The Nationalist Party has given notice of a bill in parliament for an ECHR non-discrimination protocol to be included in local law.

In a press conference on Thursday, the shadow minister for justice, Karol Aquilina, said the government had ratified the protocol in 2015 but it had not enacted it as part of the Laws of Malta. 

This means that while Malta as a state had bound itself to the protocol, people residing in Malta could not invoke the protocol in their defence should they face discrimination issues they wished to resolve in a Maltese court. 

Protocol 12, the piece of legislation in question, enshrines the principle that no person shall be discriminated against by public authorities on any grounds that are not justified. 

Aquilina said that this includes protection from discrimination on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion, political opinion, national or social origin, associations to a national minority, property, birth or any other protected status. 

He said this anomaly had already been flagged by the Constitutional Court back in May, saying in a judgement that while the Maltese State had ratified the protocol, it could not be acknowledged by the court since it did not form part of Chapter 319 of the Laws of Malta.