News - Page 44 of 111 - aditus foundation

We’re welcoming Malta’s accession to the 1954 Statelessness Convention!

We’ve just written to the Minister for Home Affairs, National Security and Law Enforcement on the occasion of Malta’s accession to the 1954 Statelessness Convention. This is fantastic news, as Malta was one of the few EU Member States to not have signed any of the statelessness conventions.

For many years, together with our partners at the European Network on Statelessness, we’ve advocated for Malta to step up its efforts on statelessness and tackle the human rights challenges faced by stateless people in Malta, including arbitrary detention, lack of documentation, eternal legal limbo, difficulties marrying and even simple tasks as opening a bank account.

All these issues, as well as related recommendations, are very well-presented in the Statelessness Index, a useful comparative tool on how European countries are protecting stateless persons.

Our next steps are to work closely with the Ministry to ensure that the legal and administrative framework set up to implement the Convention is of the highest possible standards!

Larger than Life! Online Gallery

In ‘Larger Than Life!’ we commissioned 6 human rights posters from established local artists: Ed Dingli, Sarah Maria Scicluna, Magda Azab, Seb Tanti Burló, Luke Caruana, Daniela Attard. Our idea was to produce posters unlike our usual NGO poster. Instead, we wanted stunning artworks that happen to be posters grappling with a human rights theme.

PURCHASE YOUR POSTER:

These posters are now available for sale, with proceeds going towards our human rights work. The artworks come in 2 sizes and are perfect for filling up your home or office space!

Limited edition of 3: 1m x 0.7m, printed on FineArt Baryta paper (350gsm) @ €250
Limited edition of 25: A3, mounted on foamboard @ €25.

If you are interested in the artworks for your home or office, get in touch.

Born UN/equal
Seb Tanti Burló

“Article 1 – All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

This article sets the tone for the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a nice boomer belief, but seventy years later it is very, very, very far from our reality. Just look around you.

Born UN/equal is a riff off of Philip Castle’s famous poster design for Stanley Kubrick’s film Full Metal Jacket.

Remembrance
Sarah Maria Scicluna

This work is a memorial for all those who lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea, in support of all those who have lost family and friends in such tragedies. While newspapers and official reports mostly focus on statistics of lost lives, many times the people left grieving are forgotten and left without a place for mourning.

This work is done line-by-line in a very repetitive manner, which is representative of both the surface of the sea and the ever-rising tally numbers.

Architects of our destiny
Magda Azab

Despite close to 100 years having passed since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rights that seem obvious to me are unfortunately not always guaranteed for everyone in this world.

Wondering which aspects to highlight, I decided to represent what I think they all have in common and make them fundamental, namely to guarantee us the possibility of being architects of our destiny and none of us should be denied that. We are all human beings worthy of happiness and justice regardless of where we’re born, of our cultures, customs, lifestyles or religions.

Global Injustice
Luke Caruana

The wealthiest and most developed countries in the world are largely to blame for the cataclysmic effects of climate change. However, as we have already seen, these countries are not the ones that will suffer the most from these drastic weather changes. It is the impoverished countries that are facing the gravest consequences. Ecological disasters and poor harvests are increasing inequality and political instability.

The melting globe interprets the climate injustice we are experiencing as the rich (Global North) are able to buy their way out of the climate crisis while the poor (Global South) are forgotten.

The Promised Land
Ed Dingli

Entire lives left behind. Moments, memories, families, friends left behind. There is no choice except to make the journey to the promised land. We can see it so clearly now, on the horizon. The human rights declaration a beacon of hope, our moral compass by which the ship should sail. Except, between us and safety, a few more obstacles to overcome. The sea, in all its power and unpredictability, the coast guards, whose side will they be on?

And the locals, our new neighbours, will they welcome us? Will they understand our ways, our language, our culture? Hopefully they will understand that all we want, is to be safe.

27
Daniela Attard

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

In this digital piece we explore visually the interconnectivity of the arts, culture and sciences and their ability to grow and flourish in any community. That is, given that anyone and everyone is allowed to participate and contribute.

With the support of:

The new Pact on Asylum and Migration: An opportunity seized or squandered?

After years of treating asylum and migration in crisis mode, we believe the proposed Pact on Asylum and Migration is an opportunity for the EU and its Member States to change direction. It is an opportunity to develop a rational and rights-based asylum and migration policy. Recent cooperation among Member States signals the possibility of a fresh start, which should build on the lessons of the recently attempted and largely failed reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). However, there is a risk that the Pact may include or prepare the groundwork for damaging legislative proposals, in particular what has been termed the “border instrument”.

No more old wine in new bottles

Some Member States continue to promote the idea of a mandatory border procedure in non-papers and other informal contributions. Extrapolating from these documents and debates, the potential border instrument would combine the worst and most controversial elements of the 2016 CEAS reform package, pulling together parts of the Asylum Procedures Regulation, Dublin IV and recast Return Directive. The procedure would be applied to all persons who arrive in the EU to seek protection and would lead to a massive expansion of detention centres at the borders.

Refugees as partners not only as beneficiaries – new project announcement

We are extremely excited to launch a new initiative that will see us supporting refugee-led organisations. Together with partners in Malta, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Italy we will be looking at the challenges faced by refugee-led groups in becoming active advocates for refugee rights. On the basis of our research and consultations we will then design a training kit intended to strengthen their capacity to advocate at the national and EU levels.

Refugee-led community organisations (RCOs) play a crucial role within society and ample research has highlighted this. RCOs provide a bridge support to newly-arrived refugees. They facilitate swifter integration by offering basic information on procedures and daily life, provide language and cultural orientation training, support refugees wishing to contribute to lost societies and, generally, assist in the normalisation process of making a host community become home.

Two Human Rights Internships (part-time, paid)

In the context of the project Marginalised Persons as Human Rights Volunteers, we are happy to offer two paid Human Rights Internships, for the period 1 February to 31 December 2020.

The project acknowledges the challenges faced by marginalised groups in engaging in NGO activities and seeks to overcome these challenges by providing as broad a learning experience as possible.

The two Interns will be fully integrated into our team, participating in projects, activities, advocacy efforts, public initiatives and formulation of our strategies. Together with the Interns, we will also identify and support our Interns’ key learning needs, such as linguistic, IT, administrative/management or other.