https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/38278 Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:23:05 GMT 2026-06-02T08:23:05Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93224 Title: Human rights, development and the millennium development goals Authors: Grech, Omar Abstract: The relationship between human rights and development has attracted increasing attention over the past two decades. The UN General Assembly's Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986 proved to be a spur to academics and civil society practitioners to explore the interface between human rights and development. The debate around this issue intensified following the Millennium Declaration which some human rights advocates have criticized as a process used by governments to distract attention from the real human rights issue. Others have emphasized the complementarities that exist between the MDGs and human rights. The discussion has also extended to the issue of extreme poverty as a gross violation of human rights and therefore the notion of freedom from poverty as a human right. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to examine some of the ways in which the two impact on each other. Furthermore the extent to which the MDGs have incorporated human rights principles and frameworks will also be given some attention. The efforts to create an international consensus on the need to protect and promote certain human rights and fundamental freedoms are directly attributable to the Second World War. The war's contribution to the crystallization of human rights in international law can be traced in several layers. The holocaust was clearly a leading contributor to the realization that the way in which a slate behaves towards its own citizens is a matter for the international community if that behaviour falls short of the standards required by human dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human rights speaks of "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind" in an explicit reference to the various crimes against humanity and genocide that occurred prior to and during the war. However the Declaration also makes reference to certain basic rights and freedoms such "freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want". Apart from massive denials of civil and political rights, the end of the war also witnessed populations suffering from lack of food and shelter, healthcare and sanitation. Thus the reference to freedom from want which echoed the thoughts previously expressed by US President Roosevelt. One may therefore note that the struggle against poverty was a founding principle of the international human rights framework. Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93224 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93044 Title: Malta’s overseas development aid : an obligation or an opportunity? Authors: Grech, Omar Abstract: For over thirty years since achieving independence in 1964 Malta’s foreign policy was partly geared towards attracting overseas aid in the form of technical aid, grants, special loans and so on. Such aid was received from the United Kingdom, Italy, China, the EU the USA and other sources. Well into the 1990s Malta was negotiating Financial Protocols with Italy with a view of improving its infrastructure in the run up to membership of the European Union. The Overseas Development Policy of Malta’s Foreign Ministry acknowledges this forma mentis at the outset: “Malta was prior to membership of the European Union, for a long time largely viewed as a recipient state.” Popular expectations and perceptions prior to Malta’s accession to the EU also viewed membership, to an extent, as an opportunity for Malta to receive aid from the EU (through the European Social Fund, European Research and Development Fund etc). However scant attention was paid to the fact that Malta as an EU member state has assumed obligations pertaining to overseas development aid. In one sentence the national psyche was, and I would contend remains, more attuned to the idea of Malta as a recipient of aid rather than a donor. However the fact remains that Malta has, as an EU member state, undertaken to reach specific targets in the context of overseas development aid. The first target is that of providing a minimum of 0.17% of its Gross National Income (GNI) as overseas development aid (ODA) by 2010. Furthermore Malta has also undertaken to endeavour to increase the proportion of GNI devoted to ODA to 0.33% by 2015. In the field of ‘policy-making’ Malta has had to evolve its own Overseas Development Aid Policy which through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it eventually did with the Overseas Development Aid Policy document. Moreover the Maltese government has also included the ‘Elaboration and Actioning of a Work Programme for Humanitarian and Development Assistance’ as part of Malta’s Foreign Policy Strategic Objectives. Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93044 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93040 Title: Managing migration in the Mediterranean : is the EU failing to balance state security, human security, and human rights? Authors: Grech, Omar; Wohlfeld, Monika Abstract: In the early summer of 2015, when this contribution was written, migration across the Mediterranean was one of most hotly debated topics by the European media, political classes, and the general public. With the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers arriving on Europe’s doorstep at their highest levels ever, and scores drowning while crossing the Mediterranean, pictures of dead bodies floating in the sea dominated the press. Right-wing parties across Europe issued warnings of a threat to European culture and identity. In a passionate speech, the president of one EU member state identified migration as a threat to Europe’s existence, linking the growth of irregular migration to the rise of terrorism, higher unemployment, and increasing crime rates. At the same time, civil society organizations and numerous citizens and politicians invoked human-rights obligations and humanitarian concerns, and a wave of civic engagement was evident in many European countries, manifesting itself, for example, in the private Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) initiative to rescue migrants at sea. As to the European Union’s response to the tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean, it has been an ungainly combination of humanitarian and security concerns. The EU’s dominant understanding is that migration is a security issue, which has led to a focus on border management and policing, and even military elements. In the field of security studies, a rethinking and broadening of the understanding of what constitutes a security threat has led, since the 1980s, to migration being seen largely as a security issue: “The duality of threats apparently caused by migration to both national sovereignty and human security are largely reflected in much of the recent academic literature.” This contribution asks whether migration can justifiably be considered a security issue, and under which circumstances this may be the case. It focuses on two approaches to migration: a state-centric approach related to the notion of national security, and a human-security approach, based on human-security and human-rights considerations. It concludes with a brief evaluation of the EU’s response to the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, arguing that Europe is betraying the principles on which it is founded by focusing insufficiently on the primacy of human rights. The contribution will not consider issues related to the reception, accommodation, and integration of migrants making their way across the Mediterranean Sea, as these are issues that deserve separate in-depth consideration. Nor will it discuss the Eurocentric nature of the debate on migration in the Mediterranean, which emphasizes the concerns of developed countries over those of developing countries (which host far more migrants with significantly less material means to cope with them). Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93040 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93030 Title: Human rights and the Northern Ireland conflict law, politics and conflict, 1921-2014 Authors: Grech, Omar Abstract: This interdisciplinary book explores the Northern Ireland conflict through a human rights framework. The book examines the conflict from the creation of the Northern Ireland state in 1921 to 2014. This timeframe allows an analysis of how human rights impacted upon the conflict in its broadest understanding (i.e. the pre-violent conflict, the violent conflict and the post-violent conflict phases). Furthermore, it allows for a better understanding of how the various stages of the conflict impacted upon how human rights are understood in Northern Ireland today. The study’s main findings are that: (i) human rights had a significant impact on the development of the conflict; (ii) human rights violations were both underlying causes and direct causes of the descent into violence; (iii) the conflict coloured the view of human rights held by the main political actors; and (iv) human rights continue to be partially understood through the prism of the conflict. More generally, this interdisciplinary work explores the relationship between law, politics and conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of human rights, conflict resolution, British politics, law and security studies. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93030 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z