Moroccan Court Denies Rights to Children Born Out of Wedlock, Despite DNA Evidence

The ruling, which dates back to 2020, stresses that children born of an extramarital relationship have no right to parental filiation, and consequently, cannot benefit from the father’s registration in the civil registry or from rights to alimony and inheritance.

The decision comes to correct a previous decision rendered in 2017 by the court of first instance of Tangier, which had ordered the father of a daughter born in 2014 of an extramarital affair to pay her alimony. Later, the decision was overturned by the court of appeal, then by the Court of Cassation, at the request of the daughter’s mother, considering the relationship between the unmarried parents as "adultery" and the child born of this union as "illegal", "even if a DNA test proves the biological link with the father".

"The daughter is considered a stranger to the person denounced (the biological father) and has no right to any compensation, because she is the result of an illegitimate act condoned by her mother," explains the decision, which recalls that a child born of adultery is only associated with his mother.