Birth certificate not proof of citizenship, just a document – Justice Torkornoo stresses
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, the candidate for chief justice, has repeated the Supreme Court’s stance that a birth certificate is not evidence of citizenship but rather a record of one’s birthplace.
“Citizenship is a matter of law, nationality is a matter of law, in certain jurisdictions being born in that place makes you a citizen of that country, in our country being born in Ghana doesn’t make you a citizen of Ghana.
On Friday, May 26, Justice Torkornoo explained during her vetting that the information on a birth certificate is not verified and that citizenship is determined by things like ancestry, the identities of one’s mother and father, and their relationship.
A birth certificate is a prerequisite to state birthplace, but it does not establish nationality, she continued.
“It is your relationship with your mother, it is your mother’s identity, your father’s identity, it is your lineage that determines your citizenship. So that form [birth certificate] is just an international requirement, we must know where everyone is born. But beyond that, your nationality is derived from that form, the evidence on that form.”
The Supreme Court first ruled that birth certificates cannot be proof of citizenship.
“A birth certificate is not a form of identification. It does not establish the identity of the bearer. Nor does it link the holder with the information on the certificate. Quite obviously, it provides no evidence of citizenship,” the Supreme Court verdict said in part.
The NDC and others v. Attorney General case was the subject of the decision.
One of the plaintiffs asked for birth certificates to be included to the list of needed documents Ghanaians can use to obtain a voter’s ID.
A birth certificate, however, is not sufficient to meet the criteria of Article 42 of the Constitution, according to the Supreme Court.
“In fact, as a form of Identification, it is worse than the NHIA card which was held to be unconstitutional as evidence of identification of a person who applies for registration as a voter,” the court said.
