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The Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta (PHROM) stresses the crucial role played by its Member Organisations in ensuring Malta remains a safe, harmonious and inclusive place for all persons. The Platform’s 29 non-governmental organisations are active in several areas, striving to ensure that their beneficiaries do not face exclusion, violence, poverty, discrimination, harassment and other human rights violations. As believers and promoters of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, commemorated today, all our Member Organisations are at the forefront of standing up for the invisible, the ignored and the set-aside. In commemoration of 2015 International Human Rights Day, the Platform invites Malta to remember those NGO staff members, administrators, volunteers who passionately and selflessly aim to restore dignity and humanity to so many lives. Through the provision of basic, yet fundamental services, our Member Organisations fill gaps where the State is unable or unwilling to reach out: medical, financial, psychological, social, legal, administrative, spiritual, artistic, as so many more services. It is also thanks to many of our Member Organisations that Malta can boast its high level of legal and administrative protection for children, women, the LGBTI community, persons with disabilities, persons with mental health problems, access to arts and culture, etc. Yet despite the extremely valid work performed by our Member Organisations, ultimately benefitting the entire nation, many of them face regular abuse, harassment, bullying, threats and false accusations. It is unacceptable that persons and their family members are put at risk or through unnecessary stress and anxiety for their legitimate defence of Malta’s vulnerable communities, for the valid questions they ask and for their expectation of a society based on rule of law and respect for core values and principles.
The Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta stands in solidarity with its Member Organisations and invites Malta to offer maximum protection to its human rights defenders. This can be achieved through following and supporting their work, participating in their events, reading their publications and endorsing their statements and views, including through social media. We also urge Malta to refrain from resorting to abusive language and threats, and instead to consider approaching its Member Organisations with valid queries about their work, their beneficiaries, the challenges they face and their views on how to improve Maltese society.
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Category: Commemoration
‘Unprotected Families’ Joint Statement for World Refugee Day 2015
As refugees flee their homes, escaping persecution or war, they are often forced to leave behind their husbands, wives, children, parents or loved ones. Along the route, searching for safety, refugee families face severe difficulties in ensuring shelter and basic livelihood, particularly for young children and other vulnerable persons.
Very often, families are torn apart following flight, dispersed in refugee camps, cities or other transit points. Some persons are simply unable to continue the escape, succumbing to armed groups, illness, lack of nutrition, severe climatic conditions. Family members reuniting with their loved ones in a country offering refuge struggle to be recognized as persons also requiring protection and safety.
Today, in commemoration of World Refugee Day, we recall the impact of the refugee plight on those family members left behind, those dispersed along the way and those eventually reuniting in safety. In this regard we acknowledge that family is the cornerstone of society, a value that is highly cherished and protected in Malta. We therefore express our solidarity with all those refugees whose family experiences are reduced to hurried calls, who are lamenting the loss of their loved ones, or who are striving to start a new life with their families, also here in Malta.
The protection of refugees should mean protection also of their family members, especially for those who remain living in peril. We therefore invite Malta to explore the possibility of extending family reunification to beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, thereby discouraging family members to avoid resorting to dangerous and illegal routes to joining their loves ones. We also strongly urge Malta to consider the situation of family members reuniting in this country, by securing their legal status and documentation that guarantee real protection.
The world we live in today has more people displaced by conflict than at any time since the Second World War. World Refugee Day is an opportunity to highlight the impact of war on families and place individual refugee family stories at the centre of our attention.
This year we have teamed up with Valletta Film Festival and the Film Grain Foundation to commemorate World Refugee Day in Malta also through the medium of film. The powerful documentary ‘Born in Gaza’ will screen in Valletta on 20, 21 and 23 June (St James Cavalier and the Embassy Complex).
Filmgrain Foundation: “We are honored to have teamed up with UNHCR and the local human rights NGOs to commemorate World Refugee Day. Film Grain Foundation strongly believes in the power of Cinema to raise awareness about the world’s many realities. Hernan Zin’s film Born in Gaza is gripping and necessary reminder of one of the main causes for forced migration: War, told by the uncorrupted voices of Palestinian children.”
