The Constitutional Court has dismissed a case which sought to determine if children have a right to clarify their origin. The same court had ruled that children have a right to know their origin but hadn’t clarified on the right to clarify the origin.
At the end of the case, the court ruled that children cannot force their fathers to do a DNA test to determine their paternity.
The case in court involved a 33 year old woman who sought to determine whether a certain man was the father of her son. The case was brought to court after the defendant had allegedly been refusing to pay child support. The woman took the case to the Constitutional Court after the man repeatedly refused to have his DNA tested saying that they were violating his right.
The court then decided that making the man take such a test would be a contravention of his constitutional rights. Because man has never legally acknowledged his fatherhood, he is not legally obliged to undergo a test, the court decided.
The decision means that the right for a child to know about their ancestry remains limited to knowing whether one’s legal father is also their biological father.
Source: Online
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