Joint Press Statement: aditus Foundation, Jesuit Refugee Service Malta, Moviment Graffitti & SAR (Search and Rescue) Malta Network, 15 December 2023
Shocking details of the complicity of the Maltese state in coordinating pushbacks to Libya from Malta’s search and rescue zone have emerged this week in the local and international pressi. We condemn and demand an end to these actions and policies which violate international and human rights laws.
Continue ReadingTogether with friends all over the EU, we’ve sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament. Our letter flags our worries in relation to on-going discussions on the new Pact on Asylum and Migration. In particular, we question the positioning of solidarity, as a key value all Member States should be working on.
Malta must take concrete steps to bring its detention regime in line with human rights standards. The European Court of Human Rights has said this in no unclear teams in a judgement we are celebrating as a victory for human rights in Malta!
Today, the Court delivered judgement in A.D. v. Malta. Together with JRS Malta, we had brought this case in March 2022 whilst AD was in detention and in collaboration with Advancing Child Right Strategic Litigation, ACRiSL.
The Court found a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty) and Article 13 in conjunction with Article 3 (right to an effective remedy).
Continue ReadingMGRM and aditus wish to issue a statement with respect to the sentence decided in court today, where a trans person was assaulted on his place of work by a restaurant owner. We will, first of all, condemn the free-for-all attitude where a restaurant owner feels he can physically assault a patron who gets in touch in order to complain for not having been served adequately.
Also importantly, we would like to clarify that unlike certain early reports in the media, the victim is a trans man, using the pronouns he/him. We would also like to emphasise that both the victim and a witness stated that the aggressor insulted the victim during the assault, telling him that he was “not a real man, but a woman”.
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Today, 12th July 2023, Parliament will be voting on the motion to initiate a public inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia’s death, after he was killed in a building collapse in Kordin. Civil society organisations will be supporting Jean Paul Sofia’s family from the public gallery in Parliament.
Regardless of the outcome of the criminal investigations and the magisterial inquiry, without a public inquiry that questions the circumstances of Jean Paul’s death, more people will be killed or injured on construction sites. These deaths and injuries can be prevented if the Maltese State learns lessons from Jean Paul’s death. The questions that must be asked include whether Jean Paul Sofia’s death could have been prevented; whether there were and are systemic and administrative failures that are contributing to fatalities and injuries on construction sites; and how action can be taken to prevent such fatalities and injuries.
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