbundling” of children’s rights at the Child Identity Protection’s 13th International Conference

Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan delivered a lecture at the Child Identity Protection’s (CHIP) 13th International Conference entitled “The ‘Manufactured Child’: What are the challenges for children’s rights, identity and origins?” held in Switzerland from 29 November to 1 December 2023. Led by CHIP President and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Maude Boer-Buquicchio and Ms Mia Dambach, CHIP Executive Director, the international symposium provided an overview of the various practices and legislation that regulate the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART), ranging from the most restrictive to the most liberal, alongside other related issues. The conference also conducted a proactive interdisciplinary dialogue between stakeholders who participated to discuss children’s rights and the new ART techniques. Among the attendees were political decision-makers and professionals working with and for children and young people, as well as representatives of the academic and scientific community.

Professor Aguiling-Pangalangan gave a lecture on “Law, Technology, and the Unbundling of the Traditional Children’s Rights.” She spoke on surrogacy and the human rights and private international issues in surrogacy arrangements, as well as the alternative ways of addressing these problems in Asian contexts. Professor Aguiling-Pangalangan highlighted that the surrogacy agreements, whether domestic or international, must not be left solely for the parties to negotiate, especially since they are rarely on equal footing. She pointed out the need for laws that embody the moral consensus of each society and that can be enforced through the coercive mechanisms of the State. Professor Aguiling-Pangalangan likewise established the nexus between such an issue with the right of the child to identity. She argued that the necessity of establishing a child’s legal parentage is directly linked to state obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Professor Aguiling-Pangalangan was joined by other global experts on child’s rights, namely, Professor Karabo Ozah, Director of the Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria; Professor Olga Khazova, Department of Private International Law, The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences; and Professor Michelle Cottier, University of Geneva.