A 12-year-old child had his fundamental human rights breached when he was not granted Maltese nationality because he was illegitimate.
A civil court ruled that the law governing nationality, insofar as it referred to illegitimate children, was in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, handed down the judgment in a constitutional case filed by a woman on behalf of her minor son, against the Prime Minister, the Justice and Home Affairs Minister, the Attorney General, the Director of Citizenship and Expatriates, the Police Commissioner and the Principal Immigration Officer.
The woman told the court that her son had been born from a relationship she had had with a Maltese national. The mother was British and her son was born in the United Kingdom in 1996.
She told the court that in order to protect her son's right to protection of family life, she had applied for him to obtain Maltese nationality. But the request was denied on the basis that her son was not born in a marriage to a Maltese man. A child could only be granted Maltese nationality if, on his date of birth, the father or the mother was Maltese.
The woman said that her son's father had not acknowledged paternity of the child and she had to have recourse to the Maltese courts for a declaration of paternity.
In an earlier judgment, the man had been declared by the courts to be the natural father of her child.
However, the law stipulated that, in the case of an unmarried couple, any reference to the father of a child was to be interpreted as a reference to the mother. Thus, as the woman was British, her son did not qualify for Maltese nationality.
Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco said that the law prohibited any form of discrimination on the basis of birth status. In this case, the relationship between the natural parents of the minor did not arise from a marriage but there was a blood tie between the father and his son, which had been proven to exist. The man had also been ordered to maintain his son.
The minor child's right to protection of his family and private life had been violated by the law that deprived him of Maltese nationality on the basis of his illegitimate status at law.
The court, therefore, found in favour of the minor and ruled that the law governing nationality, insofar as it referred to illegitimate children, was in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights.