Father to learn fate in custody rights battle
AN unmarried father will today find out if his twin boys will be returned to him following a landmark legal battle over the rights of unmarried fathers.
The milestone case involves an Irish father, known as Mr G, whose twin boys were removed to England by his former partner last year.
Mr G claims that he has a right of custody to his twin boys, aged two, even though he had no guardianship or custodial rights to his sons at the time they were taken from Ireland. His former partner insists they were lawfully removed last December to Manchester, her home city.
The judgment, due to be handed down yesterday afternoon, was postponed until this morning at the request of former justice minister Michael McDowell who is representing Mr G, to allow the mother of the twin boys to travel to Dublin.
The case is ground-breaking as it is the first time since Ireland ratified the European Convention of Human Rights that unmarried fathers' rights will be tested here.
A ruling in favour of unmarried fathers could force the government to overhaul family law and policies and may prompt a referendum on the role of the family in the Constitution.
Mr G, who waged a child abduction battle in the High Court in London to have his twins returned to him claims he has "inchoate" rights to his children under the European Convention.
Inchoate rights are rights which are not yet formally recognised or granted by law, but would be upheld by a court if a person applied to have them protected.
Such is the groundbreaking nature of the custody battle, a British High Court judge refused to hear it, stating that it was up to the Irish courts to rule on something of constitutional importance in Ireland.
Since the late 1960s, the Supreme Court has consistently denied full parental rights to unmarried fathers in order to protect the institution of marriage from attack.
In a series of rulings it has held that unmarried fathers are not 'parents' and have no constitutional rights in relation to their children and in recent years the government has consistently refused to extend full constitutional and legal rights to "only biological" fathers.
But during the Mr G case lawyers acting for the State did not contest the existence of inchoate rights and accepted that former Supreme Court decisions, such as the 1966 Nicolau case which ruled that unmarried fathers are not a member of the family, may no longer be valid.
Following an action against the government in the European Court of Human Rights, the State is obliged to give unmarried fathers a legal opportunity to establish a relationship with their children and they can now apply for custody and guardianship and rights.
