Together with five other human rights NGOs – Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, SOS Malta, Integra Foundation, Kopin and Repubblika – we sent a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him to live up to Malta’s committments in the Open Government Partnership process (OGP)
Dear Hon. Minister Evarist Bartolo,
We write to you in relation to violence currently escalating in Palestine and Israel, the most intense since the seven-week 2014 Israeli-Gaza conflict. The number of civilian fatalities, including children, is rising, whilst the spreading of mob violence is an extremely worrying escalation.
This recent explosion of violence comes after further forced expulsions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, part of occupied Palestinian territory, to make way for illegal Israeli settlers. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Israel to stop the forced evictions as these amount to violations of international law and could also amount to war crimes.
Continue ReadingDear Ms. von der Leyen,
As organisations working for an equal and inclusive Europe, we would like to raise our serious concerns regarding the lack of real reaction of EU leaders regarding police brutality against people of colour in Europe as well as institutional and structural racism, following the killing of George Floyd in the United States and ensuing solidarity protests in Europe and across the world. We were appalled by the statement by EU Commissioner Schinas which delegitimises the public outcry against police brutality and institutional racism in Europe.
On 3 June 2020, Commissioner Schinas was quoted in the Financial Times as saying that events such as the killing of African-American man George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the wave of demonstrations against it, were “not likely . . . to happen in Europe at this scale”. “I do not think that we have issues now in Europe that blatantly pertain to police brutality or issues of race transcending into our systems. But we do have an issue in Europe, which is the issue of inequalities and income distribution — making the best for everyone of what we have.”
Continue Readingaditus foundation, Integra Foundation and JRS Malta today sent an open letter to EU Commissioner Johansson. In our letter we express our concerns at Malta’s novel idea of detaining rescued migrants aboard 2 chartered private vessels just outside our territorial waters.
The letter may be read below, or downloaded here.
