The Rights of Illegitimate Children in the Convention of Children's Rights and in the Islamic Rules With special emphasis on Imam Khomeini's jurisprudential viewpoints

The International Convention of Children Rights is the most important international document on treatment of the children by the governments. From the viewpoint of this convention the illegitimate children have equal rights with other children. According to the Islamic rules although the illegitimate children do not have any relations with their parents, just like legitimate children they enjoy the following rights: life, freedom, name, nationality, and most of the social rights, but are deprived of some rights such as heritage, individual inference (ijtihad), judgment, and bearing witness. The International Convention of Children Rights does not envisage any specific custodian for the illegitimate children, but according to Imam Khomeini's viewpoints the biological father is the custodian of the illegitimate child and responsible for his or her affairs.