Final, binding ruling expected from the Privy Council

The United Kingdom Privy Council will later this month rule on whether a child born out of wedlock to an unmarried Bahamian woman and a local father is entitled to citizenship at birth in The Bahamas.

The British Law Lords at the Privy Council in London will hear arguments on January 17, as to whether current Bahamian law will be allowed to stand. The matter is being heard by the Privy Council, which remains The Bahamas’ final judicial arbiter, since it is not a party to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ),

The Bahamian authorities recently appealed a 2020 decision by a Bahamian court that any person born in the mini archipelago off Florida is entitled to citizenship as stated in the constitution if any of the child’s biological parents is a citizen. Whether the parent is married or not is of no value, Chief Justice Ian Winder had ruled.

However, dissatisfied with the ruling, the Bahamian authorities petitioned the Privy Council for a final, binding decision, as a previous court had ruled that children born out of marriage to a Bahamian were not entitled to citizenship.

Political bugbear for successive governments

Online media outlet, Caribbean Life reports that the issue has been a major political bugbear for successive governments, as The Bahamas has a large expatriate population that might be as much as 30 per cent or more of an estimated headcount of about 350,000. Many are descendants of Haitian boat people and professionals who have sought work and a better living in the tourism paradise.

Others are from nearby Jamaica and other Caribbean Community nations. Some of the defendants who have challenged local legal statues are of Jamaican and Haitian descent.

Last year, the government of Prime Minister Philip Davis reiterated its intention to change local laws preventing a Bahamian woman from passing citizenship to the child of a foreign spouse born overseas. In the case of Bahamian men, they too have restrictions as they are prevented from doing so as well if they have children with a foreign woman out of wedlock, even if the young ones are born in The Bahamas.

Bahamians had voted against proposed changes in two previous referendums in 2016 and back again in 2002. However, the authorities are intent on effecting changes, saying the old laws will be amended through ordinary parliamentary legislation.

The declaration from the authorities seems to fly in the face of the ruling by Justice Winder that any and every one born in the country shall become a citizen at their date of birth irrespective of the marital status of the parent, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Justice Wilder has applauded recent moves for a definitive ruling from the Privy Council.