'Shocking ignorance': Abela slammed for comments on human rights
Aditus says prime minister needs to go back to his law books
Updated 5pm
Robert Abela should go back to school to address his “shocking ignorance” about human rights, Aditus charged on Tuesday.
The human rights NGO was reacting to the prime minister’s statement to parliament on Monday, in which he argued that current human rights conventions are outdated and need revising.
Abela said that Malta would continue to fight for human rights as long as they are "merited".
That statement, Aditus said, was both worrying and embarrassing.
“The Prime Minister needs to revise his law notes,” it said.
“He will be reminded that all persons are born equal in dignity and rights. That we are not required to do anything to ‘merit’ our human rights. That it is not up to states to decide who is and who is not entitled to enjoy fundamental human rights. That states must respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all persons it is responsible for: men, women, children, older persons, LGBTIQ+ persons, persons with disabilities, persons accused or convicted of crimes, persons suffering from physical or mental health issues… all persons.”
Aditus echoed rule of law NGO Repubblika who said earlier on Tuesday, that Abela was pandering to the extreme right.
“We are concerned that the Prime Minister seems more interested in pleasing his fascist colleagues leading other European states, rather than confirming Malta’s unwavering commitment to fundamental human rights for everyone,” it said.
Aditus noted that Malta’s judicial system has been repeatedly censured by the European Court of Human Rights for having failed “the most basic of tests” on several occasions – including the inhuman and degrading treatment of children.
Malta should use its upcoming presidency of the Council of Europe to strengthen the European Convention for Human Rights, Aditus said, “instead of killing it to suit populistic and very dangerous agenda.”
A new low – Daphne Caruana Galizia foundation
Tampering with the ECHR to deny human rights is a “new low,” the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Reacting to the prime minister’s statement that the current human rights conventions are “outdated” and need “revising”, the Foundation said it wanted to “remind Abela, as prime minister and as incoming Council of Europe president, that human rights are universal and indivisible.”
The NGO referred to an article written by Daphne Caruana Galizia and originally published on The Malta Independent on Christmas Eve 2009, in which she highlighted the plight of immigrants.
"When boat-people stopped landing in Malta and it became increasingly obvious that Libya had begun to stop them leaving because of diplomatic and other pressures, I voiced my concern to somebody in precisely these words: 'My God, I dread to think what's being done to them there'," Caruana Galizia wrote.
"The woman to whom I spoke said: 'Yes, but you can't reason that way, because it's not our problem. Our concern is with making sure they don't come here."
"That's not how I see it," she continued in her article. "People who are prevented from coming to our country by means of torture and other serious abuse should weigh heavily on our conscience."