CCPR/C/SR.857 page 14
XII. Protection of family and children (articles 23 and 24)
68.
Mr. FEARN (United Kingdom), referring to section XII (a), said there was no inequality in law of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution, except possibly in Saint Helena, where there were some potentially discriminatory provisions regarding dissolution that were now receiving attention during a review of legislation in the territory.
69. Regarding section XII (b), no significant differences in the rights of illegitimate children as compared to those of legitimate children remained in the Falkland Islands, Pitcairn, Saint Helena and the Turks and
Caicos Islands. In the British Virgin Islands, discrimination in statutory rates of maintenance support as between legitimate and illegitimate children had been removed by an Act of 1988, but legitimate children still had superior rights of succession to property. Furthermore, only legitimate children could be deemed to belong to the territory by descent from a father.
70. In the Cayman Islands, illegitimate children could not benefit from the succession law if their father died intestate. An illegitimate child took his mother's status even if his father was Caymanian. The father of an illegitimate child had no right to apply to the court for custody of the
child.
71.
In Gibraltar, the only significant difference was that legitimate children had greater rights to registration as Gibraltarians than did illegitimate children.
72.
In Hong Kong, illegitimate children were not discriminated against, except in their inheritance rights: an illegitimate child could not inherit on his father's intestacy and could only do so on his mother's if she had no surviving legitimate issue. Steps had been taken to improve the rights of illegitimate children: they could now be dependants of both the mother and the father under the Fatal Accidents Ordinance, and the limits on maintenance payments that could be ordered against a putative father had been removed.
73. In Montserrat, an illegitimate child could only take the name of his putative father if he had been acknowledged. A putative father's obligation
he had no to his illegitimate child was for maintenance and education custodial rights. The illegitimate child had no automatic right to share in the estate of his putative father.
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74. As to section XII (c), advice on family planning, through family planning associations or general practitioners, was readily available in all the dependent territories. In Saint Helena, a free and comprehensive family planning service was provided in co-operation with the International Planned Parenthood Federation. The service was well-advertised and was administered by district nurses.
75.
Mr. WAKO asked whether it was true that the Hong Kong immigration authorities created obstacles to the reunification of families.
76.
Mr. MARTIN (United Kingdom) said that spouses and children under the age of maturity were generally allowed to join members of their families residing in Hong Kong, but because so many people desired to live there, there was a serious illegal immigration problem. Sometimes, children were brought into