The right to special protection and assistance, and alternative care

Abstract

Malta signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the 26th January 1990 and brought it into effect on 30th October 1990. Since then it has been changing its laws and practices to bring them more in line with this convention. As stated by Dr Lawrence Gonzi, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy in his address to the National Report on the Follow-up to the World Summit for Children, "since ratifying the Convention, Malta has given increasing importance to enable participation in decisions by children. Although elements of protection and support still exist and have been strengthened for those children in need, Malta has taken complimentary initiatives to encourage adults to listen to children and to give due weight to theirwishes. " In his address Dr Gonzi also referred to the draft Children Act that had been drafted which he said "will be enacted in the near future". Now, almost four years later, such law has not been enacted, and Minister Dolores Cristina, responsible for the Ministry of Family and Social Solidarity, said that "a number of years would have to pass before a collectiveChildren's Act would come into place". In this thesis I shall be focusing on Article 20 of the Convention, which provides that a child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment or in whose best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to receive special protection and assistance provided by the State and to be provided with alternative care. It also states what alternative care is to include and that due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child's upbringing and to the child's ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background. The aim of this thesis is to discuss whether our law and practices are in line with Article 20 on the Convention and propose measures that should be taken to achieve the level of protection provided by this Article.