Student organisations have banded together to demand a more effective police force and court system.
In a statement issued on Monday, a group of more than 20 university student organisations spearheaded by the University Students’ Council, KSU, said that it was now “beyond necessary” to discuss reforming the country’s police and judicial systems.
The organisations highlighted a series of recent murders and court cases that had sparked their concern: Paulina Dembska, Bernice Cassar, Pelin Kaya, Sion Grech and others had all “fallen victim to a system that fails to protect and safeguard them,” they said.
“No one should be shot in broad daylight despite filing multiple reports, raped and murdered whilst on a walk, brutally run over whilst walking on her birthday or have their families wait 18 years for juries to commence," they added, listing the circumstances of the four murders they cited.
The student organisations highlighted four separate points which they believe need to be addressed for the situation to improve.
- More effective policing, with more resources for the police force and better mechanisms to protect victims of crimes, especially ones involving sexual, physical or mental violence or harassment.
- Improving the police’s domestic violence unit to better protect victims and deal with perpetrators.
- Increasing the number of judges and magistrates, especially in the family and criminal courts, to allow the courts to better handle a massive backlog. Malta has one of the EU’s lowest rates of judges per capita, they noted.
- Implement existing reforms more effectively ands introduce further reforms to slash court delays.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the student organisations said. “Irrespective of political allegiance, the protection and dignity of human life should never be compromised.”
Organisations invited the Justice Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and police force to consider meeting with them to discuss their ideas.
“KSU, together with the endorsing organisations and representatives constantly remain open to dialogue, as that is how we strive for the changes we propose,” they said.
The KSU statement was endorsed by 22 student organisations and 15 student representatives.
Signatories
Student Representatives:
- Andrea Borg
- Daniel Agius
- Elisa Micallef Peplow
- Emily Abela
- Emmade Gabriele
- Julia Pace
- Karl Andrew Schembri
- Kris Bajada
- Louisa Buhagiar
- Luke Vella
- Mariah Zammit
- Matteo Farrugia
- Neil Zahra
- Nicola Kirkpatrick
- Sarah Xuereb
Student Organisations:
- ASCS
- BETAPSI
- ELSA Malta
- ESO
- GħST
- GUG
- HoASA
- ICTSA
- JCA
- JEF Malta
- KSJC
- MBSA
- MMSA
- Pulse
- S-Cubed
- SACES
- SDM
- SĦS
- TDM 2000
- Third Eye
- UESA
- UM Rowing