Birth certificate is not proof of citizenship – Justice Torkornoo

Reiterating the Supreme Court's first ruling, the matter of the NDC and another vs the Attorney General seeking to expand the required documents Ghanaians can use to obtain a voter’s ID, one of them asking for birth certificates to be included.

“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 court stated

According to the chief justice nominee, the birth certificate only serves as a document that records one's birth location hence it does not establish nationality.

“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, but in our country, being born in Ghana doesn’t make you a citizen of Ghana.

“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 in a first ruling said a birth certificate does not satisfy the requirements of Article 42 of the Constitution.