The local courts are being given the authority to order DNA tests in paternity cases, under new legislation currently before Parliament.
Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who introduced the debate in Parliament yesterday, said children had a right to know the identity of their parents and through DNA testing, one could today establish certainty.
As the law currently stood, the courts did not have the authority to order a party to take a DNA test but could only recommend such a test. The amendments being presented would now give the courts the power to actually demand such tests.
He said that around 270 paternity cases had been presented to the courts in the last five years. The law would help reduce the number of unknown fathers who tried to shirk paternal responsibility. Furthermore, it would be significantly reducing the time of paternity proceedings in court.
GENDER RE-ASSIGNMENT
Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the law was also being amended so that in court cases for alteration of official documents after gender re-assignment surgery, judges would no longer need to appoint a medical expert to confirm that gender re-assignment would have surgically taken place. An application would still need to be filed in court for official documents to be changed, but a sworn medical report would be sufficient to confirm that the surgery would have taken place.
During the last three years, four gender re-assignment cases had been presented in court, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said.
REMOVAL OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CHILDREN
The Bill, the minister said, was also removing an article from the Civil Code which discriminated against children born out of wedlock. The removal of this article had been an electoral promise. In this way, children born out of wedlock would have the same succession rights as their siblings.
WIDOWS CAN RETAIN FIRST HUSBAND'S SURNAME ON RE-MARRIAGE
The Bill, he said, would also enable widows who remarried to keep the surname of their first husband. Widows who re-married before 2005, who had not been granted this option, would now have six months time to change their surname, if they wished.
Children born before the 7th August 2007 could now also apply to add their mother’s maiden surname after their father’s surname.