Prevention is better than cure: building a culture of rights

A few days ago, many of us came across a story shared by Philip Borg on social media. An elderly Maltese woman boarded a crowded bus and two passengers immediately stood up to offer her their seat. Both happened to be black.

Instead of thanking them, she launched into a torrent of racist abuse.

“I am not going to sit where that black woman was sitting.”

The atmosphere became tense, so the driver stopped the bus and threatened to call the police.

But, then, something important happened.

The passengers did not remain silent.

Maltese and foreign passengers alike challenged the abuse. They defended the dignity of those who had been insulted. Eventually, the woman who had shouted the insults got off the bus and the journey continued.

Then came the detail that transformed the story.

The woman who had first offered her seat was a carer returning home after a 12-hour shift working with elderly residents in a Maltese home.

As Borg observed, one day, that same elderly woman may herself depend on the care, kindness and dignity of someone she today chose to despise and denigrate.

Whether or not every detail unfolded exactly as recounted matters less than why the story resonated so deeply with so many people.

Because, instinctively, we understood that something important had happened on that bus.

A line had been drawn by society itself; not by legislation, by the police, or by a court.

That bus journey offers an important lesson about the role of human rights institutions in modern democracies.

Their task is not only to respond when rights have already been violated.

It is also to help build a society in which such violations struggle to take root in the first place.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has pledged that Malta will establish a Human Rights and Equality Commission within the first 100 days of this legislature. Much of the discussion surrounding the new institution will understandably focus on investigations, powers and enforcement.

These are all important.

But after decades in politics, we have learned that the hardest battles are rarely legal. They are cultural.

A law can prohibit discrimination but it cannot, by itself, eliminate prejudice. A law can punish racism but it cannot, by itself, create solidarity.

Laws change rules. It is stories that change societies.

Human rights institutions traditionally measure success through investigations, reports and recommendations. These are indispensable functions and Malta’s future commission must have the independence and authority necessary to carry them out effectively.

If discrimination becomes invisible, it becomes acceptable

But investigations have an inherent limitation. They begin after something has already gone wrong. After the harm has already occurred.

Investigations protect rights that have already been violated.

The greater challenge is preventing violations from becoming normal in the first place.

That is why Malta’s Human Rights and Equality Commission must not become simply an institution that investigates complaints.

It must also become one of Malta’s principal builders of public understanding of rights.

And when we speak of everyday life storytelling, we do not mean storytelling as public relations or as branding.

We mean storytelling as a way of building a culture of rights before rights need defending.

Because if discrimination becomes invisible, it becomes acceptable.

If prejudice becomes familiar, eventually it stops being recognised as prejudice at all.

Human rights institutions around the world are increasingly recognising that one of their most important functions is not merely to protect rights but to build public understanding of them. They are using digital media to humanise experiences not simply to communicate decisions.

The commission should explain rights in language that people understand.

It should work with schools, employers, local councils and civil society. It should tell stories that help Maltese society see itself more clearly.

Because culture moves through stories. Stories that remind us that dignity is not something we grant to others.

It is something we recognise in one another. Stories teach us that if exclusion becomes routine, it becomes standard.

The greatest success of Malta’s future Human Rights and Equality Commission will not be measured by the number of investigations it opens.

Its greatest success will be measured by the number of investigations that never become necessary.

Because investigations protect rights that have already been violated.

Stories prevent those violations from becoming normal in the first place.

Alex Sciberras is president of the Labour Party. Helena Dalli is a former European commissioner and a former Labour minister.