Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs

Parties with reservations, declarations and objections

Party	Reservations / Declarations	Objections
Azerbaijan	Yes	No
Belgium	Yes	No
Croatia	Yes	No
Czech Republic	Yes	No
France	Yes	No
Portugal	Yes	No
Russian Federation	Yes	No
Slovenia	Yes	No
Spain	Yes	No
Switzerland	Yes	No
United Kingdom	Yes	No

Azerbaijan

30-10-2023

The Republic of Azerbaijan declares that provisions of the present Convention will not be applied by the Republic of Azerbaijan in relation to the Republic of Armenia until the consequences of the conflict are completely eliminated and relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan are normalized.

Belgium

22-02-2022

In accordance with the provisions of Article 9, paragraph 3, and Article 30, paragraph 1, of the Convention, the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium reserves the right not to apply Article 9, paragraph 2, to offences established in accordance with Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 10, paragraphs 3 and 5, and Article 30, paragraph 1, of the Convention, the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium reserves the right to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in Article 10, paragraph 1.d and e, and paragraph 4, of the Convention, within the limits provided for in chapter II of the Titre préliminaire du Code de procédure pénale.
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium declares that its “national contact point for the exchange of information pertaining to trafficking in human organs” is the
Service public fédéral Justice
Direction Générale législation, libertés et droits fondamentaux
[…]
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium has examined the content of the declaration made by the Czech Republic on 25 March 2015 with regard to the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, according to which the Czech Republic reserves the right to apply Article 5 of the Convention, in the case of organs removed from a deceased person, only to offenses committed for the purpose of personal enrichment or the enrichment of others.
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium notes that this reservation limits the scope of Article 5 of the Convention, in a way that is not in conformity with Article 30, paragraph 2. Indeed, the Explanatory Report of the Convention explains clearly that the term “purposes” used in Article 5 must be understood in the sense of “use” (no. 48). In n° 21, it also specifies that: “The term ‘other purposes’ is intended to refer to any purpose other than transplantation, for which organs illicitly removed from a donor could now, or in the future, be used. Concerning what constitutes the term “other purposes”, the negotiators identified, in particular, scientific research and the use of organs to collect tissue and cells, such as the use of heart valves from a heart illicitly removed, or the use of cells from a organ illicitly removed organ for cell therapy.”

Croatia

16-05-2019

In accordance with Article 10, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the Republic of Croatia reserves the right to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in Article 10, paragraph 1.d and e, of the Convention subject to the conditions prescribed by the criminal legislation of the Republic of Croatia.
In accordance with Article 10, paragraph 5, of the Convention, the Republic of Croatia reserves the right to apply Article 10, paragraph 4, of the Convention in specific cases as arises from the criminal legislation of the Republic of Croatia.
In accordance with Article 22, item b, of the Convention, the Republic of Croatia designates the Office for Human Rights and the Rights of National Minorities of the Government of the Republic of Croatia as the national contact point for the exchange of information pertaining to trafficking of human organs.

Czech Republic

21-09-2017

In accordance with Article 4, paragraph 2, of the Convention, the Czech Republic reserves the right not to apply paragraph 1.a of this Article to the removal of human organs from living donors, in exceptional cases, when the consent of the donor is not needed.
There is in force Section 4 of the Act No. 258/2002 Coll., on the donation, removals and transplantations of tissues and organs and on the amending of certain Acts, in the Czech Republic. The first paragraph of this provision states that solely renewable tissues may be removed from donors who are minors, persons with limited legal capacity or fully legally incapacitated persons or persons who gave their consent to the removal, but with regard to their health condition it is reasonable to assume that despite receiving due instructions they did not consider or could not consider all consequences of removal of renewable tissues for their own health (hereinafter “person unable to express consent”), unless provided otherwise further, and only if:
a) there is no other donor who could give his explicit and concrete consent,
b) the recipient is a sibling of the donor,
c) donation constitutes an option of rescuing the recipient’s life,
d) legal representative of the donor who is a minor or person with limited legal capacity / incapacitated person expressed consent to the removal pursuant to section 7(4),
e) ethic committee expressed consent to the removal pursuant to section 5(5)b) and
f) the donor does not oppose the donation.
Second paragraph states that provisions of subsection 1 b) and c) do not apply to removal of cells, if such removal poses only minimal risk for health and life of the donor.
In accordance with Article 10, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the Czech Republic reserves the right not to apply in full the provisions of Article 10, paragraph 1.e, of the Convention and to apply it only in the extent as follows: the law of the Czech Republic shall also assess the culpability of an act committed abroad by a person with no nationality who has been granted permanent residence in their territory.
In accordance with Article 30, paragraph 2, of the Convention, the Czech Republic reserves the right to apply the Article 5 of the Convention in case of organs removed from a deceased person only to conduct committed with the aim to enrich oneself or other.

France

25-11-2019

In accordance with Article 9, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the French Government declares that it reserves the right not to apply the rules on the attempt laid down in Article 9, paragraph 2, to offences established in accordance with Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention.
In accordance with Article 10, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the French Government declares that, regarding the jurisdiction rules laid down under Article 10, paragraph 1.d, of the Convention, it shall exercise its jurisdiction in respect of offences established in accordance with the Convention and committed by its nationals outside the territory of the French Republic only on condition that the facts are also punishable by the law of the country in which they were committed and that these gave rise either to a complaint of the victim or of its rights holders, or to an official denunciation by the authorities of the country where they were committed. The French Government declares that it will not apply the jurisdiction rules laid down under Article 10, paragraph 1.e, of the Convention.
In accordance with Article 10, paragraph 5, of the Convention, the French Government declares that it will not apply Article 10, paragraph 4, of the Convention.

