Parliament on Tuesday started to debate an amendment to the Notarial Profession Act removing discrimination between men and women when details on marital status are needed in notarial deeds.  

The Bill was moved by Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar in the wake of a Constitutional Court judgement given following a complaint by Marie-Therese Cuschieri.

In her opening address, Cutajar paid tribute to Cuschieri and insisted that women and men should be equal in all spheres of life and women should not be judged according to their status, whether single, married, divorced or otherwise. 

The bill will streamline what details should be listed in notarial deeds, in a way which does not create problems when notarial searches are needed, Cutajar said.

These include name, surname, address, date of birth and marital status for both men and women. The requirement of marital status could not be removed at this stage, Cutajar said, although one would have prefered a system where only names, surnames and ID Card numbers were needed.

At this stage doing away with marital status would create problems for notarial searches particularly because of the community of acquests. However now this would be listed for both men and women.  

Cutajar was followed by shadow minister Claudette Buttigieg who backed the amendment and said similar amendments were needed to other laws. 

She too praised lawyer Marie-Therese Cuschieri for having challenged the law.  The judgment was delivered by the Constitutional Court in October 2018. So why had the government waited so long to move this amendment?  

In her address, Buttigieg said she looked forward to the Strategy on equality between men and women.

She welcomed the setting up of a police unit focussed on domestic violence and gender-based abuse, announced on Monday, noting that former Home Affairs minister Michael Farrugia used to laugh at her when she insisted in the past on police specialised training.

It was also important, Buttigieg said, that specialised training was given to those in the judicial sector, more so in view of legislation practically opening the door for prostitution.

Women's lives were at risk, training was needed, and also continued updating of the laws, more so in view of the worrying report on Malta issued in November by Grevio, the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. 

indeed, the report should be put on parliament's agenda, Buttigieg said. Clearly much more needed to be done than this Bill.