The Bahamas government has kept its promise and has applied to the Court of Appeal for leave to go before the London-based Privy Council challenging lower court rulings allowing Bahamian men to automatically pass citizenship to their children, regardless of whether their child is born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers.
Last week, Justices Maureen Crane-Scott, Jon Isaacs and Roy Jones upheld Justice Ian Winder’s ruling while Court of Appeal President Sir Michael Barnett and Justice Milton Evans dissented.
In 2016, Bahamians in a referendum rejected the idea of amending the Constitution to allow Bahamian fathers of children born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers to automatically pass citizenship to their children.
Legal observers said that the case revolves around the interpretation of Article Six of the Constitution and whether the reference to “father” in Article 14 (1) of the document is applicable when interpreting Article 6.
According to the article, “Every person born in the Bahamas after 9 July 1973 shall become a citizen of the Bahamas at the date of his birth if at that date if either of his parents is a citizen of the Bahamas.”
