The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has obtained a court order compelling the Registrar-General (RG) to issue birth certificates to two minor children, thereby ending their statelessness dilemma.
The mother of the two girls, aged 10 and 12 years respectively, has been struggling for many years to process the birth certificates for her minor children.
The woman’s estranged husband left for the United Kingdom some twenty years ago and his whereabouts are unknown.
She subsequently entered into a relationship with another man and gave birth to the two girls in 2012 and 2014.
When she approached the Bulawayo District Registry to obtain birth certificates for her girls, she was advised by authorities to either produce a disclaimer affidavit from her estranged husband confirming that the children are not his or a divorce decree from the High Court or Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test results confirming the paternity of the children.
However, she did not have any of the required documents leading to the minors living and remaining as undocumented children.
In a statement, the ZLHR explained how the matter was eventually brought before High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo who recently ordered the RG to register and issue the 10-year-old and 12-year-old children with birth certificates within 7 days. Reads the statement:
We have ended the statelessness dilemma of 2 minor children by obtaining a court order compelling the Registrar-General (RG) to register their births and issue them with birth certificates within one week.
This came after the RG and his subordinates had refused to do so for several years. The 2 minor children, who are aged 10 and 12 years old, had been undocumented since birth and rendered stateless in the land of their birth for several years after RG Henry Machiri withheld the issuance of their birth certificates by demanding that their mother’s estranged husband, who left for the United Kingdom several years ago and whose whereabouts are unknown, should produce a disclaimer affidavit disowning the 2 girls and also asked their biological father to furnish the RG’s Office with DNA test results confirming the paternity of the children.
According to court documents, the mother, who has been struggling to process the birth certificates for her minor children, was legally married to his estranged husband since January 2004.
Sometime in 2004, the now estranged husband reportedly left Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom with an agreement that the wife would follow him a year later.
But this did not materialise and the 2 have been estranged for 20 years with the minor’s mother not in the know about the current whereabouts of her former husband.
The mother of the minor children subsequently entered into a relationship with another man and gave birth to the two girls in 2012 and 2014 and this is confirmed in the birth confirmation records from Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals, where the 2 girls were born.
Over the years, the minor’s mother unsuccessfully attempted to process the birth certificates for her two children and in her recent attempt, sometime in January 2023, she was advised by authorities at the Bulawayo District Registry, that she must either produce a disclaimer affidavit from her estranged husband confirming that the children are not his or a divorce decree from the High Court or Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test results confirming the paternity of the children.
However, she did not have any of the required documents leading to the minors living and remaining as undocumented children.
Adding onto her dilemma, her 12-year-old daughter is scheduled to register for her Grade Seven examinations, which will be written later this year and her school has demanded to be furnished with a birth certificate to facilitate her registration.
Through the assistance of her lawyers, Jabulani Mhlanga and Prisca Dube of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the minors and their parents have now heaved a sigh of relief after High Court Judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo recently ordered the RG to register and issue the 10-year-old and 12-year-old children with birth certificates within 7 days.
In her ruling, Justice Moyo castigated the conduct of authorities at the RG’s Office for refusing to register births of children without availing valid reasons, which she said was contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and was contributing to statelessness and was a denial of access to documentation of deserving people.
The Judge criticised the conduct of officials in the RG’s Office for giving themselves powers that are not conferred to them in terms of the law and for placing onerous requirements on parents applying for birth certificates of their children.
Justice Moyo stated that the RG does not have powers to order DNA tests among other requirements to prove paternity and emphasised that it was not the duty of the RG to enquire into and regulate the marital status of the parents applying for birth certificates for their minor children.
The Judge emphasised the importance of the right to a birth certificate and that it is not a right that can just be interfered with and that the RG is mandated to facilitate the process of assisting one to obtain such a critical document.
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