Together 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.
Continue ReadingEvery year, World Refugee Day invites us to remember the men, women and children who were forced to flee their homes in search of safety. This year, to mark Malta’s forthcoming launch of its second National Integration Policy and Action Plan, the Malta Refugee Council wishes to urge Malta to develop a clear and inclusive pathway towards refugees being accepted and welcome.
Refugees who have settled here need better guidance on what it takes for them to be truly welcome in Malta. From the moment of their arrival, they are repeatedly told that Malta can never be their home. This harsh message follows them along their paths, where they are constantly subjects of criticism, discrimination and exclusion. After years of life in Malta and despite their best efforts, they remain on-lookers of Malta’s social and cultural life, burdened with the knowledge that Malta will never really be home.