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Are our children equal?legislation will be passed. After all, it is many years since concerned people started asking for the change to be made, and the children continue to get their labeled certificates month after month, year after yearfAsks Petei* MaxwellTHE STATUS OF CHILDREN ACT of 1976 did , a- lot to improve tilings for the children (and adults) who used to suffer under the prejudice, enshrined in our laws, against the children of unmarried parents.Whatever society’s attitudes may be. our laws no longer permit such people to be taken advantage of by losing the right to inherit from their fathers, or by being entitled to only a half of the maintenance allowance awarded to the children of married parents.One problem still remaining is the question of nation-' aiity. The child of unmarried parents is entitled to the nationality of his mother, but not of his father. Of course, you could argue that the disadvantage is equal, since the child of married parents may claim his father's but not his mothers nationality!There are two other groups of children in Jamaica, however. who continue to be embarrassed by our laws, and by the way they are administered.Adopted and remindedLegal adoption of a child makes it clear that the child has all the rights and responsibilities of other children Of the family, and is*to be treated no differently -except that, up to now, the birth certificate carried the word ‘adopted’ on it. just to make sure that anybody seeing it (teacher, sports coach, employer, immigration officer) will know that there b a difference.The Minister of Youth has recently informed me that *work is far advanced on amending the Children (Adop- ■tion of -) Act', but we really don't know how soon the•* +In view of the Minister's assurances. I was even more startled to learn that Census Takers have been carefully instructed to list adopted children as relatives, butnot as children of the family!I don’t have to go into the details of the possible effects of this upon the feelings of parents, of adopted children, and of their brothers and sisters. Nor do ! need to emphasise the delicate nature of the decision con cerning just when and how to disclose the Tact of adop tion to a child. ,1 urge Mr. Anderson to query the instructions given to the Census Takers and. whatever the response, to see to it that the amendments to the Adoption Law will expressly forbid such discrimination from now on. Mr. Anderson must do this now.sAbandoned, then rejectedIf an abandoned child is lucky enough to be adopted, he will be faced with the problems mentioned a cove, but he will have been spared the degradation reserved for these who remain wards of the Government up to the age of 18.Those children normally have one legal guardian — the Minister of Youth - and when he drops them at age 18 they are left without a birth certificate and, what is worse, without any legal right to posaes* one.What this means is tnat an abandoned child has no document which establishes his identity, and he has noway of proving his nationality. He is a nobody.The Minister lt;of National Security (and Justice) has informed me that for such individuals 'the most appro-Eriate means of confirming their national status' has een found to be by telling them to apply to Pariimeiu to have the status of Citizen of Jamaica conferred upon them, in other words, an abandoned child is obliged to the Government for the right to be a citizen of his own country!As if that were not bad enough, this 'most appropriate means' is currently administered in a most distressing fashion. I refer to the experience of one adult who was abandoned as a baby, and who was a ward of the Minister of Youth until lie was 18.Two years ago. he was given the opportunity to travel abroad, ana so went to apply for his passport. Naturally, he needed his Birth Certificate, but he learnt that be bad never been registered, and was advised to apply for late registration.This meant getting a school testimonial and an affidavit from someone who had known him as an infant. It was months of trying to locate such a person, that someone was able to set him straight: he had no right to a Birth Certificate, and must apply for Citizenship, submitting two photographs signed by a J.P., and paying a fee of $25.00.His application went in, by way of the Ministry of louih, on 14th December 1981.Up to June, he was still waiting to find out whether the Parliament of his country would give him permission to have an identity and a nationality. He was still, official ly, nobody.
Newspaper Details
Kingston Gleaner
Kingston, Kingston, JM
Mon, Aug 30, 1982
Page 8
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USA 07 Apr 2021
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