The Public Interest Litigation Network (PILN) - Second Year
By The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation
Project grant: € 24,983.50
Duration: 1 year
The overall objective of the project is to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Malta by setting precedents, changing systems and changing culture and, as a consequence, increasing citizenship participation in the judicial, legislative and administrative mechanisms that exist in Malta.
With the support of the first call issued under the ACF Malta Programme, the Foundation was able to set up a network of Malta-based lawyers (PILN) to defend victims of human rights violation. Currently in its first year of implementation, the PILN is working on public interest cases involving right to life, data protection and freedom of information. These cases set a precedent that influences national laws and policies and educates the public on a system based on rule of law and human rights versus one of patronage, clientelism and abuse of public office.
Cases that the PILN wishes to prioritise in 2022 include: access to light (or lack of) in environmental and planning violations; access to information and raising awareness around the importance of filing FOI requests; and right to life.
Your Device Your Right
By The Malta Trust Foundation
Project grant: € 24,780
Duration: 1 year
The Covid-19 pandemic saw schools switch their operations online and this shone a light on the inequalities among the haves and have-nots. The Malta Trust Foundation was flooded with calls from parents and teachers for donations of tablets, laptops and any device that would allow materially and socially deprived children to continue their education in this unprecedented time.
This project aims to distribute tablets to children aged 11-15 years who are currently in years 7 – 11 and who are not included in in the Government's One Tablet per Child scheme offered to those in years 4-6.
Through this project, TMTF will also be delivering a media literacy programme to the beneficiaries in a manner and tone best suited to their age, using animated videos that will be disseminated to participants on a monthly basis, allowing them to go through them in their own time. The delivery of the videos will be accompanied by Q & A sessions with the Project Coordinator. The project will be rounded off with an online Media Literacy Workshop led by the children themselves and the project coordinator.
It is the intention of this project to go beyond providing digital accessibility to children of low socio-economic status to help them continue with their schooling. It is primarily an initiative to give the children within the targeted age group the skills needed to navigate the 21 Century.
Youth Engagement & Activism Hub (YEAH)
By Friends of the Earth Malta / Generation (Change?)
Project grant: € 24,970.89
Duration: 15 months
Young people today live with increasing social and economic inequalities and poverty and are exposed to environmental and social justice issues. Many of the climate and environmental challenges create a disproportionately higher burden on disadvantaged groups. Disadvantaged communities are also under-represented and do not participate in the decision-making process.
In Malta, there are young people who do engage in democratic processes to shape the future they want, but many are still left behind. Young people can feel alienated and this alienation further deepens with limited opportunities for active citizenship. This project provides a platform for more inclusive democratic and civic youth engagement in decision-making by creating a structure to engage marginalised youth in intersectional cooperation for development of joint actions towards a socially just and ecologically fair future.
The project will create a Youth Hub that offers a recreational environment through which a youth worker can work with 16- to 25-year-olds to come up with initiatives that enhance their potential. The Youth Hub will also engage in various community activities. A safe space will be created by the young people involved to ensure that all youths have an
equal voice regardless of gender, race, religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, social and economic backgrounds. The specific objectives of the projects are: to build competencies of disadvantaged young people using project-based and experiential learning around environmental and social justice topics; to enable young people to create local, decentralised action collectively in their own neighbourhoods and be agents of positive change; and, to empower youth to take part in structured political discussions. The main beneficiaries of this project will be young people from the disadvantaged and underrepresented areas of Marsa, Floriana and Hamrun.
Moving Beyond the Single Story: Combating Social Exclusion through Media Literacy
By African Media Association Malta / NWAMI International
Project grant: € 24.865
Duration: 18 months
This project addresses the phenomenon of the ‘single story’, that is, the creation of overly
simplified and inaccurate opinions of persons, groups or countries that shape perceptions
and attitudes towards others and lead to social exclusion and discrimination.
It will do this by providing members of the public with the opportunity to interact with the
subjects of such ‘single stories’, specifically migrants and members of vulnerable and local
communities during a range of activities, including edutainment labs and story cafés.
The aim is to provide insight on the negative impact of stereotypes, stimulate debate,
improve the levels of media literacy and critical thinking and try to narrow the ever-growing
cultural divide in Malta that is leading to social exclusion.
The partners of this project - the African Media Association Malta (AMAM) and NWAMI
International Malta - have a history of successful collaboration on projects relating to
cohesion building, social inclusion and skills development for vulnerable communities. The
teaming up of the two organisations exemplifies cross-culture active citizen engagement
and provides stakeholders with the unique opportunity to experience Africa and European
perspectives of issues related to media literacy, critical thinking and its impact on social
exclusion.
Domestic violence is a human rights violation and remains highly prevalent in Malta. The Crime Malta Observatory's Annual Crime Review (2018) recorded a total of 1,341 registered cases. The aim of this project is to assist with the recovery and growth of survivors of domestic violence in the aftermath of the abuse. It will provide them with the tools they need to build their confidence and self-esteem and to create peer-led groups to provide support to other victims. This will be achieved through the provision of a trauma versed domestic abuse survivor course that includes a 3-day initial train-the-trainer course for workgroup facilitators and the development and delivery of a 12 week / 4 module therapy-based program (triple R - Recognise, Recover, Resilience) for survivors (the program is currently carried out in the UK). The project also includes an online social media awareness-raising campaign (including video) to counter negative speech and combat negative stereotypes and reduce the stigma associated with domestic violence victims.
