The Question of Incorporating Kafalah in the Belgian Legal Order
by Yasmina El Kaddouri and Jinske Verhellen
Question(s) at stake
Whether the kafalah can produce legal effects in Belgium and whether kafalah should be converted into adoption?
Outcome of the ruling
The Court of Appeal of Ghent refused to pronounce the adoption in Belgium of a Moroccan child, after an earlier kafalah decision in Morocco. The consent of the biological mother and father to the adoption and the report prescribed by Article 361-5, 1° of the Belgian Civil Code were missing.
The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal. Consequently, the decision of the Court of Appeal of Ghent remained in place: the Moroccan kafalah judgment did not result in any form of adoption in Belgium.
Country:
Official citation
Court of Cassation 14 September 2015, No. AR C.13.0296.N (Hof van Cassatie 14 september 2015, AR C.13.0296.N) Court of Appeal Ghent 13 March 2013 (Hof van beroep Gent 13 maart 2013)
Topic(s)
Keywords:
Adoption Kafalah Kinship and filiation Measures and actions involving children Parenthood Situations created abroad
Tag(s):
Bibliographic information
Access case report
View case report in the CUREDI databaseAbout the authors
Yasmina El Kaddouri (Bar of Ghent, Belgium)
Jinske Verhellen (Ghent University, Belgium)
Jinske Verhellen studied Law and Anthropology. She has always combined these two disciplines in her work, both in academia and in practice (as an attorney, as a staff member of the Ghent City contact point for discrimination reports, etc.). In 2006, Jinske Verhellen had the unique opportunity to help establish the Private International Law Centre in Brussels (now part of the Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering), which gives advice and does policy work in the field of private international law in family matters. In January 2009, she returned to Ghent University, where in 2012 she obtained her doctoral degree on 'The Belgian Code of Private International Law in family matters' (financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders). Since 2014, she is Professor of Law at Ghent University, lecturing private international law, international family law and notarial private international law.
Jinske Verhellen is a member of the Ghent University Interfaculty Research Group CESSMIR (Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees) and the Ghent University Human Rights Network. Since 2015, she is the President of the Diversity Commission of the Ghent Faculty of Law and Criminology and in 2020 she was asked to chair the Anti-discrimination Commission of the Ghent University.
For the CUREDI project Jinske Verhellen serves in the coordination team, the editorial board and acts as reviewer.
Jinske Verhellen has published on various aspects of private international law, international family law, migration law and nationality law (full publication list can be found here). She is currently Chief Editor of the Belgian Private International Law Journal (Tijdschrift@ipr.be / Revue@dipr.be) and a member of several editorial boards.