Abela pulls out another rabbit from the hat

The European Convention on Human Rights will be 75-years-old in November since it was opened for signature in Rome on 4 November 1950. 

By all means this is a significant milestone for the European continent that embraced the fundamental freedoms laid out by the United Nations in the aftermath of World War II. 

The convention, which came into force on 3 September 1953, was the first instrument to give effect to certain rights stated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and make them binding on member states. 

Malta ratified the convention in January 1967. In 1987, Malta also ratified the two articles that allowed the right of individual petition and recognition of the European Court’s compulsory jurisdiction, respectively. 

With all its warts and deficiencies, the respect for human rights is what defines Europe. 

But now, Prime Minister Robert Abela wants to “reform” the convention. In what way, we do not know but he floated the idea during a meeting on migration with several European leaders on the fringes of the Brussels summit last Thursday.  

The official statement released by the Department of Information said the Prime Minister told fellow leaders that Malta will put the matter on the agenda of the Council of Europe when it takes over the presidency in May. The DOI statement claimed that the leaders present for the meeting were “interested” in Malta’s proposal. 

No detail was given about the reform but the fact that Abela floated the idea during a meeting that discussed irregular migration suggests his idea could be linked to the subject. During the meeting, leaders discussed an EU proposal to outsource migrant detention centres to third countries for rejected asylum seekers. The proposal has come under fire from human rights organisations. 

Within this context, Abela’s audacity to speak of reforming the human rights convention is worrying because in our eyes it can only mean one thing – giving states more power to do as they please by diluting the human rights of immigrants. 

But what is also concerning is that ‘reforming the convention’ is not even one of the priority areas of Malta’s presidency of the Council of Europe. Last February, during a meeting in Malta with CoC Secretary General Alain Berset, Foreign Minister Ian Borg outlined the priorities - youth empowerment, the protection of children, combating violence and discrimination and safeguarding human rights. Reforming the convention was not something on Malta’s agenda. 

It remains a mystery why Abela chose to raise the subject of convention reform with EU leaders. In the best-case scenario, he had a slip of the tongue and confused the Council of Europe with something else; in the worst-case scenario he decided to make policy on the fly to impress his peers around the table. Either way it shows amateurism. 

This is a déjà vu of what Abela did last month when he was in Paris for a special meeting called by Emmanuel Macron and told a TVM reporter that Malta needed to increase its defence spending and questioned whether neutrality was acting as a brake on such spending. After receiving flak from the Labour Party’s hardcore, Abela tried to back pedal on his remarks, insisting neutrality is untouchable and that Malta will not be investing in lethal weapons. Roll forward a couple of weeks and in a case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in Brussels Abela simply signed on to the conclusions that speak of the need for increased defence spending and military support for Ukraine. 

We will not be surprised if the Prime Minister back pedals once again on his idea to reform the human rights convention by blaming the media for taking his remarks out of context. 

Reforming a 75-year-old convention – if it even needs reforming – that is fundamental to the protection of our human rights is a serious matter that requires much more thought than a throwaway comment. But it is also concerning that the Prime Minister keeps making such significant policy statements like a magician pulling out a surprise rabbit from his hat. The problem is that we are not talking about a fun magic show here but a country’s reputation in international fora. Malta deserves better.