Namibian couple got the citizenship for their limbo son after a court judgment

• The High Court had given the youngster citizenship.
• The High Court had “misdirected itself,” the Supreme Court concurred on Monday.
• The court ruled that the minister was correct to refuse to award the minor kid citizenship.

On Monday, Namibia’s Supreme Court overruled a lower court’s decision to grant citizenship to a homosexual couple’s kid who was born through surrogacy in neighboring South Africa.

After the interior ministry had denied it on technical grounds in 2021, the High Court had given the youngster citizenship.

The government subsequently filed an appeal, claiming that the couple had broken the law by failing to register the birth with the Namibian authorities within the allotted one-year period.

The High Court had “misdirected itself,” the Supreme Court concurred on Monday.

It stated that the High Court lacked the authority to grant the respondent the relief it had done since the birth had not been reported in accordance with the Citizenship Act.

The court ruled that the minister was correct to refuse to award the minor kid citizenship by descent since there was a violation of the Citizenship Act.

Yona, who is now four years old, was born in South Africa, according to his birth certificate, which also names his parents as Mexican Guillermo Delgado and Namibian Phillip Luehl.

The interior ministry had requested a DNA test in its initial complaint to demonstrate that one of the boy’s parents was a Namibian.

The High Court, however, recognized a birth certificate obtained in South Africa because the couple refused to take the test.

The couple expressed disappointment with the most recent decision but vowed to keep fighting for their son’s citizenship.

The decision, according to Luehl, is merely another tactic to “frustrate people that do not have full access to equality, irritating them with bureaucratic procedural concerns,” he told journalists.

He said, “It’s really unfortunate.

The pair previously stated that the court “is meant to be the superior guardian of children, supposed to determine in the best interest of children, and here they are giving us the runaround.”

The only country in Africa that permits gay marriage is South Africa, whose liberal post-apartheid constitution legalized it in 2006.

A sodomy statute passed in Namibia in 1927, while the nation was governed by South Africa, makes homosexuality unlawful. The rule of law is rarely upheld.

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