BUT FORMER GG SAYS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IS WHAT’S REALLY NEEDED
NASSAU, Bahamas — Former Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes said yesterday he supports the plan to bring a citizenship bill to provide for equality in the rights of Bahamians, no matter their sex, to pass citizenship on to their children, but he said there is still need for these rights to be enshrined in the constitution, The Nassau Guardian reported on Friday, August 19, in an article written by Candia Dames, executive editor of The Guardian.
“I support the passage of the proposed bill, which would extend these rights to women, but I still believe that is not enough,” said Sir Arthur, who at 94 is one of five remaining members of the Bahamian delegation who attended the Independence Conference in December 1972 where the current constitution was agreed.
Speaking of the planned legislation, Sir Arthur, who was contacted by The Nassau Guardian for his views, said, “If that is all we can do at the moment, okay, but that is not enough. These rights, at some point, must be enshrined in our constitution, and I think that we should be committed to that down the line.”
Sir Arthur said the issue of equality of citizenship for men and women was “one of the issues that we separated on in London”.
“It was our position (that there be equality in the right of citizenship),” he said. “It was debated and the argument then was the international practice was that the woman followed the man, which was true at the time, but that was not our [view].”
There have been two failed attempts at constitutional reform — one in 2002 under the Ingraham administration and another in 2016 under the Christie administration.
In 2016, the first referendum question sought to give a child born outside The Bahamas to a married Bahamian-born mother and non-Bahamian father the same right to Bahamian citizenship at birth that the constitution already gives to a child born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian-born father married to a non-Bahamian mother.
The proposed change sought to do for Bahamian married mothers what it has done for Bahamian married fathers since 1973.
That referendum also sought to eliminate discriminatory language from the constitution, as did the one in 2002.
The Davis administration has said it will not go the way of a referendum, with Attorney General Ryan Pinder suggesting last week that referendums tend to produce the wrong results. See link to complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/foulkes-backs-plan-for-citizenship-bill/