Statement by:
aditus foundation, Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants, Integration Foundation, JRS Malta, KOPIN, Organisation for Friendship in Diversity, People for Change Foundation, UNHCR Malta.
‘Unprotected Families’, World Refugee Day 2015
‘Unprotected Families’ is the theme chosen for Malta’s commemoration of World Refugee Day 2015. Check out (and download in .pdf) the poster for a list of events organised by civil society organisations, and join us in remembering families torn apart by persecution and war.
Happy Birthday aditus foundation!
aditus foundation was born four years ago. On 30 March 2011 aditus was formally registered with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations. Back then, the organisation was essentially regular meetings happening around a Birkirkara dining-room table. Our Director, Neil, used to meet with the small group of keen volunteers and explore ways of getting those meetings off the ground and into action. The vision was based on aditus’ mission, clearly presented in the organisation’s Statutes:
- “to reinforce the universality, interdependence and indivisibility of human rights;
- to observe, act and report on human rights access, particularly in relation to marginalised, vulnerable and excluded persons or groups;
- to promote a rights-based understanding and application of human rights;
- to foster a human-rights friendly environment based on individual and social empowerment and dialogue; and
- to highlight the regional and international dimensions of human rights in Malta.”
We’re happy that this vision is still very alive today in all our activities, projects and relationships. In the past four years we’ve gradually converted the it into an operational programme that has taken us, and keeps taking us, into some of Malta’s most challenging human rights scenarios. We’ve had successes and failures, all shaping the path ahead and telling us how to be more effective in achieving our goals.
We’ve built very strong and fruitful friendships with like-minded persons, organisations and entities, in Malta and overseas. We cherish these friendships not only for the benefit they bring to our human rights advocacy but mostly for the truly amazing spirit and support that they create and nurture.
On our fourth birthday we’d like to sincerely thank all these friends for welcoming us in their communities and for supporting our vision.
Happy Birthday aditus!
Stereotypes continue to obstruct women’s access to their fundamental human rights
For International Women’s Day 2015, which falls on Sunday 8 March, it is worth reviewing the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The UN published its observations on Malta in November 2010, over four years ago.
Inspired by various Maltese organisations having publicised their planned activities to commemorate International Women’s Day in recent weeks, aditus would like to call attention to the UN’s comments on the prevalence of stereotypes in the Maltese psyche.
“[T]he Committee remains concerned about the persistence of patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society. Women continue to be stereotyped as mothers and caregivers, while men are stereotyped as breadwinners. Such stereotypes undermine women’s social status, as reflected in their disadvantaged position in areas including in the labour market and in access to political life and decision-making positions, and affect women’s choices in their studies and professions.”
Maltese women should – and they do – aspire to more than their traditional roles. While there is no shame in motherhood, caregiving and the responsibilities that come with raising a family, all these must be shared equally with men. Beyond or beside motherhood, women must be encouraged to exploit their potential as men are – every day, unquestioningly, as gifted and invested members of society.
We all know and admire Maltese women who are labourers, professionals, artisans, skilled tradespeople, volunteers – and the list goes on. They may or may not be wives and mothers. So why are our national Women’s Day activities seemingly so confined by the idea that women need to be coddled.
And at the same time, they must absolutely concern themselves with remaining desirable to men. We all know that men’s identities are allowed to be – and are expected to be – so much richer.
aditus foundation rejects the idea that the only or most important roles for every woman are those of wife and mother. We reject that women can only assert strength in the home, if at all – and that when they take the opportunity to think about womanhood, they must be passive recipients of new hairstyles, makeup tutorials, aromatherapy sessions and fashion shows.
Please, parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, friends and relatives, start with your girls. Girls who understand their potential and are unafraid of demonstrating their ambitions become women of confidence, kindness, intelligence, fortitude and boundless resources for success. The more we raise girls to take care of themselves, be independent and make their own decisions, the better and healthier we all and our society will be – including, of course, our men and boys.
“Stereotypes continue to obstruct women’s access to their fundamental human rights. When women do not feel free to express all of who they are and what they aspire to, they become submissive in their own lives. With overcoming stereotypes comes the true achievement of the principle of equality enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” – Neil Falzon, Director