The aim of this project is to ensure that victims of discrimination, human rights violations, abuse of power, and state collusion in criminal activity have access to justice. This will be done by establishing and supporting a network of public interest litigation lawyers, using legal cases to force institutional reform and accountability, and exploring the use of national and international mechanisms to ensure democratic accountability.
Transparency International’s annual reports on Malta consistently point out that Malta’s major problems are patronage (‘korruzjoni’) and clientelism. These are problems that are at once systemic and cultural, in the sense that patronage and clientelism have not been shown to be punishable and are therefore culturally accepted.
The overall objective of the project is, therefore, to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Malta by setting precedents, changing systems, and changing culture.
The project aims to educate the young generation (8-12 year-olds) about a variety of subjects including human rights and equal treatment through combating any discrimination; social justice & inclusion of vulnerable groups; and, environment and climate change. This will be done through a daily television programme that is presented by and aimed at, children. The programme will be transmitted during one whole television season (i.e. 3 whole months) and will comprise 60 slots (of 5 minutes each).
The slots will comprise interviews, special features, competitions, 2.5D animation and graphics. Their aim is to help the young viewers see the world from both a local and a global view and inspire them to get excited about creating a kinder, healthier and happier world.
This television programme will be offered free of charge to local television stations and will also be uploaded on social platforms to be enjoyed anytime and anywhere.
The project aims to engage citizens with human stories of forced migration as a way of countering misinformation and hate speech.
By creating safe spaces for meaningful encounters and dialogue with one another, local communities will have the opportunity to think critically about forced migration and challenge their own cultural assumptions of those who have experienced it. The project will foster critical thinking and increase media literacy by allowing participants to identify propaganda and challenge negative stereotypes, while equipping themselves with factual information and narratives to counter negative taken-for-granted ideas.
Sessions will be guided by experienced facilitators with the support of community-based NGOs who will provide links for the initiative to reach intergenerational audiences in the heart of various communities. The project will tailor specific approaches for each community according to their particular circumstances. It is predicated on the organisation and delivery of discussions which are relevant, respectful, thought-provoking, and conducive to nurturing social inclusion and encouraging civic participation.
A network of migrant speakers who have experienced forced migration will also be empowered to share their stories. This process would also support migrants to build networks in their own community, and navigate their own developing social identities as active citizens in Malta. Migrant-led NGOs, particularly those with a strong community presence, will also be invited to contribute to this process in order to continue building long-term relationships within the community that go beyond the project’s initial intervention.
The outcomes of the discussion and the stories at the heart of the project will be recorded and disseminated in an online form.
The project has the overall objective of improving access to justice for persons wishing to strengthen their human rights protection. Our work exposes us to several human rights challenges faced by various groups of persons, primarily being vulnerable or marginalized groups such as the LGBTIQ+ community, migrants/refugees/the elderly, children, persons with disabilities, persons at risk of poverty, and women involved in prostitution. Whilst Malta has a relatively strong human rights regime that seeks to protect a long list of fundamental human rights, the practical protection offered to persons whose rights have been violated or might be violated is rather weak.
In several of our earlier projects, alone and also with several other NGO colleagues, we identified institutional obstacles to effective justice for human rights protection. Examples include difficulty accessing legal aid services, quality of legal aid services, the capacity of administrative tribunals to cope with the caseload, lack of expertise of some tribunals in relevant matters, lack of enforcement mechanisms, and lack of protection of victims.
This project will initially conduct a prioritization exercise with key stakeholders in order to ensure we target the most pressing and relevant obstacles. On the basis of this consultation exercise, our advocacy initiatives will target those entities/persons having a direct or indirect influence on the relevant legislation and/or policies. Together with targeted advocacy activities, we will also organize a public conference where our recommendations will be presented to a wider audience, in order to gather further support and understanding of the issues vulnerable/marginalized groups face when seeking to access justice for human rights protection.
The aim of the project is to build safer communities for children and young people by listening to young people, parents, and stakeholders who are directly involved in the community. Other beneficial outcomes of the project shall be creating networks within the community, identifying resources, and mobilizing the community to act collectively on an issue that they identify together. These will ensure that the project has a longer-lasting impact on the community.
The project will be carried out in the grassroots and with the spirit of collaboration and openness. Information will be gathered through interviews and focus groups with parents about the protective and risk factors that exist within the two selected communities; in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and sessions with 11-12-year-olds through drama sessions that will address how safe they feel in their respective communities. The results of each level of research will be presented to members of the community (young people, parents, stakeholders, and the general interested public) in a seminar. This will include recommendations and the drawing up of an action plan.
A youth platform will be set up to ensure that the process is being carried out with the greatest consideration towards the children and young people involved and to assist in organizing the seminars and presenting the findings and the recommendations to the stakeholders and parents. Towards the end of the project, a seminar will be held in each community to present the findings and recommendations of the project.
Here you can update yourself on the progress happening in the various projects occurring in the ACF Fund in Malta.