ADPD calls on Abela to clarify 'dangerous' human rights reform statement

ADPD has asked Robert Abela to clarify his ideas on reforming the European Human Rights Convention, warning that fiddling with these rights undermines the country’s democratic credentials.

ADPD Chairperson Sandra Gauci and Secretary General Ralph Cassar were reacting to statements Abela made last week in a meeting on migration with a handful of EU leaders.

The meeting took place on the fringes of the Brussels summit in which leaders discussed defence, Ukraine and the EU budget.

The side meeting was attended largely by countries where the far-right is in government.

MaltaToday yesterday reported that Abela’s statement that Malta will put on the agenda the reform of the human rights convention when it takes over the presidency of the Council of Europe in May, came like a bolt out of the blue. No such reform was listed in Malta’s priorities last month when Foreign Minister Ian Borg met CoC Secretary General Alain Berset.

ADPD warned it would be dangerous if the Prime Minister is trying to ingratiate himself by aligning with far-right and neo fascists like Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini in Italy, and Viktor Orban of Hungary, and the Dutch extreme right.

“It would be shameful if throughout its presidency of the Council of Europe Malta opens the door to the erosion of our freedoms as protected by human rights. It would be shameful if the Prime Minister opens the door to hate, to the lies and the attacks on human rights from the extreme right,” the Green Party said.

On Sunday, Momentum also called on the Prime Minister to clarify his words. The centrist party accused Abela over what it said was a right-wing populist statement which contradicts the values his Labour government should stand for.