Repubblika expresses its outrage and regret that the Prime Minister of Malta is abandoning decades of consensus in Malta’s domestic and foreign policy and joining forces with the far right to undermine fundamental human rights.
We reject in its entirety the idea expressed by Prime Minister Robert Abela yesterday that human rights conventions written eighty years ago are now outdated and need to be changed to bring them up to date with what he calls the reality of migration today. The Prime Minister is arguing that existing rights should now be removed so that the government can carry out actions that until now are considered illegal.
Human rights are fundamental: which means that they are part of human dignity and that their violation constitutes inhumane treatment of victims and inhumane behavior of those who carry them out.
Human rights are inalienable: which means that they are not a gift given by the government that can be denied, taken away or reduced when government policy changes.
Human rights are universal: which means that they apply to everyone without discrimination on the basis of citizenship, nationality, or race.
The Prime Minister showed a gross ignorance of historical facts when he said that when the Human Rights Conventions were written in the 1940s, the authors could not have foreseen the conditions of migration that would occur eighty years later. The authors of the conventions in the 1940s wrote the Conventions in the shadow of and in the living memory of the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust. Those authors witnessed the consequences of governments denying refugees the right to flee persecution and misery in their own country.
The Conventions written eighty years ago did not create these rights. The rights to life, to freedom of expression, to a fair hearing, to freedom from torture, to safety from drowning, and to refuge from persecution have been recognized – though often disregarded – for as long as humanity has known itself. Some of these rights have been elaborated upon for centuries. The obligation of those who can to save those who are drowning at sea has been part of Mediterranean civilization for thousands of years.
The difference the Conventions written eighty years ago make is that they establish international laws to protect these rights and to protect every human being from the abuses that people in power can commit. Robert Abela wants these international laws changed so that he can do what he cannot do today: commit atrocities on the victims he chooses.
The universality of human rights protects us all. If Robert Abela can change the law to deny the rights of Africans, he will stop at nothing to change the laws tomorrow to deny the rights of anyone who bothers him.
We know that Robert Abela is not the only head of government in the world who is suddenly abandoning the democratic norms that in former democracies we have agreed on for eighty years. In fact, Robert Abela himself expresses agreement with other right-wing governments, often extreme, when justifying this attack on fundamental human rights.
We reject this extremism of Robert Abela and appeal to every person who cherishes democracy and every person of moderate and progressive views to renew the consensus in our country that fundamental human rights should not be able to be crushed by anyone.