Mr G Case 'highlights need for constitutional reform'
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has given a qualified welcome to today’s High Court judgment in the 'Mr G' case, which recognised that an unmarried father has inherent rights in relation to his children.
Speaking shortly after Mr Justice Liam McKechnie gave his judgment, ICCL Director Mr Mark Kelly said: “This is a landmark case, in that effective advocacy based on European Convention on Human Rights standards has led the Court to focus on the substance of Mr G’s caring relationship with his children, rather than limit itself to the archaic conception of the family to be found in the Constitution”.
“However, as this case was decided on its particular facts, it remains the case that other unmarried fathers have virtually no rights under current Irish law.
"The Mr G judgment highlights once again the pressing need for reform of the definition of the family in the Constitution in order to grant equality to all families in Ireland," he concluded.
On New Years Eve 2006, the fiancée of Mr G left the family home with the couples twin boys and spent the next few days with the children in other accommodation locally.
A number of days later, she moved to the UK with the boys to her parent’s home. She is both an Irish and British citizen, has worked principle in the Civil Service and is also a professional singer.
Earlier this year, she was discovered living in B&B type accommodation somewhere in England. Mr G immediately sought their return and commenced legal proceedings in the District Court in the midlands. Mr G is an Irish citizen and, a teacher by profession.
As the children were in the UK, legal proceedings had to be taken over there and the legal process to seek their return was commenced in the English courts.
The children were born in The Isle of Man on 13th October 2004.
In a landmark case for unmarried fathers Judge Liam McKechnie has ruled that the removal of the three-year-old twin boys from Ireland to their mother's parental home in the UK was contrary to the meaning of the Hauge Convention of 1980.
This resulted in an historic ruling by Justice Mary Hogg at the Royal Courts of Justice in London when she found that she could not make a determination on whether the removal of the children was in conflict with Irish Law, as the status of fathers, who were not married to their spouse, was not set in stone in Irish Legislation, and made a ruling under Article 15 of the Hague Convention 1980 forcing the Irish Authorities to make a ruling on this issue, in order for the English Courts to make it’s determination on whether the children should be returned to this jurisdiction or not.
The Hague Convention is a multilateral treaty, which seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return.
The countries that are party to the Hague Convention have agreed that a child who is "habitually resident" in one party country, and who has been "removed to or retained" in another party country in violation of the left-behind parent's custodial rights, shall be promptly returned to the country of habitual residence unless certain criteria are met.
