Petition Give unmarried widows equal rights in registering paternity of their children

Joana's long-term cohabiting partner and father to her child died suddenly three weeks before the birth of their second child. As they were unmarried, she was obliged to prove her child's parentage upon the father's death. It was a costly and lengthy legal process, including providing DNA evidence.

More details

The 1953 birth and death certificate act does not allow registrars to have discretionary powers to register deceased parents when the parents are not married.

We ask that registrars be given these powers to prevent widows from having to go through such a costly and dehumanising experience.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

2,690 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 2,690 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Show on a map the geographical breakdown of signatures by constituency

10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 4 September 2016
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.