Portugal

08-11-2018

The Portuguese authorities declare that the Judicial Police, Ministry of Justice (Policía Judiciária, Ministério da Justiça) has been designated as the authority responsible for the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs.

Russian Federation

24-09-2015

The Russian Federation strongly condemns the inclusion into Article 4 of the Convention, despite objections from many States, of the provision which allows the formulation of declarations providing for the possibility of removal of human organs without permission of a living donor. The Russian Federation considers indent 2 of Article 4 of the Convention as a digression from the high standards of the Council of Europe in the field of protection of human rights which significantly undermines the regime of combating the inhuman crimes covered by the Convention, and hopes that the States acceding to the Convention shall refrain from making such declarations.

25-03-2022

Depositary communication.
Signatory considered to be suspended as from 16 March 2022.

Slovenia

03-05-2022

In accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the Convention, the Republic of Slovenia declares that it reserves the right not to apply paragraph 1.a of Article 4 of the Convention to the removal of human organs from living donors, in exceptional cases and in accordance with appropriate safeguards or consent provisions under its domestic law.
The above exception applies to cases where, in accordance with domestic law, consent to donation in the case of the living donor is given by a legal representative instead of the donor, namely for a person under 18 years of age or a person who is incapable of judgement (paragraph 6 of Article 8 of the Act Regulating the Obtaining and Transplantation of Human Body Parts for the Purposes of Medical Treatment, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, Nos. 56/15 and 186/21 - KZ-1I).
In accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 10 of the Convention, the Republic of Slovenia declares that it reserves the right not to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in paragraph 1.e of Article 10 of the Convention.
In accordance with Article 22.b of the Convention, the Republic of Slovenia declares that the national contact point responsible for carrying out the tasks referred to in Article 22 of the Convention is the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for the Transplantation of Organs and Tissues, Slovenija-transplant.

Spain

05-05-2017

The Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of Spain has the honour to communicate that if the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (CETS No. 216) were to be ratified by the United-Kingdom and extended to Gibraltar, Spain would like to make the following declaration:
1. Gibraltar is a non-autonomous territory whose international relations come under the responsibility of the United Kingdom and which is subject to a decolonisation process in accordance with the relevant decisions and resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
2. The authorities of Gibraltar have a local character and exercise exclusively internal competences which have their origin and their foundation in a distribution and attribution of competences performed by the United Kingdom in compliance with its internal legislation, in its capacity as sovereign State of which the mentioned non-autonomous territory is dependent.
3. As a result, any participation of the Gibraltarian authorities in the application of this Convention will be understood as carried out exclusively as part of the internal competences of Gibraltar and cannot be considered to modify in any way what was established in the two previous paragraphs.
4. The procedure foreseen in the "Arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of certain international treaties" which were adopted by Spain and the United Kingdom on 19 December 2007, as well as the "Agreed Arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of EU and EC instruments and related treaties", dated 19 April 2000, apply to this Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, opened for signature, in Santiago de Compostela, on 25 March 2015.
5. The application of the Convention to Gibraltar should not be interpreted as an acknowledgment of any right or any situation regarding areas not covered by Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht of 13 July 1713, concluded between the Crowns of Spain and of the United Kingdom.

15-12-2020

Spain declares that it reserves the right not to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in paragraph 1.e of Article 10 of the Convention. The Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of Spain has the honour to communicate that if the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (CETS No. 216) were to be ratified by the United-Kingdom and extended to Gibraltar, Spain would like to make the following declaration:
1. Gibraltar is a non-autonomous territory whose international relations come under the responsibility of the United Kingdom and which is subject to a decolonisation process in accordance with the relevant decisions and resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
2. The authorities of Gibraltar have a local character and exercise exclusively internal competences which have their origin and their foundation in a distribution and attribution of competences performed by the United Kingdom in compliance with its internal legislation, in its capacity as sovereign State of which the mentioned non-autonomous territory is dependent.
3. As a result, any participation of the Gibraltarian authorities in the application of this Convention will be understood as carried out exclusively as part of the internal competences of Gibraltar and cannot be considered to modify in any way what was established in the two previous paragraphs.
4. The procedure foreseen in the "Arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of certain international treaties" which were adopted by Spain and the United Kingdom on 19 December 2007, as well as the "Agreed Arrangements relating to Gibraltar authorities in the context of EU and EC instruments and related treaties", dated 19 April 2000, apply to this Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs.
5. The application of the Convention to Gibraltar should not be interpreted as an acknowledgment of any right or any situation regarding areas not covered by Article X of the Treaty of Utrecht of 13 July 1713, concluded between the Crowns of Spain and of the United Kingdom.

Switzerland

21-10-2020

Switzerland declares that the Office fédéral de la Santé publique is the national contact point responsible within the meaning of Article 22.b of the Convention.

United Kingdom

25-03-2015

In accordance with the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 10 and paragraph 1 of Article 30 of the Convention, the Government of the United Kingdom reserves the right not to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in paragraph 1.d and e of Article 10 of the Convention.