Government looking at strengthening human rights legislation

Legislative and infrastructural frameworks require reinforcement, as they fall short of providing Malta with the human rights and equality mechanism that it deserves, the ministry for social dialogue said.

Launching a consultation process to strengthen human rights in Malta, the ministry said that the country "should have robust human rights and equality legislation, and an equally strong institution that enforces such legislation that is in conformity both with the United Nations' model of a national human rights institution (NHRI) and European Union's equality body model laid out in EU equality directives."

Noting that the Labour administration was elected with a promise to strengthen the human rights and equality framework and to set up an adequate institutional mechanism to enforce it, the ministry led by Helena Dalli explained that it was launching an initial scoping consultation to collect input from the general public, civil society organisations, trade unions, business organisations, political parties, governmental institutions and other stakeholders.

These are being requested to answer a number of questions, including whether human rights and equality are sufficiently protected and promoted in Malta and which human rights need further protection and promotion.

Furthermore stakeholders are being asked how can Malta better protect and promote human rights and equality overall and which legislative models should be looked at.

Submissions can be sent by email to [email protected]