Fathers who are under 18 years of age are set to be recognised by law as a legal anomaly is about to be addressed, PL MP Amanda Spiteri Grech said.
In a parliamentary session a few days ago, Spiteri Grech, who is a family lawyer by profession, said that she will make it her mission to make sure that this legal anomaly is changed.
Asked to explain more in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Spiteri Grech said that as things stand now, a father who is under 18 years of age cannot recognise his son or daughter because he is prohibited by law from doing so.
Conversely, a mother who is 16 years old is able to recognise the child as her own, but is forced by law to be recognised as a single mother, even when the father wants to also be recognised as such, the Labour MP said.
The lawyer informed this newsroom that Prime Minister Robert Abela had already approached her and “spoke to me and said that (this anomaly) needs to be fixed”. She added that she has also been in talks with Justice Minister Jonathan Attard together with parliamentary secretary Rebecca Buttigieg on the matter.
“We (the government) are going to be working together so that we eradicate this legal anomaly once and for all from the Maltese laws.”
In the interview, Spiteri Grech said that unlike many other legal situations, in these cases a father who is under 18 years of age cannot go through a legal recourse to fix the issue.
There is a contradiction in this, as she said government has decreased the consent for sexual activity to 16-years-old but then fathers, who are under 18, cannot be legally recognised. “So this needs to be fixed today before tomorrow.”
Legal anomaly
The Maltese Civil Code, under Chapter 86, lays down that “(1) A child conceived or born out of wedlock may be acknowledged by the parents, either jointly or separately: Provided that where the person acknowledging himself to be the parent who did not give birth is a minor, the acknowledgment is null:”
Spiteri Grech explained that for the law to be fixed the second sentence of this part of the law, indicated above, has to be discarded, so that even fathers, who are under the age of 18, can be legally recognised.
Asked why this legal anomaly has been there for such a long time and never been addressed she said that “most probably it’s an archaic law that has been left there”.
“We (the government) didn't realise this anomaly but now that we have noticed it, let’s remove it and change it.”
Cases of unknown fathers
On cases of unknown fathers, Spiteri Grech could not guarantee that with the addressing of such a legal anomaly there are going to be less instances of unknown fathers, but said that currently, how it stands, this law “automatically puts all the legal burden of the child on the woman”.
However, she added that without the legal acknowledgement of the father, who in such cases would still be considered a “minor”, there also cannot be a custody agreement. This, she said, creates a chain reaction because, as things stand now, the father would not be obliged to maintain the child.