A complex “parental triangle” or the story of a newborn registration

Publication date: April 25, 2024

Oksana* asked the Podil Center for Human Rights about registering her child. Her complicated family situation complicated the usual procedure.

The woman said that her son was born a month after the divorce, and her ex-husband refused to acknowledge his paternity. At the same time, another man claims to be the father of this child. However, the local state registry office refused to accept the application of the “father by marriage” (i.e., the ex-husband) because he did not have a residence registration.

Mykhailo Bardyn, a lawyer and head of the organization, listened to the woman’s story and advised her.

Lawyer’s comment

Generally, a child conceived and born in a marriage is a child of the spouses. The descent of the child from the spouses is determined based on a marriage certificate and a document from a medical institution confirming the birth of the child by the woman.

However, there are cases when a child is born to a man and a woman who are not married or before ten months after the divorce.  

In this case, if the mother of the child, who is in a registered marriage, declares during the state registration of the birth that her husband is not the father of the child and therefore requests that he not be indicated as the father in the birth record, her request may be granted however, only if the husband and wife (former spouses) submit a joint application for the husband (former husband) not to be recognized as the father of the child, as well as a joint application of the parents for the state registration of the birth.

The same procedure applies to the registration of births of children born before ten months from the date of termination of the marriage (death, divorce) or its annulment. 

In addition, the law stipulates that if the ex-husband of the mother of the child is unable to appear in person at the civil registry office to submit such an application, his application, the authenticity of which must be certified by a notary public and confirming that he does not recognize himself as the father of the child, may be submitted through a representative or sent by post. The representative’s authority must be based on a notarized power of attorney.

After the consultation, Mykhailo Bardyn advised Oksana to notarize the statement of her ex-husband, who refused to acknowledge his paternity of the newborn child.

– This should have been done to circumvent the requirement to register the place of residence. The lawyer said the woman submitted this request with the request of her husband, who recognizes himself as the child’s father, and her request to the local State Civil Registry to obtain a birth certificate for the child.

As a result, Oksana’s son was registered within three days of submitting the documents.

*Name changed for ethical reasons.

The material was created with the support of GlobalGiving, an international charity platform, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Legal Development Network is solely responsible for the publication’s content.

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