Thirteen civil society groups have banded together to oppose a request by hunters to legally protect them from ever facing another spring hunting referendum.

Hunters’ lobby FKNK this week presented a petition to the president calling for the Referenda Act to be amended to prevent voters from being able to trigger a referendum by collecting the signatures of 10 per cent of eligible voters.

The lobby is arguing that “minorities” should be protected from “capricious” referendum calls.

Malta voted to continue spring hunting in a referendum held in 2015. The referendum was automatically triggered after environmental groups gathered 45,000 signatures requesting a ban.

BirdLife Malta has not ruled out calling for another such referendum in the future. 

On Saturday, 13 civil society groups led by BirdLife Malta pushed back against the FKNK’s calls for changes to the Referenda Act, calling the request undemocratic.

“Our country needs to safeguard the democratic right of citizens to participate in diverse ways in the legislative process. Limiting one of the few avenues for citizen participation would be an affront to democracy, regardless of the particular issue at hand,” the NGOs said.

The FKNK argued that it had presented a petition signed by more than 104,000 people – effectively one in every five people in the country – requesting legal changes back in 2014.

But environmental groups noted that “unlike other requests”, signatures gathered to trigger a referendum, as that signed by the 45,000 had been, were rigorously checked before being accepted as valid.

“The issue here is not solely about a small section of society that enjoy killing and trapping birds but it is also about the rest of society that are having their natural resources abused of,” they said.

The NGOs urged the president, prime minister and Cabinet to not tamper with existing legislation governing referenda.

Which NGOs endorsed the calls? 

BirdLife Malta
Din l-Art Ħelwa
Nature Trust Malta-FEE
Moviment Graffitti
Friends of the Earth Malta
Futur Ambjent Wieħed
Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA)
Isles of the Left
Ramblers’ Association of Malta
The Archaeological Society Malta
Wirt Għawdex
Aditus Foundation
Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement (MGRM).

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