14 States Sign World's First Treaty Against Organ Trafficking

Fourteen countries on Wednesday signed the Council of Europe's convention against organ trafficking, the first international treaty of its kind.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The countries that signed the document include Albania, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Britain and Spain, the council reported on its official website.

The head of the transplant division at the World Health Organization, Jose Ramon Nunez, and the Council of Europe's Committee on Organ Transplantation leader Marta Lopez Fraga, participated in the signing in Spain, according to media reports.

Twelve Latin-American countries will join the convention before the end of the year, Nunez said, adding that Pakistan, Singapore, Australia and India have not completed the administrative process yet.

Both Nunez and Lopez Fraga agreed that the new convention could harmonize the laws of different countries, and could lay the foundation for future legislation that could be adopted globally, according to reports.

The Ministers' Committee of the Council of Europe adopted the organ trafficking convention in July 2014, making it the first international treaty against these kinds of crimes.

The objectives of the convention are to prevent and fight against the trafficking of human organs, to protect victims and to promote international cooperation in this area. The treaty states that the countries that signed it have to establish criminal offenses for the illicit removal of organs from living or deceased donors, as well as their use in transplantation or for other purposes.