WILLEMSTAD--Parents in the Netherlands Antilles soon will have the right to select what last name to give their children. Only the father's surname is currently allowed by law.

Parliament will deal on Tuesday with an amendment to the Antillean Civil Code deemed the "Right of Last Name." This change will allow a child born in wedlock or acknowledged by a father to also carry the mother's surname or a combination of the two parents' names as the parents so choose.

Outgoing President of Parliament Pedro Atacho told the press Wednesday morning that this was another move to give women equal and more rights under Antillean law. This announcement comes two days after the country marked International Women's Day on March 8.

Another change to the Civil Code pertaining to family matters is also in the hands of Parliament. The Central Committee will discuss on Monday a draft amendment on the "Declaration of Paternity." This draft, which will be up to the new Parliament that takes office on March 26 to approve, aims to give more rights to children born out of wedlock and unrecognised by their fathers.

The draft amendment will allow such a child to have a father listed on his or her birth certificate. However, the amendment will exclude the child from claiming any inheritance if the father is deceased.

This amendment will bring the Netherlands Antilles in line with most European and Caribbean countries that have already made this provision for unacknowledged children under the "status of children" or similar acts.

A total of 15,268 children were born in Curaçao from 2000 to 2006. Of them, 3,898 were "without a father," meaning their birth certificates stated "father unknown" because they were not acknowledged for various reasons.

That number of unacknowledged children accounts for 25 per cent of the total births in Curaçao. "This means that of every 2,000 babies born in Curacao annually, 1,000 were recognised, 500 were the product of a marriage and another 500 were born without a father recognising them," Atacho had said in an earlier press statement.

Breakdowns of birth figures for the other four Antillean islands, including St. Maarten, will be presented to Parliament in "due time."

The absence of legislation to assist unacknowledged children is considered a violation of the International Treaty on Civil and Political Rights and the Treaty on Human Rights.

The Central Committee was slated to handle this amendment last week, but chose to delay to obtain "some technical advice" from Judge Jan de Boer of the Joint Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. De Boer meets with the committee Monday morning and the amendment will be handled directly afterward.