Women’s rights activist Paula Marckx died in Antwerp at the age of 94. She is known as the woman behind the famous Marckx judgment, which lifted discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
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She died last night, reports Guillaume Van der Stighelen, who was good friends with her.
More than forty years ago, Marckx made history, when the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, after a complaint from her, ruled that in Belgium there was indeed discrimination between children born into a marriage, supposedly legal children, and children of unmarried mothers, supposedly natural children. The procedure itself lasted for five years, but Belgium had to adjust its legislation.
The judgment is a benchmark in family law, compulsory subject matter for law students. The 40th anniversary of the judgment was even commemorated with an academic session at UAntwerp last year.
Paula Marckx was already 47 when she had her child. “The doctor said I was pregnant and that he knew an address in Holland. I didn’t want that at all. I was shocked by myself, because I had never had a desire to have children, “she added a few months ago an interview met The standard. But I knew it’s probably my last chance. And I never regretted it. ” However, she did not want to marry her child’s father. “I’ve always had my appetite.”
Marckx has had remarkable professions throughout her life. She has been a model for Natan, she interviewed as a journalist The Beatles, and was the first woman to receive the pilot’s license in Deurne. “Those things came my way. I never looked for them. I didn’t even realize that some things were exceptional. “
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