The Director General of Civil Status General Elias El Khoury issued a memorandum on Monday refraining from mentioning sentences such as “born out of wedlock,” “father unknown“ and “illegitimate child” in personal status records as per Circulars no. 7 and no.11; to unify the working mechanism in the civil status offices and standardize the implementation of the aforementioned circulars.
He noted that they should be replaced with “not eligible for inheritance transactions,” in the remarks section based on the request of the judicial reference in the context of inheritance lawsuits or at the request of the administration.
“We emphasize to all heads of offices the necessity of refraining from mentioning phrases such as ‘illegitimate child,’ ‘adopted,’ ‘father unknown,’ or any other phrases that may discriminate between newborns in all personal status records,” reads the memo.