Malta before the European Court of Human Rights : case law and commentary

Abstract

The year 2002 marks the bicentenary of the first ever statutory reference to human rights in Malta as enshrined in the 1802 Dichiarazione dei Diritti degli Abitanti delle isole Malta e Gozo. To commemorate this important event an official soiree was organised on the 11th June, 2002 at the presidential palace of San Anton under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Professor Guido Demarco, himself a stalwart veteran in the defence of human rights in contemporary Malta. This year also marks the fifteenth anniversary since the Republic of Malta extended its human rights protection dimension beyond its frontiers. It was on the 19th August 1987 that the House of Representatives by virtue of Act XIV of 1987 incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into Maltese law. Since that date, all Maltese citizens and persons being present in Malta have been afforded judicial redress of many a human rights' violation before the European Court in Strasbourg, after having exhausted all ordinary remedies according to domestic law. These outstanding events induced me to undertake this study and examine, in sufficient detail, some of the Maltese human rights' cases which have appeared before the Strasbourg machinery.