Supreme Court dashes boy’s citizenship bid

Iréne-Mari van der Walt -Kristien KrugerWindhoek“Home Affairs has been consistent in its harassment of this couple. In my opinion, this is regrettable and not the kind of thing we expect to see from our Supreme Court.”These are the words of Uno Katjipuka, the legal representative of Phillip Lühl, whose son from a same-sex marriage was denied citizenship on Monday in a landmark Supreme Court ruling.Lühl and his Mexican husband Guillermo Delgado, who in recent years have been involved in a legal battle to obtain Namibian citizenship for their son Yona, were dealt a tough blow this week when the Supreme Court ruled that he was not entitled to citizenship.Last October, the High Court ruled that Yona, who was born in South Africa through a surrogacy agreement, could get citizenship by descent.However, the minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security appealed this judgment, and five Supreme Court judges decided that the previous judgment was, in fact, erroneous and set it aside.Chief Justice Peter Shivute, deputy chief justice Petrus Damaseb and justices Sylvestor Mainga, David Smuts and Theo Frank heard the case on 6 March and delivered their verdict this week.“Seeing that the birth of the boy was not registered in terms of the Namibian law on citizenship, the High Court was not in a position to grant citizenship,” the ruling read.The judges further said the failure to register the birth in Namibia was reason enough to reject Lühl’s application. The court therefore did not deal with the rejection of the minister’s counter-application - which requested DNA from Lühl to prove paternity.BackgroundLühl and Delgado entered into a surrogacy agreement with a South African woman and after the birth, a South African birth certificate was issued to Yona.The two men were recorded as Yona’s parents on the birth certificate. They then brought Yona to Namibia and in time applied for Namibian citizenship by descent, but the ministry rejected the application.Lühl argued that the minister refused the application for citizenship on the basis of his disapproval of same-sex marriage.The minister requested a DNA test from Lühl to establish whether he is indeed Yona’s biological father and that it was not Delgado’s sperm cells that led to the conception, as Delgado is not a Namibian citizen.Lühl took the case to the High Court and was successful. The minister’s counter-application and request for DNA tests were dismissed.The minister then appealed the case and was heard in the Supreme Court at the beginning of the month.The five judges involved had to decide whether the High Court delivered the right verdict when it declared Lühl’s minor child a Namibian citizen since his father was born in Namibia, and whether the minister’s counter-application was rightfully rejected.The appeal succeeded and Yona was consequently denied citizenship.

Supreme Court dashes boy’s citizenship bid

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

Please login to leave a comment

Supreme Court dashes boy’s citizenship bid

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

Please login to leave a comment

Login