UN
Peace Operations
Member States contributing personnel to United Nations peace operations are required to seek to facilitate the resolution of paternity and child support claims involving their uniformed military or police personnel who were alleged to have fathered children while deployed to such operations, to the extent of their national laws and international conventions.
The role of the United Nations is to help facilitate the resolution of such claims. The United Nations notifies the relevant Member State contributing uniformed personnel upon receipt of a claim of paternity and/or child support involving their uniformed personnel.
Where the national legislation of a Member State accepts the use of DNA testing as evidence for establishing paternity, the United Nations can facilitate the collection and transmission of samples for testing by the Member State, or the United Nations can conduct paternity testing itself at the request of the Member State.
Subject to the wishes of the mother or guardian of the child, the goal of facilitation of resolution of paternity or child support claims is to support national processes that could result in children obtaining legal recognition of paternity under national law and enforceable child support (child maintenance), with all attendant rights and privileges under national law and international conventions.
As a practical measure, the Secretary-General has requested Member States to appoint a national paternity focal point within their national system to receive, provide guidance, and facilitate the resolution of paternity and child support claims involving uniformed personnel which the Member State contributed to serve in a United Nations peace operation.
The United Nations expects the focal point to provide information to mothers or guardians and the child(ren) on the requirements for resolution of paternity and child support claims within the national legal system of the country of nationality of the alleged father, including on any assistance available to mothers and children, or to support other avenues for the resolution of such claims, including through agreement between the mother or guardian and the father.
The United Nations can provide information to mothers or guardians on possible assistance, including pro bono legal assistance, and can facilitate contact with the appropriate officials in the country where they wish to bring their claim.
The United Nations can facilitate the exchange of documents to support the process for legal recognition of paternity by courts in the countries of the mother or guardian or child(ren) and the father. The United Nations can also facilitate arrangements for payment of child support. The cooperation and active engagement of Member States throughout this process are essential.
Where the father is a United Nations civilian staff member, the United Nations’ legal framework sets out the procedure to be followed when a staff member fails to pay child support pursuant to a final court order, which may result in deductions from the staff member’s United Nations emoluments.
The United Nations publishes information on paternity and/or child support claims, based on information received from mothers or guardians, from United Nations peace operations and field entities, and from Member States. This information available here is filterable by the category of personnel, nationality of the alleged father (for uniformed personnel), and the field mission where the claim was reported. Other relevant information includes the period of time since the United Nations notified the Member State of the claim (for uniformed personnel), DNA paternity test results (where available), and the status of the claim.
